The Museum of Contemporary Art- MOCA
Student’s Biography
My name is Rebeka Josil and I am a junior majoring in Biology at Florida International University. I am new to the world of art, and so I decided to indulged myself into it, with the hopes of fulfilling my curiosity of it. I love the outdoors and my favorite hobbies are camping, swimming, and hiking. I view nature as art, and I want to be able to relate what I’ve learn in class in the real world. I also love learning about the human body, and it is completely fascinated as well. I love learning how different painting techniques and materials are used to create an abstract of the human body.
Geography
The Museum of Contemporary Art is in North Miami, on 770 NE 125th St. Surrounded by antique stores, cafes and near by the City of North Miami Library. The Crème Café a one-minute walk to the entrance of the museum and a thrift shop is right across the street. The location of the museum is perfect as the mission of MOCA is to serve an ethnically diverse community. I live15-20 minutes away from the museum and FIU Biscayne is approximately 15 minutes away.
History
Mission
“The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is dedicated to making contemporary art accessible to diverse audiences – especially underserved populations – through the collection, preservation and exhibition of the best of contemporary art and its art historical influences.”
This statement is true, as MOCA is in a diverse community, where there is many different cultures and stories to be told. This is particularly important, because The contemporary Art Museum recognizes the need for enhancement and promotion of the cultural life of the city. MOCA conducts education programs targeted at the city and its diverse population to improve its appreciation of contemporary art. In 2009 the museum introduced MOCA by Moonlight services for Wednesday night, which include seminars at the contemporary art boot camp, 5 minutes with popular designers and music for all, hands-on adult arts classes.
Access
General Admission: $10.00
Students & Seniors: $3.00
MOCA Members
- Children under 12
- North Miami Residents
- City Employees
- Veterans
- Bank of America cardholders on the first weekend of each month through the Museums on Us program.
MOCA is very affordable and accessible to the community. It tries to stay as reasonable as possible for the underserved community. There free admission every last Friday of each month. MOCA has a 50-dollar membership (30 dollars for students and teachers) with benefits, such as 10% Discount in the MOCA Shop, free admission to workshops and shows, free access to the museum at any time and many more. Along with a family membership of 75 dollars with the same benefits. Students pay a minimal of 3 dollars with their student ID. General admission is 10 dollars.
Collections
William Cordova
works in Miami / New York as an interdisciplined social professional. His job consist of a painting, a model, a video, a photograph, and sketches centered on the installation. Cordova reflects on design, environments, and culture to rebuild, revisit, and reconcile events of the past to show their relevance in the current social sense.
(Peru, 1969 -)
Let’s Spend the Night Together (Hampton 81), 2001
acrylic, ink, gouache, and graphite on paper
50 in. x 107 in.
Ursula von Rydingsvard
By using a chainsaw, untitled was created. The artist has hacked tree trunks and carved them into separate, block-like units for a rough texture. The blocks were felt layered, hard and soft alternating. Eventually, by grinding graphite into the wood, Von Rydingsvard aged it. The scent of the cedar and the gritty ground structure invoke a dream of a rugged environment as the viewers enter the project.
Untitled, 1988
cedar, graphite, and felt
22 x 53 1/2 x 21 1/4 in
Exhibition
CECILIA VICUÑA: ABOUT TO HAPPEN
November 26, 2019 – March 29, 2020
The North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) hosted the first major American solo exhibition by renowned Chilean-born artist Cecilia Vicuña. Born in Santiago de Chile, Vicuña is a poet, visual artist, and filmmaker who has published more than 20 poetry books and who shows and performs internationally. Her multidimensional work begins as an image that becomes a poem, a film, a song, a sculpture, or a collective performance. “Cecilia Vicuña: About Happen” consists of Vicuña’s multidisciplinary work in art, sculpture, painting, video, text, and site-specific installations, created over 40 years ago. The exhibition examines a process that shapes public memory and responsibility, reframing dematerialization as both a formal consequence of conceptualism in the 1960s and radical climate change. The practice of Vicuña stands for the conflicting dialogs between conceptual art, planetary culture, literature, and feminist art. The series will include drawing for the first time in this touring display, a tradition which Vicuña started in the 1970s and that she recently returned to – in some instances repainting childhood memory works.
