Visitors Can Experience Two Exhibitions Featuring the Works of Frank Stella
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — MOCA Jacksonville is pleased to announce its newest installation Project Atrium: Frank Stella, Jacksonville Stacked Stars. This brand-new work of art was commissioned and created in honor of MOCA Jacksonville’s 100th anniversary celebrations. The installation features two of the artist’s iconic stars stacked in a single sculpture that fills the museum’s massive Atrium. Alongside the installation, the museum has installed a second exhibition, Frank Stella: Printmaking, featuring works from its permanent collection complemented by loans from local collectors.
Visitors to MOCA Jacksonville can view the work as it is being installed in the week leading up to its unveiling on February 29, 2024, and can join the final hour of the Opening Celebration & Preview Event from 8-9 p.m.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Frank Stella (b. 1936; Malden, MA) has produced an extraordinary body of work over the past six decades. Since his first solo gallery exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1960, when he presented his famous “Black Paintings,” Stella has continuously explored the possibilities of the expression of visual space. Initial paintings based on the rejection of the conventionally rectangular canvas, and of painting-as-representation, gave way to complex wall reliefs made from paint, cardboard, and felt. He further blurred the distinction between painting and sculpture in baroque works that seemed to leap off the wall. Today, Stella uses digital modeling to explore how subtle changes in scale, color and material can affect our perception and experience of the free-standing object.
JACKSONVILLE STACKED STARS
Jacksonville Stacked Stars was created by the artist especially for MOCA Jax, in honor of the museum’s 100-year anniversary. Throughout his career, Stella has returned to the star as motif; exploring its form, both abstract and figurative, in multiple variations of two-dimensional, free-standing and wall-relief sculptural shapes. Since the 1990s, the star has appeared in all possible sizes and materials, both traditional and new: aluminum, stainless steel, birch plywood, fiberglass, carbon fiber or plastics. Through the use of sophisticated computer models, his most recent works, including Jacksonville Stacked Stars, seem to defy the forces of gravity and sculptural norms.
Curated by MOCA Senior Curator Ylva Rouse. The Project Atrium Series is made possible in part by Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow. Jacksonville Stacked Stars was made possible by Presenting Sponsors Joan and Preston Haskell, along with sponsorship from Dita Domonkos; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Z. Duke; David Engdahl; and Wende Wilson, and in-kind support Haskell. MOCA Jacksonville’s 100th Anniversary year is made possible in part by its Centennial Sponsors: Lauren and Ted Baker; the City of Jacksonville; the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville; the Inaugural Director’s Circle at MOCA Jacksonville; the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Florida Blue, the Florida Division of Arts and Culture; Joan and Preston Haskell; the MOCA Jacksonville Board of Trustees; the University of North Florida; Visit Jacksonville; and VyStar Credit Union.
FRANK STELLA: PRINTMAKING
Frank Stella began his extended engagement with printmaking in the mid-1960s, working first with master printer Kenneth Tyler at the famed workshop Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, CA. This pioneering studio brought together artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns who, like Stella, were interested in investigating the creative opportunities offered by prints and multiples. As a result, in 1973 Stella had a print studio installed in his New York house, to further explore the medium.
Lithography was Stella’s first exploration of the medium of print, ideal for the formal concerns that occupied his painting practice at the time, such as scale, color and texture, as manifest in works such Sinjerli Variation II, 1977. From the 1980s onward, his prints have evolved in ever growing complexity, equally as innovative as his paintings or sculptures. Covering all techniques, including lithography, screen-printing, etching and offset lithography, Stella often combines various printmaking and drawing techniques in one work, such as in Had Gadya: Back Cover (from El Lissitzky), 1984 (which combines hand coloring collaged with lithographic, linoleum block and silkscreen prints) or the Pergusa Three, 1982, from the Circuits series, inspired by the artist’s long-standing interest in car racing.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Project Atrium: Frank Stella
Opening Celebration & Preview Event
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Public Hour 8-9 p.m.
Experience the unveiling of a brand new sculpture, Jacksonville Stacked Stars, created by iconic artist Frank Stella for MOCA Jacksonville’s 100th Anniversary Project Atrium! Enjoy an evening of art and community featuring drinks from the MOCA Bar, live music, and creative community. MOCA Members and Donors receive early access to the event, and the public is welcome at 8 p.m. Learn more at mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
Spring Camp @ MOCA
March 18-22, 2024
Daily art camp for to K-5th grade students
Half Day $40 | Full Day $80 | Extended Day $10
MOCA Jacksonville offers seasonal art camps that provide kids with the chance to dive into the art, artists, and ideas of our time. Children make new friends and learn art techniques in a variety of media through hands-on learning in a fun and engaging environment. Time is spent exploring exhibitions in the galleries and creating in the studios. With the guidance of skilled museum educators, learners are empowered to problem solve through critical thinking, observation, and creative self-expression. Learn more at mocajacksonville.unf.edu/camp.
Florida Blue FREE Museum Nights @ MOCA
1st & 3rd Wednesdays | 5-9 p.m.
Spend your evenings at MOCA with extended hours and enjoy art, happy hour at the MOCA Bar, coffee and snacks from Setlan Coffee Co., live artists and artmaking, and special programs like movies, lectures, and special performances. Learn more at mocajacksonville.unf.edu/visit
PROJECT ATRIUM
Project Atrium, MOCA Jacksonville’s bold installation series, features site-specific and site-sensitive installations by emerging and mid-career artists. The unique placement, dimensions, and scale of the Atrium Gallery provide a compelling challenge to artists—a call to reinvention and active collaboration with the architecture of the Museum on a monumental scale.
One of the most commanding spaces in MOCA Jacksonville’s historic 1931 Western Union Telegraph building is its dramatic Atrium Gallery. The space is forty feet high, thirty feet wide, and located on the ground floor, three steps up from the Museum’s lobby.
Its impressive scale is further heightened by the visibility of this space. At ground level, it can be seen from the Museum’s lobby, as well as the street and the adjacent James Weldon Johnson Park. Moreover, the open stairwells and the two floors of galleries above the ground floor all look over the Atrium, providing multiple vantage points to this space and ensuring visitors’ sustained engagement with it as they move through the Museum. In short, the Atrium Gallery serves as a physical and visual anchor for the entire building.
MOCA JACKSONVILLE
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, as the oldest art museum in the region and the second contemporary art museum to be established in the United States. This celebration year is an opportunity for MOCA to give back to the community that has been its home for a century by presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that will engage the community and elevate Jacksonville as a regional destination for arts and culture.
One hundred years ago, a group of visionary, pioneering women 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.
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. Throughout 2024, MOCA will celebrate its centennial year — looking to the past to recognize the legacy of the visionary leaders and important milestones that have brought us to this point; marking this moment with extraordinary exhibitions and programs that will not only elevate MOCA, but provide a stimulus and create an energized destination for our Downtown to build upon; and imagine the future that we want for our great city, nourishing our community through art and culture for the next 100 years.
For more information including hours of operation, admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
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