Jax Contemporary

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.

CALL TO ARTISTS INFO

SPONSORS

EXHIBITION PRESENTING SPONSOR: Dolf and Anna James