Feb 18-Jun 5, 2021 Imagine Otherwise Shikeith Imani Dennison Amber N. Ford Antwoine Washington Feb 18-Jun 5, 2021 ∆ Shikeith, Still Waters Run Deep (still), 2021, installation with video, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. ∆ Shikeith, Still Waters Run Deep (still), 2021, installation with video, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. ∆ Shikeith, Still Waters Run Deep (still), 2021, installation with video, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist. Feb 18-Jun 5, 2021 Imagine Otherwise Shikeith Imani Dennison Amber N. Ford Antwoine Washington “What happens when we proceed as if we know this, antiBlackness, to be the ground on which we stand, the ground from which we to attempt to speak, for instance, an “I” or a “we” who know, an “I” or a “we” who care?"—Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being Imagine Otherwise expresses the boundlessness and fierceness of Black imagination and love despite ongoing antiBlack violence as it thinks with Christina Sharpe’s groundbreaking book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being . Featuring artists Shikeith, Imani Dennison, Amber N. Ford, and Antwoine Washington, this multimedia exhibition spotlights Black pathways to self-determination and collective liberation through photographic, sculptural, mixed media, and video-based installations. This careful navigation, or “wake work,” to use Sharpe’s term, operates beyond representational politics as it interrogates spatial and temporal tensions of disenfranchisement, resistance, memory, visibility, loss, and (re)invention across Black cultures. Shikeith explores how Black queer re-making is a sacred space and practice in his two-part installation, still waters run deep / fall in your ways (2021). Using poetry, historical narratives, ambient recordings of children's rhymes, shades of blue, dance, and organic elements such as water, Shikeith maps Black men's negotiations of intimacy and routes toward freedom beyond architectural and societal constraints. Imani Dennison’s NO MAS- Irreversible Entanglements (2020), filmed on location in Johannesburg, South Africa, offers a dream-like meditation. In only eight minutes, vibrant imagery coupled with the fluid, yet energetic, free jazz and poetry of the Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC-based group Irreversible Entanglements presents an intoxicating, otherworldly Afro-futurist vision of Black people escaping all terrestrial confinements. Amber N. Ford’s detailed photographic attention to relationships of subjects and infinite patterning zooms in and out through Strands, Tracks & Naps (2021). Reminiscent of a display of coiffures in a hair salon, lush color portraits, small studies, and collage superimposed on a dense close-up of passion twists express the vast geography of Black ways of being. Antwoine Washington employs domestic furnishings and murals as visual storytelling in And Yeah, About that Seat at the Table (2021). The artist’s multimedia installation highlights how that proverbial access point to power is illusory for most Black people, while also honoring a long history of Black self-making. Organized by La Tanya S. Autry, Gund Curator in Residence, moCa Cleveland’s first on-staff Black curator creating exhibitions in its 52-year history, Imagine Otherwise is unlike any other curatorial project funded by the institution. As a manifestation of “wake work,” this city-wide initiative is sited at moCa Cleveland (Shikeith), ThirdSpace Action Lab in Glenville (Imani Dennison and Amber N. Ford), and Museum of Creative Human Art /Larchmere Arts (Antwoine Washington). Autry envisions possibilities beyond moCa Cleveland’s consistent antiBlack practices by partnering with these Black-led and centered organizations that regularly care for Black residents and others while challenged with far smaller budgets than many area white-led and centered arts institutions. Offered during another heightened time of national racial crisis, Imagine Otherwise is a limited, yet hopefully, significant prodding for an authentic, community-led institutional reckoning of moCa Cleveland and a soulful salute to the city’s Black dwellers who persist by always imagining otherwise. Exhibition locations ThirdSpace Action Lab , Glenville 1464 E 105th St #302, Cleveland, OH 44106 Museum of Creative Human Art (MOCHA) presented at Larchmere Arts 12726 Larchmere Blvd, Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) , Cleveland 11400 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106 About the Artists Shikeith Shikeith (b. 1989 in Philadelphia, PA) lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. He received a BA from The Pennsylvania State University (2010) and an MFA in Sculpture from The Yale School of Art (2018). His expansive practice investigates the experiences of black men within and around concepts of psychic space, the blues, and black queer fugitivity. He has shared his work nationally and internationally through recent exhibitions and screenings that include The Language Must Not Sweat , Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Notes Towards Becoming A Spill , Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; Shikeith: This was his body/His body finally his , MAK Gallery, London, UK; Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography , Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; A Drop of Sun Under The Earth , MOCA LA, Los Angeles, CA; Labor Relations, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland; and Black Intimacy: An Evening With Shikeith , MoMA, New York, NY. Recent awards include the Painters & Sculptors Grant from The Joan Mitchell Foundation (2019), Art Matters Foundation Grant (2020), Leslie Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2020-2021). Imani Dennison Imani Dennison is a Multi-Hyphenate Creative, born in Louisville, Kentucky. Imani graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC where she studied Political Science and Photography. Upon completing her degree at Howard, she went on to earn a certificate in Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. Imani has been working as a Cinematographer based in Brooklyn New York where she has lensed short films, documentaries, branded campaigns and music videos. Imani's work explores themes of surrealism, Blackness, and Fantasy. Imani also works as a Photographer and has created bodies of portraiture and documentary work exploring global Blackness. Amber N. Ford Amber N. Ford is an artist based in Cleveland, OH. She received her BFA in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art (2016). Interested in race, and identity, she is best known for her work in portraiture, which she considers a “collaborative engagement between photographer and sitter.” Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Kent State University, Transformer Station, SPACES Gallery, The Morgan Conservatory, The Cleveland Print Room, Zygote Press, Waterloo Arts and in outdoor public space on the Capitol Theatre Building located at the corner of Detroit and West 65th. Recent awards include Gordon Square Arts District Artist-In-Residence (2019) and the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award (2017). Antoine Washington Antoine Washington, originally from Pontiac, MI, lives and works in Cleveland, OH. With his wife Carlise Washington, he has two children, Grayson and Luca. He earned his BA in Studio Art from Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA. His studies of black history and art at Southern inspired Washington to continue the legacy of Harlem Renaissance artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and Jacob Lawrence. Following a stroke he suffered in 2018, Washington found healing in his art. He has exhibited widely at the Cleveland Print Room, Worthington Yards, The Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Rooms to Let and Artist Archives of the Western Reserve. His public art commission with Land Studios includes his 154 years mural located in Cleveland Public Square. In 2020, Washington co-founded Museum of Creative Human Art, a non-profit organization centered on teaching art.

Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Kelli Connell Double Life Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 ∆ Kelli Connell, Negotiation , 2025. ∆ Kelli Connell, Negotiation , 2025. ∆ Kelli Connell, Negotiation , 2025. Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Kelli Connell Double Life Begun in 2002, Kelli Connell’s Double Life is an ongoing and complex body of work that studies our relationship with ourselves. The series appears to portray a close relationship between two women; however, closer looking reveals that these images are digitally creations of a single model, Kiba Jacobson who portrays both characters in each photograph. As such, Double Life is a poetic study of our interior life, one filled with contrasting desires, struggles, insecurities, and achievements. It also captures the expansive, complex, and emotionally significant moments of our lives, embodying the true nature of empathy: using how we care for, argue with, forgive, and love ourselves to guide how we engage with and care for others. Each year, the Mayfield Village-based insurance company The Progressive Corporation commissions an artist or group of artists to create artworks that interpret their annual report theme. This theme and its unique visual presentation embody a companywide focus for the coming year. Progressive commissioned Connell to continue her Double Life series for the 2024 annual report based on the theme “Empathy.” These photographs, presented at moCa June 28, 2025-January 4, 2026, join Progressive’s globally recognized contemporary art collection. Co-organized with The Progressive Corporation . Additional support provided by the Anselm Talalay Photography Endowment. About the Artist ∆ Kelli Connell Kelli Connell Kelli Connell’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, among others. Publications include Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis (Aperture and Center for Creative Photography, March 2024 ), PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice (Aperture), Photo Art: The New World of Photography (Aperture), and the monograph Kelli Connell: Double Life (DECODE Books). Connell has received fellowships and residencies from The Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, PLAYA, Peaked Hill Trust, LATITUDE, Light Work and The Center for Creative Photography. Connell is a professor at Columbia College Chicago. Installation Images

At moCa, we support and amplify the work of artists who represent what's next— in Cleveland and beyond. moCa's Annual Fund directly supports day-to-day operations. Support Support Your gift supports art now, in progress. Gifts to moCa's Annual Fund are fully tax-deductible. Annual Fund Donate Institutional Giving Patrons

Thank you for attending this year's Palate/ette event in support of moCa Cleveland! Your generosity and spirit made for a wonderful evening of art and conversation. Spot yourself in your hues-of-blues in the gallery below. Photos by Natasha Herbert Photography and Asia Simmons.

