EMBARGOED UNTIL:
October 18, 2025 at 2 p.m.
CONTACT:
Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications & Marketing
amber.sesnick@unf.edu // 904.620.3224
EMBARGOED
MOCA Jacksonville Announces Local Winners of
Jax Contemporary: MOCA Arts Triennial
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville announced the winners of its inaugural juried exhibition Jax Contemporary: MOCA Jacksonville Art Triennial, at its Fall Arts Celebration on October 18, 2025. The exhibition features 64 Northeast Florida artists, of which five have been selected for awards. This new exhibition series 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 Northeast Florida with the general public and to deepen the museum’s relationship with the local arts community, while fostering the growth of the local arts ecosystem. The winners were honored at an award ceremony and received hand-crafted awards created by Burnt Glassworks, along with cash prizes of $2,500 for best in show, and $500 each for the Second Place, Third Place, Visiting Curator’s Choice, and People’s Choice Awards.
Thank you to all the artists who contributed to this first iteration of Jax Contemporary and to the vibrancy of our cultural community! The establishment of this triennial is a testament to the dedication of our local artists. As this triennial unfolds in the coming years, it should be a reminder of the value of our collective investment in the future of Jacksonville’s creative spirit. We hope you will join us for its next iteration in 2028.
THE WINNERS
THE JAMES W. DOYLE PRIZE FOR BEST IN SHOW: ERIN KENDRICK
Coyote, 2025, Acrylic, gouache, charcoal on Arches watercolor paper, 46 x 64 inches, Courtesy of the artist
As the winner of the Best in Show award, Erin Kendrick’s work, Coyote, will be acquired and become part of the permanent collection of MOCA Jacksonville.
Erin Kendrick is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and educator based in Jacksonville, Florida. Her color-rich portraiture largely focuses on the lived experiences of Black women and girls, addressing themes of space, selfhood, and safety. Her paintings invite viewers to contemplate their role in the visual narrative, blurring the lines between spectator and spectacle, and engaging viewers in an oppositional gaze that fosters introspection and connection.
“In her ongoing portrait series,” says Doherty, “Kendrick uses the literary device of fable to give expression to larger issues in our society and, by charging her colors, patterns, and postures with such expressionism, creates beautiful, vivid and arresting artworks.”
Artist Statement: Coyote, captures the moment a child realizes the great American hero isn’t coming to save her. Wearing her Uvalde Robb Elementary mascot t-shirt, she sees imminent danger and takes on a fighting stance. The mask and cape, no longer for play; become her armor. She understands now that survival is in her own hands. The layered, fractured color reflects both her innocence and the chaos she is enduring. Her skin vibrates with energy—fear, strength, urgency—because she is still just a child, yet she understands what’s at stake. Coyote is about resilience, reckoning, and the stories we tell children about safety and heroism—stories that, for too many, unravel far too soon.
SECOND PLACE: MICO FUENTES
Boiling Point, 2024, Enamel screen print, metal acrylic, Lenticular Lens, LED light, 48 x 34 x 13 inches, Courtesy of the artist
“In his works, Mico Fuentes tackles serious topics in our society straight on, but in an unexpected manner, using a combination of screenprints, plexiglass, and LED tubes to create a world within a world,” stated Rouse. “This is what he has done with Boiling Point, recording the historic demonstrations in our local San Marco neighborhood to protest police brutality and racial injustice in June of 2020.”
Fuentes is a visual artist who lives and works in Jacksonville, FL. His work utilizes the principles of printmaking and employs semiotics and discarded materials to communicate the concepts of value, consumerism, and the witness of the natural world. By creating next generation artifacts through a process he calls ‘Conceptual Objectification,’ his work uses place and time to reflect on the fallible nature of humanity and its tendency to evolve.
THIRD PLACE: RUSSELL SATTERTHWAITE
Stumpy, 2024, Photography, 48 x 72 inches, Courtesy of the artist
Russell Satterthwaite is a resident of Georgetown in Putman County and a nationally and internationally recognized award-winning nature and wildlife photographer. His images are bold, clean, and capture the ever-changing landscapes and underwater beauty of the natural world.
“We have many artists in our community who celebrate the incredible nature of Northeast Florida through their art,” Rouse said. “Satterthwaite’s Stumpy, awash with golden notes, captures the stillness and beauty of a moment in that nature, as we also register the current peril of one of Florida’s most iconic trees.”
