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Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Maggie Menghan Chen Body Building Exercise Jun 27, 2025-Jan 4, 2026 Maggie Menghan Chen, Body Building Exercise, 2020 (still). Video, sound; 4 minutes 36 seconds. With a 2020 social media release in response to global quarantine, Maggie Menghan Chen’s Body Building Exercise offered a playful response to her depression and sedentary lifestyle during COVID-19. After a week in bed during lockdown, Chen began this project to create a message of optimism, solidarity, and joy. Body Building Exercise combines performance, spirituality, and the broadcast power of digital culture. It features Chen and Vivian Yao dancing to the soundtrack created by Shanghai-based producer and PC Music-affiliate, felicita. Liu Cunjun‘s videography references the user interface of an arcade dance machine, and Chen and Yao wear costumes designed by Yu Wei, styled by Morrissey Yang and S/ash. The tutorial incorporates dance and music elements from Zumba, hip hop, krump, vogue, and ultimately metal to offer an outlet for the pent-up energy of an international community in isolation. Now, five years after the start of the pandemic, moCa Cleveland presents this artwork for the first time to give museum visitors a chance to release energy and emotion by moving together in public. About the Artist Maggie Menghan Chen Maggie Menghan Chen Maggie Menghan Chen (b. 1998, Beijing) lives and works in Beijing and London. She obtained her MA degree in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts following her BA degree in Art History at New York University.

Jan 31, 2020-Jan 2, 2021 Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom Leanne Betasamosake Simpson with Cara Mumford and Amanda Strong, Vaimoana Niumeitolu and Kyle Goen, John Edmonds, and Tricia Hersey Jan 31, 2020-Jan 2, 2021 Installation view: Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom . moCa Cleveland, 2020. Photo: Field Studio. “Historically Indigenous and Black artists have been visionaries in our struggles and movements. They have also affirmed our presence—created temporary spaces of joy and freedom, and enabled me to go on. In the academy I think about things, and lecture about things, but in performance I can set up space together with an audience to share something different. I really liked creating these islands of freedom, little glimpses of freedom where we stand together and we get to feel, just for a second maybe, what freedom might be like, and to get that feeling into our bones. These spaces open up different possibilities. These spaces are not just spaces of refusal, they are also generative. They are also spaces of joy and possibility.”—Leanne Betasamosake Simpson The group exhibition Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom honors the discussion that artist and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Canadian poet and scholar Dionne Brand forged in their 2018 article of the same title * reflecting on colonialism, anti-Blackness, Indigenous and Black liberation struggles, and the importance of ephemeral expressions and the arts in creating freedom. Featuring the work of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson with Cara Mumford and Amanda Strong, Vaimoana Niumeitolu and Kyle Goen, John Edmonds, and Tricia Hersey. Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom continues the article’s vision by spotlighting artists whose work and practices refuse dispossession and foster generative modes that center and nourish Indigenous and Black life. Working across performance, video, photography, and sculpture, these artists celebrate dynamic modes of connection and soulful regeneration. Organized by La Tanya S. Autry, moCa’s Gund Curatorial Fellow, Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom is the prologue of a longer conversation at moCa that explores how artists create liberatory futures. The next chapter Imagine Otherwise will unfold February 19–June 27, 2021. *Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Dionne Brand, “Temporary Spaces of Joy and Freedom,” Literary Review of Canada , 26, (5), June 2018. Generous support for the exhibition provided by the Anselm Talalay Photography Endowment.