Jul 16-Dec 31, 2022 Renée Green Contact Jul 16-Dec 31, 2022 ∆ Renée Green: Contact . Installation view at moCa Cleveland, presented in partnership with FRONT International's 2022's second iteration, Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows. Photo: Field Studio ∆ Renée Green: Contact . Installation view at moCa Cleveland, presented in partnership with FRONT International's 2022's second iteration, Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows. Photo: Field Studio ∆ Renée Green: Contact . Installation view at moCa Cleveland, presented in partnership with FRONT International's 2022's second iteration, Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows. Photo: Field Studio Jul 16-Dec 31, 2022 Renée Green Contact What is “contact” now? For FRONT 2022 , Cleveland-born artist Renée Green has conceived Contact , her first major exhibition in the city, which occupies all of moCa Cleveland’s public spaces and radiates out into the city with workshops and film screenings. A contrapuntal exhibition, Contact weaves together Green’s own works–some newly commissioned by FRONT 2022–with a vast array of invited participants with whom she’s been in conversation through the years. This relates to Green’s accretive way of working, developing exhibitions by modifying and subsequently re-presenting works and ideas in relation to other contexts. And while Contact coincides with FRONT 2022, the endeavor was initially conceived in 2019 and will continue through the end of the year, resonating with the triennial’s attempt to break the three-month exhibition format. Engaging with moCa Cleveland’s unique architecture, this exhibition establishes a spatial, sonic, and cinematic conversation between multiple artworks and agents. Green’s pioneering aesthetic practice connects with two of the triennial’s key themes: a focus on the expanded role of artists as collaborative practitioners and the idea that the processes of artmaking can create essential bridges between people. In addition to Green, Contact features the art, thinking, and voices of a diverse ensemble of artists and practitioners, including John Akomfrah, Marcel Broodthaers, Cinematic Migrations Workshop, Free Agent Media, Laura Serejo Genes, Lina Gopaul, Derrick Green, Index Literacy Program, Gabriel Kahan, David Lawson, New Humans, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Suneil Sanzgiri, Sense LA, Smoking Dogs Films, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Ian Soroka, Mika Tajima, and Pedro Zylbersztajn. Renée Green’s exhibition Contact is presented in partnership with FRONT International 2022’s second iteration, Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous support provided by Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP. Additional support provided by Michelle Shan Jeschelnig and Richard Jeschelnig, and the Anselm Talalay Photography Endowment. About FRONT Launched in 2018, FRONT International is a contemporary art exhibition that presents artist commissions, performances, films, and public programs across Northeast Ohio every three years. The 2022 edition, Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows , embraces art as an agent of transformation, a mode of healing, and a therapeutic process. The title is an homage to “Two Somewhat Different Epigrams,” a 1957 poem by Langston Hughes, who moved to Cleveland in his childhood and maintained an artistic connection to the region. A tender, brutal, and provocative prayer, the poem meditates on the inseparability of joy and suffering. Amid a time of ongoing tragedy and loss, FRONT 2022 explores how artmaking can heal us—as individuals, as groups, and as a society. Spanning over twenty-five sites in Cleveland, Akron, and Oberlin, the exhibition bears witness to interlocking personal and public crises while emphasizing collaborative creative processes, partnering closely with institutions across the region, and connecting artists with local communities. Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows features over ninety regional, national, and international artists. Starting with how daily practice allows individual artists to cultivate liberation, the triennial also demonstrates how aesthetic pleasure—sharing joy through movement, music, craft, and color—can bring different people together. Finally, the exhibition suggests ways that contemporary art can speak with power, showing us how to recognize and reimagine the invisible structures that govern our lives. For more information, visit FrontArt.org .

