Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) Announces Fall 2022 and Miami Art Week Programming

MIAMI, Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) is proud to announce its Fall 2022 and Miami Art Week programming: Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè, Leah Gordon Kanaval, and Chire "VantaBlack" Regans: To What Lengths. The exhibitions will be celebrated during Miami Art Week with a public opening reception on Dec. 1, as well as additional programming.

"We are pleased to showcase these impactful and timely exhibitions during Miami Art Week, when the eyes of the global art world are focused on our community," said Chana Sheldon, Executive Director of MOCA. "Each of these artists aligns with the museum's mission to offer fresh perspectives, which challenge established narratives and connect diverse audiences to underexplored artists and ideas."

Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè (now on view through April 16, 2023) is the largest solo presentation of Didier William's career. Translated as "We've Left That All Behind," the show presents an in-depth look at the Haitian-born, North Miami-raised artist's career and memory among the very neighborhood where he once grew up.

Curated by Erica Moiah James, Ph.D., the exhibition features over forty works spanning multiple mediums and including some of William's newest paintings. Complementing the painted work and speaking to the close relationship of painting and printmaking in William's practice, are new drawings and artist books. The show also includes William's first monumental sculpture: a 12-ft.-tall wooden body emblematic of a religious column present in Haitian worship rituals.

In a blend of personal reflections, biographical anecdotes, and art historical moments, some of the works in the show recontextualize historical iconographies and ideas, stripping them of their "known" truths and transforming each into something entirely new. By doing so, William playfully and unapologetically reclaims autonomy over a fragmented record of history, engaging his personal connection to the complexity of immigrant narratives and queer identity to create opportunity for investigation and redemption.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will partner with ten-time Emmy award-winning producer and director Marlon Johnson to produce a documentary highlighting the artist and will partner with a vast network of scholars to present a series of public programs. The museum will also publish an accompanying exhibition catalogue.

Also, on view now through April 16, 2023 is Kanaval, a survey by photographer, filmmaker, curator, and writer Leah Gordon that documents twenty years of Carnival in Haiti. Curated by MOCA Curator Adeze Wilford, the exhibition consists of a series of black-and-white photographs taken on a mechanical medium format camera.

The images are contextualized by a series of oral histories relayed by various troupe leaders, who also oversee the design of the costume and generate the narratives surrounding Carnival. Their stories reflect the wealth of invention, fable, and self-generated mythology prevalent in much of Haitian culture. The photographs will be accompanied by a new feature-length documentary on the Carnival providing a kinetic counterpoint to the portraits.

"I'm excited to bring Kanaval to MOCA," said Adeze Wilford, MOCA Curator. "For decades Leah has documented and helped to platform a people's history of Haiti through her photographs. This exhibition brings that practice further through her new film that provides an incredible perspective to an intergenerational conversation about tradition that is ever evolving."

Also on view is VantaBlack's To What Lengths, which is open to the public on MOCA Plaza through Jan. 20, 2023. Selected in MOCA's 2022 Open Call to artists for its "Art on the Plaza" series, To What Lengths showcases a key component of VantaBlack's artistic practice by reflecting on legacy building and preservation as foundational to Black culture and other diasporic peoples. The South Florida-based artist will explore how ideas about legacy are woven into everyday actions by activating five palm trees on the MOCA Plaza with large-scale braids, adorned with beads, metal, and artificial sunflowers and gardenias. The braids of each tree will follow stylings representative of the women in VantaBlack's family.

MOCA will celebrate the exhibitions with a Miami Art Week reception on Thursday, Dec. 1 to include a VIP reception (invitation only) from 6–8 p.m., and open to the public from 8–10 p.m. The museum will also hold an Artist and Curator-led Exhibition Tour on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. The museum will also offer extended hours throughout the week. In MOCA's continued efforts to include diverse voices and perspectives, the exhibitions will be accompanied by a robust series of educational and public programming.

The museum's extended hours for Miami Art Week:

• Sunday, Nov. 27 – Tuesday, Nov. 29: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Wednesday, Nov. 30.: 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 1: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (Open Hours), 6 p.m.–8 p.m. (VIP Reception by invitation),
• 8 p.m.–10 p.m. (Public Reception)
• Friday Dec. 2-Sunday, Dec. 4: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Saturday Dec. 3: 11 a.m. (Artist and Curator-Led Exhibition Tour)

General admission is $10 for adults; $5 for seniors, students and visitors with disabilities; and free for MOCA Members, City of North Miami residents and children under 12.

MOCA North Miami presents contemporary art and its historical influences through exhibitions, educational programs, and collections. Inspired by its surrounding communities, MOCA connects diverse audiences and cultures by providing a welcoming place to encounter new ideas and voices and nurturing a lifelong love of the arts. MOCA developed from the Center of Contemporary Art which was inaugurated in 1981. The establishment of the permanent collection coincided with the institution's move into their current building designed by Charles Gwathmey of GSNY in 1996.

Under the direction of Executive Director Chana Sheldon and a newly installed Board of Trustees, MOCA showcased My Name is Maryan curated by Alison Gingeras during Miami Art Week in 2021, which will travel to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in late 2022. An accompanying exhibition catalog highlighting key works will be published, along with other archival imagery and critical essays. The museum also premiered AFRICOBRA: Messages to the People during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2018. AFRICOBRA: Nation Time, the next chapter of the exhibition, was selected as an official Collateral Event of Biennale Arte 2019 in Venice, Italy. Other original exhibitions include: Michael Richards: Are You Down? co-curated by Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin (2021), Raul de Nieves: Eternal Return and The Obsidian Heart curated by Risa Puleo (2020), and Alice Rahon: Poetic Invocations curated by Teresa Arcq (2019).

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SOURCE Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA)