Conversation at MOCA: Studio AMLgMATD with Curator Amanda Long

Wednesday, April 14th7:00–8:30 PMJoin artists Laz Ojalde and Natalie Zlamalova the principles of Studio AMLgMATD with Art on the Plaza Curator Amanda Long in a conversation surrounding their collaborative art practice and the background of their special Art On The Plaza project.Studio AMLgMATD is a Miami-based collaborative studio established by Laz Ojalde and Natalie Zlamalova in 2014. Studio AMLgMATD Experiments in works of art, design objects, and environments reflect their love of unusual and overlooked materials. AMLgMATD’s method consists of incorporating historical and geographical research into their visual language, playing with the sense of nostalgia, the application of familiar materials onto new forms and unexplored materials into familiar settings, and redefining their surroundings with humor.Register HereAdd to Calendar

Curator Tour of Michael Richards Are You Down? with Melissa Levin & Alex Fialho

Wednesday, April 287:00–8:30 PMJoin curators Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin for a virtual tour of the first museum retrospective of Michael Richards’ artwork. Fialho and Levin have been collaborating and engaged with Richards' art and legacy since 2016. They will highlight Richards' virtuosic sculpture and drawing practice and incisive thinking, as well as the recurring imagery, themes, and materials that Richards engaged throughout his body of work. Though Richards' art is certainly of its time in the 1990s, it simultaneously speaks poetically and provocatively to our contemporary moment. In particular, Richards' artistic engagement with anti-Blackness, masculinity, diaspora, spirituality, police brutality, and fallen monuments is especially urgent and pressing today.Register Here

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Virtual Jazz at MOCA: Lando & the Infinite Sadness

Friday, April 307:00 to 8:00 PMLando & the Infinite Sadness melds jazz, down tempo beats, and soul together for a beautiful listening experience. "The musical conception of Josue Vargas and Ben Stocker, Lando & the Infinite Sadness was born bouncing ideas over emails between Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With aspirations of writing soundtracks in film and working with admired artists, Vargas and Stocker have created an alternate world of their own of gloomy polyphonic dissonance later accompanied by avant-garde moments of vividly colored peace.” J. Bobman, Artist Bio (2020)https://mocanomi.org/virtual-jazz-at-moca/

Curator Tour of Collection Focus: Our Beginnings Never Know Our Ends with Dr. Elizabeth Shannon

Wednesday, May 57:00 –8:30 PMJoin Dr. Elizabeth Shannon for a curator tour of the exhibition Collection Focus: Our Beginnings Never Know our Ends. The second in a series of new explorations of MOCA North Miami's permanent collection, Our Beginnings Never Know Our Ends, features artworks that explore ideas of self-hood and the negotiation of relationships. How can we form and maintain a stable sense of self against the background of personal, familial, and social expectations and pressures?This exhibition was in its final planning stages when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States. As everything drastically changed, some of the pieces in this exhibition gained new relevance. Some meanings continue to shift. Many works, particularly those created by women and LGBTQA+ artists, challenge and subvert existing hierarchies. Others encourage us to think carefully about our identities and the ways that they are expressed in the world. Many works highlight the conflicting influences, histories, and narratives that contribute to our sense of self. They acknowledge the difficulty of coming to know yourself, let alone comprehending anyone else. Despite these challenges, we are required to fulfill particular roles in our families, friendship groups, and workplaces, now more than ever. Thankfully, some of the artists suggest approaches as to how we might exist in the world and even occasionally fulfill others' expectations while maintaining our optimism, kindness, resilience, and good humor.Register Here

Conversation at MOCA: Morel Doucet and Stephen Arboite

Wednesday, May 197:00–8:30 PMJoin artists Morel Doucet and Stephen Arboite with Art on the Plaza Curator Amanda Sanfilippo Long in a conversation surrounding their collaborative art project and the background of their special North Miami site-specific Art on the Plaza project.Morel Doucet (b. 1990) is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist and arts educator that hails from Haiti. He employs ceramics, illustrations, and prints to examine the realities of climate-gentrification, migration, and displacement within the Black diaspora communities. Also, through a contemporary reconfiguration of the black experience, his work catalogs a powerful record of environmental decay at the intersection of economic inequity, the commodification of industry, personal labor, and race. Doucet Emmy-nominated work has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications, including Vogue Mexico, Oxford University Press, Hyperallergic, Biscayne Times, and Hypebeast. He graduated from the New World School of the Arts with the Distinguished Dean’s Award for Ceramics.Stephen Arboite (b. 1987), of Haitian descent, was born and raised in New York City and now resides in Miami, Florida. Arboite's work considers beauty outside of classical aesthetic paradigms and places emphasis on spiritual transformation and evolution of human consciousness. Arboite attended the State University of New York, Purchase College for drawing and painting. He has exhibited nationally, including a debut solo exhibition with N'Namdi Contemporary in Miami, Prizm Art Fair, SCOPE NY/MIA, and is currently in a group show entitled Translating Valence: Redefining Black Male Identity at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Michigan.Register Here