Date Title One sentence desciption + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Fri. October 10, 2025 Sips, Strings & Sights 12-1PM at moCa Cleveland Free to all RSVP The Music Settlement, moCa Cleveland, and Phoenix Coffee invite you to a midday sensory experience blending experimental music, fresh coffee, and contemporary art. This free lunchtime event features a live performance by harpist Stephan Haluska, musician and instructor at The Music Settlement, alongside saxophonist AJ Kluth, a collaborator of TMS. Set within moCa’s current exhibition by artist Beverly Semmes, the performance will take place in front of her striking installation of four monumental dresses. We are excited for this dynamic interplay between sound, sculpture, and space. Free & Open to the Public! What to expect: Enjoy locally brewed Phoenix Coffee, some original compositions, and moCa’s open gallery space. Perfect for art lovers, music enthusiasts, and anyone seeking a creative break in the heart of University Circle.

Date Title One sentence desciption + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Add a Title Add a Title Title + more Sat. May 3, 2025 Palate: Salt of the Earth at The Agora $500

Oct 8, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 The National AIDS Memorial Quilt In conjunction with moCa’s presentation of Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. and World AIDS Day Oct 8, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 ∆ Square from The National AIDS Memorial Quilt (detail). ∆ Square from The National AIDS Memorial Quilt (detail). ∆ Square from The National AIDS Memorial Quilt (detail). Oct 8, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 The National AIDS Memorial Quilt In conjunction with moCa’s presentation of Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. and World AIDS Day With over 50,000 panels created by thousands of participants worldwide, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is the world’s largest community folk art project. Made up of individually created three by six-foot panels—each the approximate size of a grave—the Quilt memorializes 125,000-plus victims of AIDS and HIV-related illness. Portraits appear alongside names and dates, pictures of pets, flowers, rainbows, musical instruments, and thousands of other symbols that represent friends, lovers, and family members. Currently spanning 1.2 million square feet and weighing 54 tons, the Quilt is a powerful symbol of the AIDS pandemic and a living memorial to a generation lost to AIDS and HIV-related illness. The Quilt was conceived by long-time San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones, who in 1978 created the first panel in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. That same year the Quilt grew to 1,920 panels and on October 11, 1987, it was exhibited for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. where half a million people visited on the opening weekend. Jones said of the Quilt, “It could be therapy, I hoped, for a community that was increasingly paralyzed by grief and rage and powerlessness. It could be a tool for the media, to reveal the humanity behind the statistics. And a weapon to deploy against the government; to shame them with stark visual evidence of their utter failure to respond to the suffering and death that spread and increased with every passing day.” This focused installation brings together two blocks of the Quilt in conjunction with moCa’s presentation of Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. and World AIDS Day (December 1). Block 0227 and Block 4506 are a poignant and beautiful tribute to the lives of Edmundo “Mundo” Meza—the artist at the center of Axis Mundo —James Brooke Shoulberg, Michael McDowell, David Caroline, Merle Long, Hugo Niehaus, John (surname unknown), John Doe, Terry David Hernandez, E. Gordon Hanna, Jorge Fernandez, Steve Brown, Ted Zak, David Lewis, Paul Mark Patinka, and Michael F. Farrell. With thousands of displays of the Quilt in locations across the globe, over 14 million people have experienced and participated in the project. To learn more about the National AIDS Memorial Quilt please visit www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt . moCa’s presentation of The National AIDS Memorial Quilt is organized by Courtenay Finn, Chief Curator, Ray Juaire, Exhibitions Director, Lauren Leving, Curator of Public Programs & Artist Residencies, Karl Anderson, Exhibition Technician, and supported by the entire moCa Cleveland staff.

moCa Saturday: 3D Mobile Making w/ MC2STEM Dec 7, 2024 FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. About FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC. FREE for all ages Join us at moCa for a unique design experience led by students and staff from Cleveland Metropolitan School District's MC2STEM High School as they guide you through a 3D printing workshop. Learn about 3D printing, create your own mobile masterpiece, and discover ways that design can make an impact. After your mobile is completed, you can choose to take it home or share it with a local nonprofit organization. All ages welcome. FAMILY FUN ON moCa Saturdays supported by PNC.