VISITING CURATOR’S CHOICE: ANA ION LEONTE
Stinger Mass, 2025, Ceramic and glaze, 6 x 3 x 3feet, Courtesy of the artist
“I was immediately impressed with Ana's ceramic practice which was both bold and innovative,” said Wilford. “The piece she included in the exhibition shows that she used this opportunity to push her practice, and the result is a compelling sculpture that speaks to what I hope is just the beginning of a long and exciting career for her.”
Ana Ion Leonte is a Romanian-American ceramic sculptural artist currently working in Florida. Her artistic practice is rooted in a mixture of organic and sometimes mechanical abstract ceramic forms, often allegories for the human condition originating from conceptual ideals. She draws inspiration from personal experiences with nature, cultures, and anthropological matters between Eastern European cultural values and modern society. Her paintings and sculptures are defined by compositions of shapes and colors that emerge from experiences that spark questions and curiosities about challenging social conformity and examining the toxicity of value, all while allowing formalism and material intuition to guide the creative process.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: SHAUN THURSTON
Lotus Lesson, 2025, Acrylic on panel, 48 x 72 inches, Courtesy of the artist
While each of the other awards was selected by the museum’s team of curators, the People’s Choice award was selected by museum visitors who were invited to vote for their favorite work of art in the exhibition during their visit. With more than 1,500 votes cast, this award represents the work that resonated the most with our community.
“I love this painting!” said one of the museum’s youngest voters, Violet, age 6. “It inspires me. I like the pretty colors. I love all of the detail and that the middle stuff looks like crystals. And I really like the orb in the middle of the flower!”
Thurston is a Jacksonville native with artistic roots in street art and graffiti. His 20-year career has been defined by his dynamic blend of fine art and public murals, the latter of which have become a ubiquitous part of Jacksonville’s visual identity. With the natural world at their core, his paintings are a balance of control and chaos, refinement and impulse. Thurston’s work can also be seen in Project Atrium: Muralists in Action, on view at MOCA Jacksonville through February15, 2026.
ABOUT JAX CONTEMPORARY: MOCA JACKSONVILLE ARTS TRIENNIAL
Jax Contemporary: MOCA Jacksonville Art Triennial, is presented by Dolf and Anna James. This triennial series seeks to support and promote the contemporary art practices of our area, sharing the broad vitality of artistic voices that represent Northeast Florida. It is intended to deepen the museum’s relationship with the local arts community, while fostering the growth of the local arts ecosystem, and it underscores the vital importance of nurturing local artists.
Exhibiting artists and winners were selected by a team at MOCA Jacksonville and guest curator Adeze Wilford, the Blackmon Perry Curator of African American Art & Art of the African Diaspora at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, from submissions resulting from a call to artists from Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau Putnam, and St. Johns Counties. All selected artists were provided with professional development opportunities, including professional guidance, studio visits, critique from the selecting curators, opportunities to speak about their work, and participation in public programs at the museum.
When Jax Contemporary closes on November 9, 2025, the winning artist’s work will remain at MOCA for a small exhibition in the lobby from November 14, 2025 through January 25, 2026. MOCA’s first floor, including the lobby, Atrium gallery, and Setlan Coffee Co., is always free to visit during regular museum hours.
This triennial exhibition 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. The next iteration of this series will take place in 2028.
ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA) is the largest and most public facing asset of Arts UNF at the University of North Florida. Located in the heart of historic Downtown, MOCA is one of the city’s most significant cultural assets. As the oldest art museum in Northeast Florida and one of the first contemporary art museums to be established in the United States, MOCA is focused on promoting the discovery, knowledge, and advancement of the art, artists, and ideas of our time.
In 1924, a group of visionary local women artists came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be — the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city were art, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born — first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum and educational leader. MOCA has been part of the University of North Florida since 2009 and in 2025 the museum became one of only three percent of museums to achieve accreditation through the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded to American museums. More than century later, MOCA’s mission remains focused on the art, artists, and ideas of our time, with a vision that unites education, creativity, and community building in the heart of downtown Jacksonville.
Among the most prominent contemporary art museums in the Southeast, MOCA’s exhibitions and programs set the pace for arts and art-integrated programming on a regional and national stage, with an emphasis on works created from 1960 to the present. Renowned in this community, MOCA casts the spotlight on Jacksonville as a burgeoning, vital arts destination.
VISITOR INFORMATION
MOCA Jacksonville is open every Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors can access the museum free of charge during weekly VyStar Free Saturdays at MOCA and twice monthly Free Museum Nights presented by Florida Blue on first and third Wednesdays from 5 to 9 p.m. For more information including general admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
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