Jul 7, 2023-Jan 7, 2024 ¡Juntos! (Together) Nathalie Bermudez Amelia Casiano J. Leigh Garcia Camilo Gonzalez Barragan Hugo Ivan Juarez (Alatorre) Kenron Morgan, Jr and Marilyn Oliveras de Ortiz Jul 7, 2023-Jan 7, 2024 ¡Juntos! (Together) installation at moCa Cleveland, 2023. Photo: Jacob Koestler. Presented in partnership w/ Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center and moCa Cleveland From Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center: ¡Juntos! (Together): A group of persons joined for a common purpose. ¡Juntos! (Together) tells the extraordinary tale of a diverse group of Cleveland Latino artists who, though strangers, embark on an exceptional journey of artistic creation for this exhibition. United by a common purpose, these individuals transcend their distinct backgrounds and unique artistic styles to collaboratively craft captivating pieces. In the vibrant tapestry of their shared Latino heritage and unwavering passion, cultural bonds form, celebrating the richness and diversity of Latino artistry and history. Through their remarkable creations, they intimately express stories of their family history and personal artistic journeys. With support from moCa staff, this cohort receives invaluable mentorship from two esteemed artists, Bruno Casiano and Ariel Vergez. These established artists and industry professionals play a pivotal role in nurturing and empowering the emerging talents, offering guidance, advice, and encouragement. Their mentorship enriches the artists' creative development, fostering an environment where artistic expression flourishes. As the residency progresses, these artists form a tightly-knit familia, sharing their unique perspectives, techniques, and experiences with one another. Every brushstroke and vibrant hue, every ounce of glue applied to their creations reflects not only their individual talents but also the profound collective spirit that emerges when Latino artists come together. Through the power of unity and collaboration, the Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center proudly presents ¡Juntos! , an exhibition that showcases the incredible artistry and unyielding spirit of these extraordinary artists. Presented in partnership w/ Installation Images ¡Juntos! (Together) . Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2023. Photos: Jacob Koestler About the Artists Nathalie Bermudez Nathalie Bermudez Nathalie Bermudez (she/her) is a Colombian painter, digital artist, muralist, and actor who came to the United States in 2015 to pursue her career as an artist. She began painting after moving to the U.S. as a way to remain connected to her culture. Through her work, Bermudez shares her personal story and perspective of the world around us. Bermudez has exhibited work and contributed to numerous large-scale projects throughout Cleveland and has collaborated with global brands including Samsung Mobile USA and Shein. In 2022, she worked alongside Alicia Vasquez to create a mural in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square. In addition to her painting practice, Bermudez is an actor. She has performed with Teatro Publico de Cleveland and from 2018-2021, was a part of the LatinUS Theater Company. She received her Associate of Arts from Cuyahoga Community College and is currently studying visual art and theater at Cleveland State University. Amelia Casiano Amelia Casiano Amelia Casiano (she/her) is a mixed media artist from the Near West side of Cleveland, OH. Formally trained as a graphic designer, she layers techniques she learned as a student at Baldwin Wallace University into her paintings and collages. Employing vibrant colors and abstract forms, Casiano expresses her personal history as a Latina growing up in America, often incorporating found objects into her work as a method of sharing her Puerto Rican heritage. She uses her own story as a jumping off point that extends outwards to highlight the interconnectedness of different cultures within her community. Casiano draws inspiration from music, fashion, and her peers to explore womanhood, emotional connectivity, and her relationship to the world around us. J. Leigh Garcia J. Leigh Garcia J. Leigh Garcia (she/her) is an artist born and raised in Dallas, TX. Following the roots of her biracial ancestry, Garcia explores the complex relationship between Texans and Mexicans—particularly, the racialization and displacement of unauthorized Latinx immigrants. Using printmaking, papermaking, and sculpture, Garcia explores her familial history while highlighting aspects of racial and generational privilege/oppression. Garcia received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and BFA from the University of North Texas. Her work is included in over 15 permanent collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; and Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX. Garcia currently lives in Kent, OH where she is an Assistant Professor and Co-Area Head of Print Media and Photography at Kent State University . Camilo Gonzalez Barragan Camilo Gonzalez Barragan Camilo Gonzalez Barragan (he/him) is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia, where he studied film and television production at the UNITEC University of Colombia. He uses analog photography to develop his ideas and share his stories while simultaneously creating longform audiovisual projects. Gonzalez Barragan draws inspiration from film, music, and painting, using elements from these media to create work rooted in his personal experiences and dreams. Themes explored in his work include: melancholy, nostalgia, freedom, silence, loneliness, and forgetfulness. Gonzalez Barragan’s work has been