Studio Access w/ Manabu Ikeda Apr 5, 2024 Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. About Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season. Experience the artist create onsite at moCa as he develops a new monumental artwork over the course of the Winter/Spring season.

Sep 13, 2019-Jan 5, 2020 Byron Kim The Sunday Paintings Sep 13, 2019-Jan 5, 2020 ∆ Byron Kim, Sunday Painting 2/11/18 , 2018. Acrylic and pencil on canvas mounted on panel, 14 x 14 in (35.6 x 35.6 cm). Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. © Byron Kim 2019 ∆ Byron Kim, Sunday Painting 2/11/18 , 2018. Acrylic and pencil on canvas mounted on panel, 14 x 14 in (35.6 x 35.6 cm). Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. © Byron Kim 2019 ∆ Byron Kim, Sunday Painting 2/11/18 , 2018. Acrylic and pencil on canvas mounted on panel, 14 x 14 in (35.6 x 35.6 cm). Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. © Byron Kim 2019 Sep 13, 2019-Jan 5, 2020 Byron Kim The Sunday Paintings Every Sunday for the past eighteen years, Byron Kim has taken the time to look upward and capture a portrait of the sky onto a fourteen-by-fourteen-inch canvas. The ongoing series—aptly titled Sunday Paintings —captures the ever-changing colors of our shared sky while simultaneously operating as a record of Kim’s life. In addition to soft washes of color—vibrant blue, stormy gray, wispy white—each painting contains a short rumination on the day or week, which Kim writes directly onto the surface of the canvas, alongside the specific time and place where the painting was created. moCa’s exhibition The Sunday Paintings begins with the Sunday before our Farshid Moussavi building opened to the public (October 7, 2012), and takes us through to the present day. Reflecting on everything from his personal state of mind to his feelings around world events, Kim’s ritual asks us to take a moment and reflect on what constitutes a life lived, while poignantly showing us the poetry embedded within our everyday lives. Support for this exhibition provided by Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP All current exhibitions are funded by Leadership Circle gifts from anonymous donors, Yuval Brisker, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, Margaret Cohen & Kevin Rahilly, Becky Dunn, Harriet Goldberg, Agnes Gund, Michelle & Richard Jeschelnig, Kohl Family, Jan Lewis, Toby Devan Lewis, Roy Minoff, and Kelly & Scott Mueller. All moCa Cleveland exhibitions are supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, and the continuing support of the Museum’s Board of Directors, patrons, and members. Installation Images

Forming Fearless Faces: A Free Mask-Making Family Workshop Nov 8, 2024 REGISTER TODAY! OFFSITE at Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, 2800 Archwood Ave, Cleveland, OH 44109 5:30PM – Meet & Greet with light refreshments 6PM – Mask-making begins Explore a variety of materials—from man-made and recycled to natural elements—as you create a mask that tells a story all your own. No experience is necessary. The workshop is led by native Mexican artist, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. Afterward, make sure to check out Ruben's first solo U.S. exhibition which is on view at moCa Cleveland through December 29, 2024. ✨ Presented by moCa Cleveland & Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center About REGISTER TODAY! OFFSITE at Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, 2800 Archwood Ave, Cleveland, OH 44109 5:30PM – Meet & Greet with light refreshments 6PM – Mask-making begins Explore a variety of materials—from man-made and recycled to natural elements—as you create a mask that tells a story all your own. No experience is necessary. The workshop is led by native Mexican artist, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. Afterward, make sure to check out Ruben's first solo U.S. exhibition which is on view at moCa Cleveland through December 29, 2024. ✨ Presented by moCa Cleveland & Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center REGISTER TODAY! OFFSITE at Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, 2800 Archwood Ave, Cleveland, OH 44109 5:30PM – Meet & Greet with light refreshments 6PM – Mask-making begins Explore a variety of materials—from man-made and recycled to natural elements—as you create a mask that tells a story all your own. No experience is necessary. The workshop is led by native Mexican artist, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya. Afterward, make sure to check out Ruben's first solo U.S. exhibition which is on view at moCa Cleveland through December 29, 2024. ✨ Presented by moCa Cleveland & Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center