Colorful additions expand MOCA’s Permanent Collection

MOCA Jacksonville received a slew of gifts over the holidays--and did a bit of shopping, too.

Several acquisitions to the Permanent Collection connect to previous exhibitions and longtime MOCA relationships.

Some of the additions are featured in The Evolution of Mark-making, now on display on the second floor. Project Atrium artist Shinique Smith donated her Something from Nothing Bundle (2008). The hanging satellite contains clothing and accessories donated to a church in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which came to the artist when New Orleans refused clothing in lieu of funds.

New York artist Jill Nathanson and Berry Campbell Gallery donated Fluid Measure (2015), which appeared in Confronting the Canvas: Women of Abstraction.

Preston H. Haskell purchased Maya Hayuk's Multiverse (2014), also from Confronting the Canvas, and donated it to the Museum in memory of Arthur W. Milam, a longtime chair of the Board of Trustees and a leader in moving MOCA to downtown Jacksonville.

Another work from Confronting the Canvas joins the Permanent Collection: Fran O'Neill's meeting you (2014). The diptych of two oil on canvas paintings was purchased through a gift from Jacksonville Women's Leadership and Museum acquisition funds. This acquisition would not have been possible without the support of MOCA trustee Leslie Slover and a handful of women leaders in the community.

MOCA purchased two works from the fall 2016 exhibition Retro-spective: Analog Photography in a Digital World: Alison Rossiter's gelatin silver print Fuji gaslight, exact expiration date unknown, ca. 1920s (2009) and Joni Sternbach's unique tintype 09.02.03 #8, Charlotte (2009). These purchases support the Museum's mission to collect pieces from MOCA's self-curated exhibitions.

Charles Gilman, chair of the MOCA Board of Trustees, and his wife, Marilyn, donated a work by Jason John, a Jacksonville artist and University of North Florida professor whose work was featured in MOCA's Get Real: New American Painting. The oil on polyester painting, Professor (2016), depicts UNF professor Paul Karabinis, who wrote and recorded audio guides for Retro-spective, as well as leading a cyanotype workshop and gallery tour.

The late Robert C. Broward, a celebrated local architect, donated his self-portrait by Mary Ann Bryan. Broward designed more than 500 projects during his 61-year career, including many iconic buildings in Jacksonville such as the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville (1965) and the Jacksonville Art Museum (1965), which was the precursor to MOCA Jacksonville. Broward, who died in 2015, wanted his painting to join Bryan's portraits of mixed-media artist Memphis Wood and Jacksonville potter Charlie Brown, both of which were already part of the Permanent Collection.

Karen Wilkin, who co-curated Hans Hofmann: Works on Paper, gave more than ten works on paper by a handful of artists, including Beatrice Caracciolo, Dan Christensen, and David Humphrey, to MOCA Jacksonville, adding new artists to the Permanent Collection.

Each of these acquisitions strengthens MOCA's Permanent Collection and reinforces the collecting priorities the Museum put in place in December 2015. Look for more of these artworks on the second floor, where objects from the Permanent Collection rotate throughout the year.