published in magazines including The Paradox Magazine and Classics Magazine , and in exhibitions at Hardy & Nance Studio and the Cleveland Print Room. He currently lives and works in Cleveland, OH, where he has found inspiration in the magic of its forests, streets, and people. Hugo Ivan Juarez (Alatorre) Hugo Ivan Juarez (Alatorre) Hugo Ivan Juarez (Alatorre) (he/him) was born and raised in his beloved Dallas, TX. He grew up with children of millionaires but mostly identifies with immigrant culture and brownness. While in high school, art class became his sanctuary and upon graduating, he created a clothing line to further harness his creative energy. These initial interests led him to study graphic design and art education, but he eventually discovered the wonderful world of printmaking. Printmaking became a vehicle for his education and in 2022, he began his academic career as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Akron. Juarez believes that artists are the most powerful people in the world and his practice consists of making friends, supporting other artists, and searching for teachers. His work manifests itself through conversation, infiltration, and teaching. Materially, he works with anything he can get his hands on. Kenron Morgan, Jr. Kenron Morgan, Jr. Kenron Morgan Jr, Founder of Art School Reject Club, is an award winning multi-media artist, based in Cleveland, OH. As the name describes, Kenron is a self taught artist. His works show a variety of characters detailing a self-expressive journey through culture, sexuality, and self. Morgan Jr. transports audiences to a world of his own creation, displaying alternate realities that suggest a reflection of something familiar. The artist’s work has been included in RTA public transportation’s Dressing the Part , Akron Hospital’s Show Me Love , and most recently, Summit Art Space’s The Twins. Morgan Jr. has received awards for his work including Dressing the Part and High & Lows. He has also had the opportunity to give back to his community raising funds for creative youth development. Marilyn Oliveras de Orti Marilyn Oliveras de Ortiz Marilyn Oliveras de Ortiz (she/her) is a poet and mixed media artist, first generation born in Cleveland Ohio of Puerto Rican heritage. Her creative interests began at an early age when the women in her family gathered around the table as makers and storytellers. They made paper flowers, dolls, Capias, and other party favors for social events while sharing stories in the oral traditions of Puerto Rico. These family gatherings inspired cultural teachings and sparked Oliveras de Ortiz’s imagination in both the literary and visual arts. Her lifelong profession working in the affordable housing industry in urban communities further inspired her to write and create art that reflected and advocated for real life social issues of poverty, homelessness, domestic violence and the human instinct of survival. As one of the first arts & crafts instructors at Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, she facilitated workshops creating Vejigante Masks made of paper mâché and sharing about their historical significance during island festivals, she realized a calling for cultural preservation. Oliveras de Ortiz continues to explore methods in mask-making, using mediums including polymer clays and walnut shells. In her expansive practice, she uses photography, painting, jewelry-making, and upcycling techniques, and creates public installations for Dia de Muertos celebrations.

Nov 19, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Terry Joshua The Pinkest Hue Nov 19, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Terry Joshua, Symptoms of the Unsaid , 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in. (121.92 x 91.44 cm). Courtesy the artist. Presented in partnership w/ Museum of Creative Human Art and moCa Cleveland Presented by the Museum of Creative Human Art, Terry Joshua’s first solo exhibition, The Pinkest Hue , brings together new paintings, sound, video, and writing that chronicle his journey from adolescence into adulthood. Beginning with a self-portrait as a young boy, the artist’s paintings act as a visual diary exploring the relationships that have shaped him—with his mother, lovers, God, and himself. Joshua uses his work to forge new connections with his audiences. Each painting is thoughtfully paired with a poem, journal entry, or proverb, and supported by a song to create an intimate environment that underscores the importance of relationship-building. Presented in partnership w/ About the Artist Terry Joshua Terry Joshua Terry Joshua, born to his mother S. Marie Johnson in Cleveland, Ohio, dates his earliest memory of creating art to exploring feelings he couldn’t articulate with words. Throughout his upbringing, he was immersed in poverty, often moving every couple of months to yearly. As a result, his art began to speak to and about his environment. By his teen years, Joshua had experienced various emotional and mental hardships that shaped his outlook on life. While being outspoken in school and involved in art programs, he would not put a brush to canvas until he was 18, during his junior year in high school. Although this first painting was the catalyst to his career as a visual artist, it was not a decision he chose; he recalls being forced by his art teacher to, “paint or fail.” Not only did this painting earn the artist a passing grade, but sent him on a journey into self-discovery, trauma, and confidence in his life and artistic abilities. Joshua characterizes his painting as a “visual love letter” both to those who support him and to the people that have shaped him and his perspective.

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. “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.

Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 Sam Falls We Are Dust and Shadow Jan 27-Jun 11, 2023 Sam Falls, Untitled (San Bernardino National Forest, CA.) , 2017-2019. Pigment on canvas, 128 x 272 in. (325.1 x 690.9 cm). Courtesy Sam Falls and 303 Gallery, New York Sam Falls’s show at moCa, the artist’s first major solo museum exhibition, offers expansive insight into his unique practice of collaborating with nature to create monumental paintings and sculptures. Falls’s poetic, ghostly works examine the sublimity and inherent melancholy of nature’s cycles and finite life. Interested in photographic exposure and representation, Falls experiments with the effects of sunlight, rain, and temperature, harnessing weather patterns and environmental conditions to create paintings, sculptures, and photographs in and with nature. In addition to new sculptures and paintings made by Falls in various national parks across the country, moCa has partnered with the Cleveland Botanical Garden & Holden Arboretum to support Falls’s creation of a new ceramic work, using materials from Northeast Ohio. Lead support for Sam Falls: We Are Dust and Shadow is provided by Dealer Tire. Generous support provided by 303 Gallery and Galerie Eva Presenhuber. Additional support provided by the Anselm Talalay Photography Fund. About the Artist Sam Falls. Photo: Erin Falls Sam Falls Sam Falls (b. 1984, San Diego, CA) works intimately with the core precepts of photography–namely time, representation, and exposure–to create works that both bridge the gap between various artistic mediums and the divide between the artist, object, and viewer. Working symbiotically with nature and the elements, Falls’s artworks are engrained with a sense of place indexical to the unique environment of their creation while imbued with a universal sense of mortality. With a reverence toward art history, Falls empathetically blurs the lines between artistic genres and practices, from modern dance and minimalist painting to conceptual photography and land art, boiling it down to the fundamentals of nature and the transience of life that art best addresses. Falls is represented by 303 Gallery (New York), Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zurich and Vienna), Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco), and Galleria Franco Noero (Turin).

Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Manabu Ikeda Flowers from the Wreckage Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Manabu Ikeda, Rebirth , 2013-16 pen, acrylic ink and transparent watercolour on paper, mounted on board, 118.11 x 157.48 in, collection of Saga Prefectural Art Museum. Digital Archive: TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD. ©️IKEDA Manabu, Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo / Singapore Organized and circulated by the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC, Canada, with the generous support from the Audain Foundation. This exhibition is curated by Kiriko Watanabe, Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, Audain Art Museum. About the Exhibition The first North American retrospective of its kind, Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage presents over 50 works from the past 25 years. Seeking inspiration from his surroundings, Ikeda (born 1973, Saga, Japan; lives and works in Madison, WI) brings attention and inspiration to viewers while sending warnings about the painful reality of environmental disasters. Central to his practice are metaphors of grief and the undeniable aspects of life, including the fundamental forces of Mother Nature. Ikeda’s drawings also reveal human resilience and the ability to rise above devastating situations when it appears impossible. Organized by the Audain Art Musuem (Whistler, Canada) and curated by Kiriko Watanabe, Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, the show includes several of Ikeda’s renowned monumental works including Foretoken (2008), Meltdown (2013), and Rebirth (2013-16). In each of his works, Ikeda painstakingly constructs worlds that are both profoundly familiar and yet beyond comprehension, inspiring and awe-inspiring in equal measure. The artist created Meltdown and Rebirth as a response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the most devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power disaster in the country’s recorded history. moCa Cleveland's presentation of this exhibtion marks its United States debut. Presenting sponsor Lead support from Lead support for Manabu Ikeda's Artist Residency and related programming Installation Images Manabu Ikeda: Flowers from the Wreckage . Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2024. Photos: Jacob Koestler Artist Residency Manabu Ikeda Manabu Ikeda will be in residence at moCa multiple times during the exhibition, working on a new, monumental drawing in a temporary studio within moCa's Mueller Family Gallery. For a full list of dates, visit moCa's Events page. About the Audain Art Museum Established in 2016, the Audain Art Museum (AAM) is a leading arts organization founded upon the major philanthropic gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. Located in Whistler, British Columbia and designed by the internationally-renowned firm Patkau Architects, the AAM boasts a comprehensive Permanent Collection of the province's most celebrated artists. Exemplifying the richness of cultural difference in Canada, the collection takes visitors on a transformative visual journey form the late 18th century to present. Highlights include hereditary Haida Chief James Hart's The Dance Screen (The Scream Too), an exceptional collection of historical and contemporary Indigenous masks, the largest permanent display of paintings by Emily Carr, and key examples of the Vancouver photo conceptualism movement. In addition, the Museum hosts dynamic exhibitions from around the world.

Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Andrea Bowers Exist, Flourish, Evolve Feb 2-May 26, 2024 Andrea Bowers, Rights of Nature I, 2022, neon. Photo: Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography LA-based artist Andrea Bowers bears witness in her work, drawing attention to and inspiring movement around the most urgent issues of our time. Her drawings, sculptures, installations, and films chronicle and preserve history as it occurs, documenting collective action and amplifying the labor and lived experiences of activists dedicated to socio-political change. Developed through an ongoing partnership with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and activist Tish O’Dell, Exist, Flourish, Evolve is a new, multi-site, multimedia campaign that builds awareness and action around the dangers facing Lake Erie and all of the Great Lakes ecosystems. It features a monumental neon sculpture installed on a waterfront balcony of the Great Lakes Science Center; a documentary investigating the impact of factory farming on Lake Erie’s ecosystem; and a presentation in moCa’s Lewis Gallery that includes a newly-created drawing of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, first-of-its-kind legislation protecting an entire US ecosystem that is part of the global Rights of Nature Movement. Bowers was raised in the small town of Huron, Ohio and spent her childhood on the shores of Lake Erie, connecting to the lake itself like a member of her family to be cared for, cherished, and protected. Yet, Lake Erie and its watershed are abused and endangered by corporate practices such as contaminant dumping, toxic runoff from industrial farming, and the introduction of non-native invasive species. Exist, Flourish, Evolve demands justice for the Great Lakes, urging us to prioritize the preservation of our natural ecology over industrialization and capitalism. Within moCa’s gallery, a timeline connects Bowers’s new and recent artworks with historical facts and archival materials using two catastrophic climate events as bookends to Bowers’s life thus far: the 1969 fire on the Lake Erie-connected Cuyahoga River (a result of oil slicks covering the water) and the massive 2014 algae bloom that blanketed Lake Erie and invaded Toledo’s water systems, preventing residents from using tap water. From the Maumee to the Cuyahoga, the works in Exist, Flourish, Evolve come together to share the histories of our water, demonstrate the interconnectedness of ourselves and our natural world, and remind us, as Dr. Vandana Shiva states, “nature is not out there; we are a part of it.” Commission sponsorship provided by Generous support from Chuck & Char Fowler, Joanne Cohen & Morris Wheeler, and Nicholas & Erin Reif Community Partners: Installation Images Andrea Bowers, Exist, Flourish, Evolve. Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2024, and Great Lakes Science Center exterior, 2024. Photos: Jacob Koestler About the Artist Andrea Bowers. Courtesy Fondazione Furla Andrea Bowers (b. 1964, Ohio) is a Los Angeles-based artist who has been recording and amplifying the work of activists present and past for more than two decades. Her multi-media practice includes drawing, video, sculpture, and installation work that foregrounds the experience of the people who dedicate their time and energy to the struggle for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice and those who are directly affected by systemic inequality. Over time, her different bodies of work have become a document of the changing language, prerogatives, and dynamics of social justice movements. In 2021 a major mid-career survey of Bowers’s work curated by Michael Darling and Connie Butler opened at the MCA Chicago and traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2022. Other recent solo exhibitions include Grief and Hope , Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany and Light and Gravity , Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany. In September 2022, Bowers opened a solo exhibition including both new and existing work at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Milano as part of an exhibition program organized by the Fondazione Furla. Bowers is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Kaufmann Repetto, and Jessica Silverman Gallery.