I was completely mesmerized by her works and I knew about the Inca culture beforehand which made it even more special and interesting. The video above is a short clip of a 10 plus minute of her artwork of Quipu. The Incas may not have bequeathed any written records, but they did have colorful knotted cords. “Each of these devices was called a khipu (pronounced key-poo). But recent breakthroughs have begun to unpick this tangled mystery of the Andes, revealing the first signs of phonetic symbolism within the strands. Now two anthropologists are closing in on the Inca equivalent of the Rosetta stone. That could finally crack the code and transform our understanding of a civilization whose history has so far been told only through the eyes of the Europeans who sought to eviscerate it.”- Cossins. Cecilia use of the khipu, revive the indigenous culture that is slowly being lost. As stated by Cecilia Vicuna, the work is “ a prayer for us to change our destructive ways.”
ALICE RAHON: POETIC INVOCATIONS
November 26, 2019 – March 29, 2020
A new exhibition featuring works by French Mexican surrealist painter Alice Rahon (1904–1987) was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA). The exhibition looks to contribute to the scholarship and acknowledgement of under-explored female artists, as well as intercultural influences on exiled European artists in the Americas, whose work has often been profoundly influenced by indigenous and ancient cultures. Born in France and later nationalized as a Mexican, Rahon entered the Surrealist circle in Paris as an artist, but once in Mexico, she turned her talent to drawing. “Poetic Invocations” is the first solo show devoted to Rahon’s art in the U.S. 55 years since her 1964 display at the Louisiana Gallery in Houston, Texas. The show discusses a vibrant art-historical moment that originated in 1940 as an international community of artists who escaped to Europe from the Second World War and settled in Mexico. The show would discuss five basic themes: painting as a symbolic echo, the influence of the immemorial memory, the restricting text, the volcano and the Mexican landscape and light: inside and outside dilution, and inside out metaphorical experience: fiestas and popular art in Mexico.
Special Programs
There are many programs MOCA execute, but a few are:
- Jazz at MOCA: held every last Friday for each month at 8pm.
- MOCA MINIMAKERS: Kids tour MOCA exhibitions and learn about the elements of art by painting, drawing and sculpting in the style of renowned artists. Free admission.
- Sunday Stories: Kids storytelling. Every first Sunday of every month.
- Outreach:
Women on the Rise: This is a unique gender outreach program presented to adolescents from 12 to 18, serving the social justice organization such as the Urgent Inc. and Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, by contemporary artists such as Ana Mendieta and Carrie Mae Weems.
Art Corps: Art Corps is the MOCA’s new program of access to contemporary art for youth and young adult people and using self-expression as a tool to increase engagement and motivation.
Heart to Heart: Through collaborations with the Jewish Community Services (JCS) through North Miami and in the Miami-Dade County Exceptional Student Education (ESE), MOCA is actively working with children, young people and adults who experience mental and physical challenges.
Visitor’s Interview
Whats your name?
Visitor: Stephanie Aristide
Is this your first time here?
Visitor: No, I visit occasionally when there’s new exhibitions.
Do you live close to MOCA?
Visitor: Yes, Just 20 minutes away.
Why do you like MOCA?
Visitor: The diversity of each artist they show for each exhibition and the Haitian culture.
Employee Interview (Portrait)
Whats your name?
Amanda Covach
What’s your job?
Curator of Education
Do you like working at MOCA?
Yes, I do
Why do you think your job is so important?
Employee: I like working with kids and giving them the opportunity of experiencing contemporary art and seeing them smile makes me happy. So, making kids happy.
Which artist that have been displayed is your favorite?
Employee: I have so many I do not think I can say, but the new exhibition is really nice.
Summary
Visiting MOCA was really pleasurable and I am glad I waited until the opening of the new exhibition to witness unique contemporary art that I found so fascinating. I also found my new favorite artist, which is Cecilia Vicuna. What I really love about MOCA is its size and location, it is not overwhelming, and the exhibitions were very minimal but still interesting. The location of MOCA is very convenient for workers, school children and visitors out of the city as it is located right in the center of everything. The environment is extremely welcoming and family friendly. I would spend a day with my family there and walk over to Crème Café which is a 2-minute walk from the museum. This works well for MOCA because more family would visit and participate in special events they have for kids and adults. What also works for MOCA are the programs and events they have for everyone in the community. When I had volunteered at MOCA I learnt of the Teen Art Force which takes place weekly. This keeps young people active in the museum and also bring in more funding. I loved everything about MOCA, however one thing that does not work for it is the lack of parking around the area and available areas are a long walking distance. Hopefully, parking space can be made a priority for the future and after it would a well-established art museum.
References:
Cossin, Daniel. 26 Sep 2018. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931972-600-we-thought-the-incas-couldnt-write-these-knots-change-everything/
mocanomi.org
Google images.
Miami in Miami 