Virtual Jazz at MOCA: Lucas Apostoleris Quintet

Friday, May 287 – 8:00pmBorn in Connecticut and raised in Massachusetts, Lucas Apostoleris is a composer and instrumentalist currently residing in Miami, Florida. In June 2020, Apostoleris released his debut album, Chronicle, which consists of nine original compositions and features Tom Kelley and Carlos Mata-Alvarez on saxophones, Alex Brown on piano, and Dan Montgomery on bass.In addition to writing music for his own ensemble, Apostoleris has recently written arrangements for the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra in Ft. Myers, FL, and the prestigious Airmen of Note Air Force big band. He also regularly performs in the Miami area with a variety of ensembles. Apostoleris has been a recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer awards three times, in 2008, 2009, and 2018, and he received an honorable mention in 2017.Watch live here

Conversations at MOCA: Michael Richards & the Whitney Independent Study Program with Renee Cox, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Dread Scott

Wednesday, June 167:00–8:30 PMThis dynamic conversation will expand on a formative moment in Michael Richards' artistic practice and his integral involvement with a group of Black artists emerging in the 1990s. In 1992–1993, Michael Richards participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program—a year-long program for artists and curators that encourages critical study and theoretical inquiry—in New York City, along with artists Dread Scott, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Renee Cox. Moderated by Whitney Museum curator Rujeko Hockley, this conversation will reunite Cox, Harris, and Scott, each of whom, in addition to being friends with Richards, engaged him in their own art-making.Register here

Virtual Jazz at MOCA: TWYN

Friday, June 257 – 8:00pmMiami’s future-jazz duo, TWYN, is a collaboration between Electric Kif’s keyboardist, Jason Matthews & Lemon City Trio’s drummer, Aaron Glueckauf. Known individually as catalysts in the rapidly evolving Miami music scene, the electronic duo aims to challenge the limitations of instrumental and pop-based songwritinghttps://mocanomi.org/virtual-jazz-at-moca/

Art Education Programs

Sunday Stories

Sunday, April 4th11:30 am-12:30 pmIn recognition of National Autism Awareness Month, we will be reading "My Brother Charlie" by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete. Then using our fingers, we'll learn how to paint hearts.Sunday, May 2nd11:30 am-12:30 pmLivestreamed on FBLet's celebrate National Haitian Heritage Month by reading the beautiful story called "Aunt Luce's Talking Paintings by Francie Latour and Ken Daley. Then we will make our own Tap-Tap inspired bus out of a cardboard tube and paint!

MOCA miniMakers

Saturday, April 3rdSaturday, April 17thSaturday, May 1stSaturday, May 15th2pm-4pmLivestreamed on FBJoin MOCA's Livestream on Facebook for the new lineup of miniMakers Workshops and paint along with artist Edwin Creates to make your own miniMasterpieces. Artistic fun in English and Spanish for ages six and up.To follow along, you'll need:* Canvas (9" x 12" or 11" x 14") (cardboard works too!)* Acrylics set* Brushes (3 to 5, in different sizes)* Napkins or paper towels* Cup with water* Paper plate or palette* Blow dryer* An old shirt or apron to stay clean (optional)This program is made possible with the support North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency.

MOCA Makers

Saturday, April 10thSaturday, April 24th1pm-3pmRegister through FB and WebsiteMOCA Makers are free virtual Adult Art Classes held every second and fourth Saturday from 1 pm-3 pm and sponsored by the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency. Trained professional artists teach subjects such as figure drawing, portrait painting, printmaking, and photography lessons.Saturday, May 8thSaturday, May 22nd1pm-3pmRegister through FB and WebsiteMOCA Makers are free virtual Adult Art Classes held every second and fourth Saturday from 1 pm-3 pm and sponsored by the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency. Trained professional artists teach subjects such as figure drawing, portrait painting, printmaking, and photography lessons. Art packs for individual classes or both workshops may be purchased from the MOCA shop.May's theme is figure drawing, where artists of all levels are able to practice their figurative skills or learn something new!