Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Stay Gold x Mapping Q Workshop
NOVEMBER 7-9 | 4-6PM

Join exhibiting artist and performer Keioui Keijaun Thomas for a free 3-day workshop exploring the history of protest signs in art and activism. Thomas will work with participants to create protest and affirmation signs inspired by the works in the artist's show at MOCA. At the end of the workshop, participants will incorporate their own creations into the exhibition, which will remain on view until February 2024.

Open to youth and adults ages 13+

REGISTER HERE

This workshop is offered jointly with participants from Mapping Q, an arts program for LGBTQIA+ youth at The University of Arizona Museum of Art and Stay Gold, a free intergenerational LGBTQIA+ arts program for youth and adults at MOCA.

Free Third Thursday x Southwest Contemporary
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16 | 5-9PM

Join us for a free evening at MOCA with galleries open late, live music by KXCI Community Radio DJs, free beer by Barrio Brewing, and food by Hungry Khepua. Don’t miss this lively time to gather with friends and family around art, music, and conversations; all ages are welcome!

This month, we celebrate Southwest Contemporary’s Fall/Winter 2023 issue, Vol, 8:  Medium + Support, with an artist conversation and reception starting at 6pm.

The conversation will include featured Arizona-based artists alejandro t. acierto, Lizz Denneau, and Safwat Saleem will discuss their work and the interconnected relationships with the issue’s juror, MOCA’s Laura Copelin, moderated by Natalie Hegert, Southwest Contemporary Arts Editor.

Critical Commons: The State of Art Criticism in Arizona and the Southwest
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17 | 6-7:30PM

Southwest Contemporary magazine, MOCA Tucson, and Etherton Gallery co-host a panel discussion and conversation exploring the current state of art criticism and arts writing in Arizona and the greater Southwest region. Panelists are: Adriana Gallego, executive director of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, Erin Joyce, curator and scholar of contemporary art, Lauren Tresp, publisher and editor of Southwest Contemporary, and Lynn Trimble, award-winning Arizona-based arts writer.

The panel will be followed by a reception. This program will take place at Etherton Gallery, located at 340 S. Convent Avenue.

RSVP HERE

EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW

Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Magma & Pearls
THROUGH FEBRUARY 18, 2023 | GREAT HALL

Magma & Pearls: Oceans Rise and Fall Like Meteorites is the first solo museum exhibition by artist and performer Keioui Keijaun Thomas presenting a large-scale sculptural installation commissioned by MOCA with video, performance, and community-generated programming. The exhibition builds on over a decade of the artist’s work exploring the affective and material conditions of Black and trans identity and expands on her ongoing practice of world-building to create spaces of safety, joy, and healing.

Raven Chacon: While hissing
THROUGH DECEMBER 17, 2023 | EAST WING GALLERIES

While hissing is an exhibition by artist, performer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon that celebrates sound as a medium for resistance and connection. Through video installation, graphic scores, and performance, Chacon amplifies Indigenous women’s voices, centering their leadership and vision both as carriers of memory and authors of culture.

Na Mira: Subrosa
THROUGH DECEMBER 17, 2023 | EAST WING GALLERIES

Subrosa is the first solo museum exhibition by Na Mira, an artist who uses intuitive and experimental processes to create immersive moving image installations. MOCA has commissioned a new chapter of Mira’s project imagining White Dust From Mongolia, an unfinished film by the late artist and author Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. In Subrosa, nonlinear films, radio transmissions, and the color red bleed together to touch the edges of memory.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Blue Lotus Artist Collective (BLAC) presents BLAC Block Party, a gallery opening featuring artists Jacob Lawrence and Nikesha Breeze on Friday, November 3 from 5:30-8:30pm.

Night Bloom grant recipient Snakebite Creation Space presents new works by artist J. Frankie McCourt in Look with the Eyes of the Animal, opening Saturday, November 4 from 6pm-9pm.

MOCA NEWS

Raven Chacon, whose work is currently on view at MOCA, was recently awarded a prestigious 2023 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Read more here.