Open Call for Contemporary Works by Northeast Florida Artists

Press release written for Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA) — August 2024

JAX Contemporary exhibition accepting applications in September

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — MOCA Jacksonville, a Cultural Institute of the University of North Florida, is excited to launch JAX Contemporary, a triennial juried art exhibition bringing to the fore the artistic talent in the Greater Jacksonville and Northeast Florida region, including Flagler, Putnam, Baker, Clay, St. Johns, Duval, and Nassau Counties. Submissions open Sept. 9, 2024, and close Oct. 11, 2024. More information can be found online at https://mocajacksonville.unf.edu/exhibitions/featured/jax-contemporary-call-to- artists.html This initiative is intended to deepen the museum’s relationship with the local arts community and to foster the growth of the arts ecosystem of the area.

To this end, an important professional development component will be included for the artist finalists, including professional guidance, studio visits, and critique from MOCA’s Senior Curator, together with a national visiting curator, Adeze Wilford, who will also help select the work to be on display in the exhibition. These studio visits facilitate meaningful discourse between the artist and the curators and are an essential step to connecting Jacksonville-based artists to a broader network of curators and institutions.

In addition, the participating artists will have an opportunity to talk more broadly about their work during Artist Talks. These will take place in the MOCA Theater throughout the exhibition during Museum Nights and VyStar Free Saturdays, which are high traffic days with free entrance to the public. In this way, JAX Contemporary seeks to support and promote the contemporary art practices of our area, sharing the broad vitality of artistic voices representing this moment in history in Jacksonville with the general public. JAX Contemporary fulfills MOCA’s mission by activating and engaging our local communities in contemporary art, offering patrons an opportunity to connect with local artists and cultural producers that explore national contemporary aesthetic discourses and ideas from a Florida First Coast perspective. Artist Prizes to be announced.

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Adeze Wilford is Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. There, Wilford has spearheaded Art on the Plaza and Welcome to Paradise, temporary public art commissions, and organized the 2023 South Florida Cultural Consortium, expanding the ways MOCA North Miami provides a platform for local talent. Previously she was an Assistant Curator at The Shed in New York, where she organized Howardena Pindell: Rope/Fire/Water and Open Call. She was an inaugural joint curatorial fellow at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She organized Vernacular Interior at Hales Gallery in 2019 as well as Excerpt (2017) at the Studio Museum and Black Intimacy (2017) a film series at MoMA.

Other curatorial projects include Harlem Postcards F/W (2016/2017) and Color in Shadows (2016). She has contributed scholarship to various catalogues and magazines including Young, Gi5ed and Black and Black Refrac=ons. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in Art History and African American Studies.

Together with MOCA Jax’s Senior Curator, Wilford will perform studio visits and critiques with the artists, discussing their art practice, their goals and expectations, and helping them through the process of selecting the work to be included in the exhibition.

Ylva Rouse is the Senior Curator at MOCA Jacksonville. She joined MOCA in May 2019 from New Orleans, where she moved in 2007 to launch Prospect.1, the citywide international arts triennial founded by Dan Cameron in order to bring positive attention to New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. She served as the Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs for the organization until 2017, when she would lead the implementation of its fourth edition, Prospect.4. as Interim Director. Prior to her tenure at Prospect, Rouse worked as Curator in Madrid, Spain, working with artists such as Elena del Rivero, Pepe Espaliú, Liam Gillick, Jenny Holzer, Alex Katz, or Jeff Wall. During her years as Exhibitions Curator at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, she organized touring retrospectives of work by among others Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Agnes Martin, Richard Serra and Joan Miró, as well as serving as Project Director for the seminal exhibitions El Jardin Salvaje (The Savage Garden) at the Caixa Foundation and Cocido y Crudo (The Cooked and the Raw) at the Reina Sofia Museum. Rouse holds a B.A. in Music and Art, and Master Studies from New York University.

With the firm belief in art as a force for change, she has been active throughout her career curating and writing about art. She has immersed herself in the communities where she has lived, both as advisor and collaborator, participating in diverse arts projects and initiatives with local organizations, community centers, and universities; always in pursuit of spreading the understanding and enjoyment of the modern and contemporary arts and to bring awareness of the importance of nurturing the creative spirit, both as individuals and as community.

Jax Contemporary is presented by Dolf and Anna James, with additional support from the City of Jacksonville, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Florida Blue, the MOCA Board Alumni Council, MOCA Inaugural Director’s Circle Members, MOCA Board of Trustees, and the University of North Florida, Visit Jacksonville, and VyStar Credit Union.

ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE

The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, as the oldest art museum in the region and the second contemporary art museum to be established in the United States. This celebration year is an opportunity for MOCA to give back to the community that has been its home for a century by presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that will engage the community and elevate Jacksonville as a regional destination for arts and culture.

One hundred years ago, a group of visionary local women artists came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be — the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city were art, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born — first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum and educational leader.

A century later, MOCA’s mission remains focused on the art, artists, and ideas of our time, with a vision that unites education, creativity, and community building in the heart of downtown Jacksonville. Throughout 2024, MOCA will celebrate its centennial year — looking to the past to recognize the legacy of the visionary leaders and important milestones that have brought us to this point; marking this moment with extraordinary exhibitions

and programs that will not only elevate MOCA, but provide a stimulus and create an energized destination for our Downtown to build upon; and imagine the future that we want for our great city, nourishing our community through art and culture for the next 100 years.

For more information including hours of operation, admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.

For questions regarding the open call applications, contact mocacuratorial@unf.edu

###