New Work by Jacksonville Artist Installed in MOCA Jacksonville’s Atrium

Art + Murals

New Work by Jacksonville Artist Installed in MOCA Jacksonville’s Atrium

by 904 Newsroom
April 26, 2023

New Work by Jacksonville Artist Installed in MOCA Jacksonville’s Atrium
Largest Artwork by Hiromi Moneyhun on View Through August 27

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — MOCA Jacksonville is pleased to announce its newest installation Project Atrium: Hiromi Moneyhun, 幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts). This site-specific installation from local artists Hiromi Moneyhun is the largest piece created by the artists to date. Visitors to MOCA Jacksonville can view the artist at work in the lobby during regular business hours through Friday, April 28.

幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts) will be on view from April 28 through August 27, 2023 and as part of MOCA Jacksonville’s Atrium and first floor lobby space, the public is able to view it for free daily. An Opening Celebration & Preview event will take place on Friday, April 28 and includes a free public viewing from 8-9 p.m. A rich schedule of programming will accompany this exhibition, including a free access Family Day on Saturday April 29.

Project Atrium: Hiromi Moneyhun, 幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts) is curated by Ylva Rouse, Senior Curator at MOCA Jacksonville. Project Atrium is sponsored by Joan and Preston Haskell, with additional support from Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, PLLC. Support for MOCA Jacksonville is provided by the City of Jacksonville, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the University of North Florida.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts), is a call to attention on behalf of the ocean. Utilizing her unique paper cut technique on an unprecedented scale, local artist Hiromi Moneyhun (b. 1977, Kyoto, Japan) urges us to recognize the urgency of the moment. Much of what is ailing the ocean comes from man: oil spills, agricultural and nuclear waste, over-fishing, and massive amounts of plastic waste. Maybe it is too late to reverse the damage. Maybe the Yūrei are already emerging. Or is there still hope?

The call to action is symbolized by the artist’s invitation to the Jacksonville community to help her create the ocean bed in the installation, through the crafting of the origami cranes that cover the gallery floor. In this way, Moneyhun incorporates the old Japanese tradition of senbazuru (one thousand cranes), invoked to bring hope and healing during challenging times.

Special thanks to Sean Mahan, the Japanese Association of Jacksonville, the Sculpture Department at University of North Florida, and to all the volunteers that participated in this project.

ABOUT HIROMI MONEYHUN
Born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, Hiromi Moneyhun is a papercut artist who has been living in Jacksonville Beach since 2004. She has realized numerous commissioned projects and participated in exhibitions nationwide, including New York City’s prestigious Shirley Fiterman Art Center and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, as well as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s 2014-15 exhibition, State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now. She was selected as a finalist of the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art and completed a celebrated diorama, Florida in Stereo, a display of her signature paper cut style using Florida colors, at the Fairgrounds St. Pete Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2021. Her current exhibition Paper Thin & Shadow Deep is at the Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL, through June 18, 2023.

MOCA Family Day
Saturday, April 29, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Free

Celebrate with MOCA Jacksonville and our community partners for a day of free family fun! Enjoy access to all of our exhibitions, a line-up of kid-friendly activities, art making, and live performances. Plus, membership discounts and the new Setlan Coffee Shop at MOCA. Presented by PNC.

Papercutting Workshop with Hiromi Moneyhun
Saturday, May 27, 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Members $60, Non-Members $80

In celebration of MOCA Jacksonville’s newest installation, Project Atrium: Hiromi Moneyhun 幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts), join us for a unique opportunity to learn directly from the artist herself. In this workshop, students will learn the papercutting techniques that Hiromi used in the creation of her installation and create their own work to take home. Supplies are included. Open to ages 15+.

Brunch & Learn
Project Atrium: Hiromi Moneyhun
Saturday, August 26, 11 a.m.
Members $20, Non-Members $35

Join us at MOCA for a light brunch and discussion with Project Atrium artist Hiromi Moneyhun on her installation 幽霊 Yūrei (Ghosts).

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.

Imagination Squared, a community-based project that presented close to a thousand 5” canvas squares created by local residents – from professional artists to young children – in the Atrium space, opened the way and in July of 2011, MOCA Jacksonville launched the Project Atrium Series. Each Project Atrium allows for free public engagement for all visitors to the Museum, as well as serving as an inspiring jumping off point for educators as they lead school tours and private tours.

MOCA JACKSONVILLE
Founded in 1924 as the Jacksonville Fine Arts Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville is a private nonprofit visual arts educational institution and a cultural resource of the University of North Florida. One of the Southeast’s largest contemporary art institutions, MOCA Jacksonville serves the community and its visitors through innovative exhibitions, notable collections, award-winning educational programs, and compelling publications designed to enhance an understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on works created from 1960 to the present. MOCA Jacksonville originates more than ninety five percent of its exhibitions and accompanying publications. In the past three years, the Museum has produced more than thirty exhibitions. While it attracts visitors from all over the Southeast, MOCA Jacksonville is an important community partner in Northeast Florida. In 2009, MOCA Jacksonville became a cultural resource of the University of North Florida, and thereby enhanced its commitment to providing the highest quality arts educational opportunities, which now include special lectures, college-level art courses, and special faculty and student exhibitions. The Museum is also a cornerstone of Jacksonville’s multibillion-dollar downtown revitalization plan with exhibitions and programs that bring new visitors to the civic core during the day, at night, and on weekends. Educational programming includes children’s literacy initiatives and family art-making classes as well as regular tours, lectures, films, and publications for children and adults.

For more information including hours of operation, admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.