Outside Looking In: The Paintings of Amer Kobaslija Opens Thursday, April 30, 2026
Jacksonville, FL — The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA), part of Arts UNF at the University of North Florida, announces featured exhibition Outside Looking In: The Paintings of Amer Kobaslija. This exhibition showcases the artistic career of Jacksonville-based, international artist Amer Kobaslija.The exhibition is on view April 30 through September 20, 2026, with a free Community Opening Celebration on April 30 from 8 to 9 p.m. Museum members receive early access to this preview the same evening.
Throughout his artistic trajectory, Kobaslija has depicted his surroundings with virtuosity and wit, displaying a keen eye for detail, informed by a deep understanding of the history of art. Embedded in his work is the search for a sense of place, reflected in the organization of his output in series that describe his nomadic life. Outside Looking In will trace his career from early works to the present, including works from his well-known series Florida Diaries; One Hundred Views of Kesennuma (Japan); Road to Rossinière (Switzerland); Places, Spaces; and the ongoing Artist Studios series.
THE FLORIDA DIARIES
The Florida Diaries has been an ongoing series for the artist, since he moved to Jacksonville in 1997. The works often juxtapose cheerful colors, lush landscapes and the likenesses of friends and neighbors, with a subtext about the continued development which has inevitably led to the replacement of Florida’s pristine landscape with landfills and endless residential and commercial centers. The contrast reflects Kobaslija’s appreciation of the people and culture of his adopted home state, together with his concerns over the consequences of our urban sprawl and impending effects of climate change; the familiarity coexisting with the outsider’s gaze.
ONE HUNDRED VIEWS OF KESENNUMA
The title of Kobaslija's One Hundred Views of Kesennuma was inspired by Japanese artist Hokusai's famous series of landscape paintings; Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Following the 2011 tsunami in Japan, he began an extensive series to document the wreckage, eventually making several trips to the country to witness the aftermath firsthand. The palpable parallels between the war torn Bosnia that Kobaslija witnessed in his childhood and his view in 2012 of the desecration Japan faced through its 2011 earthquake and tsunami are clearly depicted through his perspective.
ARTIST STUDIO SERIES
The artist studio has been an important motif for Kobaslija since graduate school, both his own, and others he has visited, from Pollock’s, to Philip Pearlstein’s, to Balthus’. Although the studios are always vacant, their interiors are cluttered and lived-in, acting as allegorical portraits of the people who inhabit them. For Kobaslija, they represent a reflection of the artist's self in time: “I see these studio paintings as meditations on past and present in a Proustian sense – the two states of mind that coexist and influence one another.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Banja Luka, in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kobaslija fled as a refugee to Germany in 1993, following the outbreak of the Serbo-Croatian war. There, he began his formal art education at the prestigious Düsseldorf Art Academy, before receiving asylum in the United States. He immigrated to Florida, where he completed his B.F.A. in Printmaking at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL, and in 2003, he obtained his M.F.A. in Painting at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Kobaslija is currently a faculty member of the University of Central Florida, where he teaches painting in the university’s School of Visual Arts and Design.
Kobaslija is the recipient of prestigious awards, such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2013), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2007), and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2005). His exhibitions have reached Paris, France; Brig, Switzerland, as well as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Chicago. Kobaslija’s recent exhibitions include the Baker Museum, in Naples, FL, in 2024; and solo exhibitions in Zagreb, Croatia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2025.
OPENING CELEBRATION & COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The Opening Celebration on April 30 is free and open to all from 8-9 p.m. Museum Members receive early access to the event.
In partnership with downtown merchants, guests receive 10% off at participating restaurants by showing their event ticket (Bellwether, Pour Tap Room, Sweet Pete’s; hours vary).
SPONSORSHIP
Outside Looking In: The Paintings of Amer Kobaslija is made possible by operational support from the City of Jacksonville, the Donald and Maria Cox Fund, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, Joan and Preston Haskell; the MOCA Director’s Circle; the University of North Florida; and Visit Jacksonville.
ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE
Located in the heart of historic downtown, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville 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. In 2009, MOCA became a cultural institute of the University of North Florida 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 a 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. The museum is free to the public every Saturday during VyStar Free Saturdays at MOCA, as well as the first and third Wednesday evening of each month during Museum Nights at MOCA presented by Florida Blue.
MOCA Jacksonville is located at 333 N. Laura Street in Downtown Jacksonville. For more information including hours of operation, admission prices, and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904-620-1214 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
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