Jan 24-Jun 1, 2025 Harminder Judge Bootstrap Paradox Jan 24-Jun 1, 2025 Harminder Judge, Untitled (crept upon leg) (detail) 2024. Plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil, 203 x 198 x 4 cm. Photo: Blythe Thea Williams Harminder Judge’s first museum exhibition in the U.S. presented at moCa Cleveland, opening January 24, explores themes of alchemy, spiritual processions, and the body’s transformation through death. Judge’s vibrant plaster and pigment works emerge from energetic lines and intuitive processes, where color is embedded into the material, merging sculpture and painting. Influenced by funeral rites and ceremonial burning, his large, dynamic pieces provide a space for powerful emotional responses while exploring the embodied connection between the physical and the spiritual. The exhibition invites viewers to engage with the power of form, color, and abstraction, prompting personal reflection and connection. Major support provided by The Sunday Painter. Generous support provided by Yuval Brisker. Installation Images Harminder Judge, Bootstrap Paradox. Installation views at moCa Cleveland, 2025. Photos: Jacob Koestler About the Artist Harminder Judge. Photo: Sorina Reiber Harminder Judge Harminder Judge (b.1982 Rotherham, UK) lives and works in London. He graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London in 2021. Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Cliff and Cleft, Gathering, Ibiza, Spain, 2024; A Ghost Dance , Matt’s Gallery & The Sunday Painter, London, UK, 2024; Sea and Stone and Rib and Bone , Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India, 2023; Frieze London with The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2022; Rising Skin from Rock and Chin , The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2022; Ankles Absorbing Ash , Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK 2022; Mountains and Mercies , galeriepcp, Paris, France 2021. Selected recent group exhibitions include: It Never Entered My Mind , Curated by Michael Sherman, Sean Kelly Gallery, LA, USA 2024; Picnic at Hanging Rock Chapter I , Sargent’s Daughters, LA, USA 2024; Curated By: Glossary , Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria 2023; The Reason for Painting , Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK 2023; Love Letter, Pace Gallery, New York City, USA 2023; And this skin of mine , Guts Gallery, London, UK 2022; New Beginnings , Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong, 2022; The Horror Show! , Somerset House, London, UK 2022; A Grain of Sand , The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2021; Am I Human To You? , Jugendstilsenteret & Kube Museum, Ålesund, Norway 2021; Tomorrow: London , White Cube, London, UK 2020; Our Ashes Make Great Fertilizer , Public Gallery, London, UK 2020; At Home In The Universe, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India 2019 and A Plot For The Multiverse , Indigo + Madder, London, UK 2019.

