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Jax Contemporary

MOCA Jacksonville Arts Triennial 

Presented by Dolf and Anna James

March 29 – November 9, 2025

artist's studio

Following the celebration of its centenary in 2024, MOCA Jacksonville is excited to launch Jax Contemporary, a triennial 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.

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.

 

Artists 

Robert Dewitt Adams | Todd Alexander | Åke Arnerdal | Gail Beveridge | Holly Blanton | Deshonna Buchanan | Christopher Clark | Laura Colomb | Joshua Cooper | Adell Coulliette III | Mark Creegan | Sarah Crooks | Yna Cruz | Alexander Diaz | Keith Doles | Overstreet Ducasse | Douglas Eng | David Engdahl | Crystal Floyd | Lenny Foster | Mico Fuentes | Camille Garzon | Mark George | Karolina Girciene | Sheila Goloborotko | Jordan Groff | Jenny K. Hager | Dustin Harewood | Sandy Harrington | Marsha Hatcher | Ethan Helow | Stephen Heywood | Mary Joan Hinson | Hillary Hogue | Ana Ion | Jason John | Erin Kendrick | Amer Kobaslija | Lily Kuonen | Jan Master | Brandon Mata | Kaz McCue | J. Adam McGalliard | Pam Meyer | Hiromi Moneyhun | Laura Mongiovi | Dawn Inglis Montgomery | Susan Ober | Elena Øhlander | Tanner Pletzke | Zakriya Rabani | Michael Rakim | Princess Simpson Rashid | Storm Rowland | Russell Satterthwaite | Susanne Schuenke | Chip Southworth | Shaun Thurston | d. lance vickery | Z (Jacob) Wan | Jeff Whipple | Edison William | Larry Wilson | Vivien Zink 
See below for Artist Bios

 

PRIZES

The James W. Doyle Prize for Best in Show

Second and Third Place

Visiting Curator's Choice

People's Choice

 

National Visiting Curator Adeze Wilford

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, Gifted and Black and Black Refractions. 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 incuded in the exhibition.

 

SPONSORS

EXHIBITION PRESENTING SPONSOR: Dolf and Anna James

Anne and Charlie Joseph

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Foundation

Florida State College at Jacksonville

The bios and statements have been provided by the artists and do not reflect the views of MOCA Jacksonville or the University of North Florida. 

ARTWORK LABELS

SPECIAL EVENTS 

Ideas of Our Time: Jax Contemporary Artist Talks 

Thoughout Summer and Fall, select free admission days will feature free programming, including Ideas of Our Time: Jax Contemporary Artist Talks. Taking place in the MOCA Theater, these artist talks will showcase those selected for the triennial exhibition on view on the third floor. Registration is not required. 

April 2 | 7 p.m. 
Michael Rakim, Marsha Hatcher, and Kaz McCue 

April 5 | 3 p.m.
Ana Ion, Elena Øhlander, and Vivien Zink 

May 3 | 7 p.m. 
Sandy Harrington and Deshonna Buchanan 

June 4 | 7 p.m. 
Mark Creegan, Christopher Clark, and Mico Fuentes  

June 7 | 1 p.m.
Overstreet Ducasse, Keith Doles, and Storm Rowland 

July 2 | 7 p.m. 
David Engdahl, Jeff Whipple, and Mary Joan Hinson 

July 5 | 1 p.m.
Sarah Crooks, Gail Beveridge, and Jason John 

August 6 | 7 p.m. 
Zakriya Rabani, Stephen Heywood, and J. Adam McGalliard 

September 3 | 7 p.m. 
d. lance vickery, Robert Adams, Jenny K. Hager, and Erin Kendrick

October 1 | 7 p.m. 
Susanne Schuenke Ph.D., Hillary Hogue, Tanner Pletzke, Chip Southworth

November 5 | 7 p.m. 
Yna Cruz, Laura Colomb, Holly Blanton, and Joshua Cooper

 

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