Jul 16, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. Jul 16, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Anthony Friedkin, Jim and Mundo, Montebello, East Los Angeles , 1972. From The Gay Essay, 1969–73. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Gift of Anthony Friedkin. ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. Courtesy of Anthony Friedkin Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. maps the intersections and collaborations among a network of Los Angeles based queer Chicanx artists and their artistic collaborators between the late 1960s and early 1990s. Taking its title in deference to the artist Edmundo “Mundo” Meza (1955-1985), a central figure within his generation, Axis Mundo presents over two decades of work—painting, performance ephemera, print material, video, music, fashion, and photography— created in the context of significant artistic and cultural movements, from the emergence of the Chicanx civil rights, women’s, and LGBTQ liberation movements through to the political activism around the AIDS epidemic. While the exhibition centers on Los Angeles, it reveals new research into the collaborative networks that connected these artists to one another and to artists from many cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and international urban centers, thus deepening and expanding narratives about the development of the Chicanx Art Movement, performance art, and queer aesthetics and practices. Curated by C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz, Axis Mundo marks the first historical consideration and significant showing of many of these pioneering artists’ work. Artists: Laura Aguilar, Jerri Allyn, Carlos Almaraz, Skot Armstrong, David Arnoff, Steven Arnold, Asco, Judith F. Baca, Alice Bag, Tosh Carrillo, Monte Cazazza, Edward Colver, Vaginal Davis, DIVA TV, Jerry Dreva, Tomata Du Plenty, Simon Doonan, Tomata du Plenty, Elsa Flores, Anthony Friedkin, Harry Gamboa Jr., Roberto Gil de Montes, Gronk, Jef Huereque, Louis Jacinto, Ray Johnson, Alison Knowles, Robert Lambert, Robert Legorreta (Cyclona), Zoe Leonard, Les Petites Bonbons, Scott Lindgren, Mundo Meza, Judy Miranda, Ray Navarro, Nervous Gender, Graciela Gutiérrez Marx and Edgardo Antionio Vigo, Richard Nieblas, Dámaso Ogaz, Pauline Oliveros, Ferrara Brain Pan, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Clemente Padín, Phranc, Ruby Ray, Albert Sanchez, Teddy Sandoval, Joey Terrill, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Patssi Valdez, Ricardo Valverde, Jack Vargas, Gerardo Velázquez, Johanna Went, Faith Wilding Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. is curated by C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty to encourage ambitious research and exhibitions at Southern California cultural institutions. The exhibition is organized by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries in collaboration with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and organized as a traveling exhibition by Independent Curators International (ICI). Lead support for Axis Mundo is provided through grants from the Getty Foundation. This exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by The Calamus Foundation of New York, Inc., the City of West Hollywood through WeHo Arts—the City’s Arts Division and Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission, Kathleen Garfield, the ONE Archives Foundation, the USC Libraries, and the Luis Balmaseda Fund for Gay & Lesbian Archives, administered by the California Community Foundation. Funding for the exhibition tour has been provided by the generous support from ICI’s International Forum and the ICI Board of Trustees. Crozier Fine Arts is the Preferred Art Logistics Partner.

Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 Aram Han Sifuentes Who Was This Built to Protect? Jan 28-Jun 5, 2022 Aram Han Sifuentes, U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler (Made by non-citizens who live and work in the U.S.) , 2013-ongoing. Installation view. Cotton thread, sequins, beads, photo transfers, patches, felt, yarn on linen,11 x 8.5 in each (27.94 x 21.59 cm). Courtesy the artist. Photo by Hyounsang Yoo As an immigrant and daughter of a seamstress, Korean American artist Aram Han Sifuentes (she/they) uses sewing as a medium to investigate citizenship, protest, and belonging in the United States. With a practice rooted in the collective, her work is used to center disenfranchised communities, particularly dispossessed immigrants of color. Who Was This Built to Protect? developed over the course of Getting to Know Aram Han Sifuentes, the artist’s long-term, long-distance residency with moCa. It centers around a set of six large-scale red silk curtains with white text that spans the museum’s Gund Commons. These curtains, entitled Messages to Authorities (Go Away!) (2021), are modeled after Red Cards created by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center with language that outlines the rights and protections held by all people under the U.S. Constitution, regardless of immigration status. Underscoring how language can act as a barrier to citizenship, Who Was This Built to Protect? places Messages to Authorities (Go Away!) directly in conversation with the U.S. Naturalization Test questions through a selection of U.S. Citizenship Test Samplers (2012-ongoing), needlework samplers of U.S. Naturalization Test questions and answers made by U.S. non-citizens during artist-facilitated workshops. Han Sifuentes repeats these questions on moCa’s Kohl Monumental Staircase, a game of one step forward, two steps back to test civic knowledge and illustrate the often-performative labor non-citizens must endure to prove their worth. An unflinching critique of U.S. governmental practices, Who Was This Built to Protect? highlights roadblocks on the path to citizenship and encourages audiences to question bureaucratic systems, those who constructed the systems, and for whom the systems are designed to benefit. About the Artist Aram Han Sifuentes Aram Han Sifuentes Aram Han Sifuentes (b. 1986, Seoul, South Korea) is a fiber, social practice, and performance artist who works to claim spaces for immigrant and disenfranchised communities. Her work often revolves around skill sharing, specifically sewing techniques, to create multiethnic and intergenerational sewing circles, which become a place for empowerment, subversion and protest. Han Sifuentes earned her B.A. in Art and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and her M.F.A. in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been a recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Map Fund, Asian Cultural Council’s Individual Fellowship, 3Arts Award, and 3Arts Next Level/Spare Room Award. Her project, Protest Banner Lending Library, was a finalist for the Beazley Design Awards at the Design Museum in London in 2016. The artist’s work has been exhibited at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Asian Arts Initiative, Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum, and the Design Museum. Aram is the inaugural artist in moCa’s Getting to Know You residency and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Nov 19, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Joyce Morrow Jones Black Butterfly Nov 19, 2021-Jan 2, 2022 Joyce Morrow Jones, Black Butterfly (detail), 2021. Mixed media, 43 x 56.5 in (109.22 x 143.51 cm). Courtesy the artist As a culmination of her residency at moCa, Joyce Morrow Jones presents Black Butterfly, a collection of works that use textiles and found materials to explore cultural traditions from across the world, most often those of the African Diaspora. Influenced by her Jamaican and African heritage, Morrow Jones’s work acts as a mode of visual communication to share the stories of her ancestors. Vibrantly colorful textiles, including Kente cloth and Ankara fabric, reflect traditions, evoke emotion, and spark memories, underscoring the messages of each artwork’s narrative to shape the viewing experience. In her work, Morrow Jones gives voice to her forbearers, exploring what it means to tell a story from the past and connecting a physical object to the passing of time. Black Butterfly highlights the strength and resilience born out of adversity, a parallel to the Deniece Williams song from which it draws inspiration. Morning light, silken dream to flight As the darkness gave way to dawn You've survived, now your moment has arrived Now your dream has finally been born Black butterfly, sailed across the waters Tell your sons and daughters What the struggle brings Black Butterfly, set the skies on fire Rise up even higher So the ageless winds of time can catch your wings - Deniece Williams The AIR program is generously sponsored by Margaret Cohen and Kevin Rahilly, with additional support from Char and Chuck Fowler. About the Artist Joyce Morrow Jones Joyce Morrow Jones Joyce Morrow Jones is a mixed media fiber and sculpture artist weaving the art of storytelling through her creations. Her work is inspired by transformational stories of women in their journey through life, history, and cultural traditions. African and Diaspora themes reflecting cultural traditions often with multicultural images are also prominent in her artwork. Born in Cleveland, Joyce acknowledges her Jamaican and African heritage. Those influences will continue throughout her residency with moCa as she expands “Ancestral Tributes” in both oral tradition of storytelling and creative expression. Select exhibitions include shows at BayArts in Bay Village, OH; Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH; and the Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH. She was a 2019 Artist-in-Residence at Karamu House. Find out more about Joyce Morrow Jones at joycemorrowjones.com