MoCA Arlington will open four new solo exhibitions, including three taking place as part of SOLOS 23-24 and a fourth featuring work by one of the Museum's resident artists.

ARLINGTON, VA. – Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington is proud to announce its upcoming spring exhibitions, opening on March 30, 2024. Art After Hours, an opening celebration, will take place on Saturday, April 6th from 5pm-8pm. 

The four exhibitions include a solo presentation by MoCA Arlington resident artist Johab Silva (Reston, VA) and solo exhibitions by Federico Cuatlacuatl (Charlottesville, VA), Liz Ensz (Baltimore, MD), and Clarissa Pezone (Baltimore, MD). The exhibitions by Cuatlacuatl, Ensz, and Pezone are the final three exhibitions taking place as part of SOLOS 23-24, a series of solo exhibitions by artists based in the Mid-Atlantic. SOLOS 23-24 is part of MoCA Arlington's long-running SOLOS program. The exhibitions in the series were selected from an open call by a jury that included artist Nekisha Durrett, Betsy Johnson, assistant curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Jova Lynne, director, Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University.

In experimental film and multimedia installation, Federico Cuatlacuatl explores transborder indigenous Nahua identities. His work envisions indigenous futurity as a means of thinking about history, diasporic legacies, and cultural identities connected to his hometown of Coapan, Cholula, Mexico. His exhibition, Tiaxcas Intergalácticxs, Topileastronáuticxs includes a new three-channel video alongside regalia the artist has altered for use in the videos. The exhibition highlights the full range of Cuatlacuatl's practice, giving visitors the opportunity to experience the materiality and physicality of his sculptural installations, along with the expansive vision of his video work. 

Liz Ensz's NO GRIDS NO MASTERS: a Post-Cartesian Experiment is an exploration and contestation of the grid and the structured set of worldviews that are embedded in it. Incorporating digital and traditional weaving, sculpture, found objects, and transformed cast materials, this mutable installation reflects artist Liz Ensz's embrace of the logic of textile assembly and intense engagement with material.The project will also include two programs organized by the artist, featuring performance and video work related to or inspired by the exhibition, with details to be announced soon.

In Clarissa Pezone's figurative installations, the artist utilizes the qualities of clay to evoke the uncanny in otherworldly and unsettling scenes. For The Woods of No Name, Pezone has created a new installation that explores the concept of limbo–what the artist describes as "the mystic space that exists between reality and the unknown." Pezone pushes the possibilities of clay as a material by working at a large scale to create human and animal figures that are lifelike yet suffused with a sense of mystery. 

MoCA resident artist Johab Silva’s solo exhibition Tales of the New World revisits the story of the discovery and colonization of Brazil using virtual and augmented reality, digital projections, and moving image sculptures. Situating visitors in an environment covered in blue and white azulejo tiles and opulent Baroque forms based on Portugal’s colonial presence in the city of Salvador, Bahia, the narrative of Tales of the New World is based loosely on a 16th century letter written to the King of Portugal by Pêro Vaz de Caminha. Tales of the New World invites viewers to immerse themselves in a strange and beautiful world and embark on a journey into the unknown.  

SPRING EXHIBITIONS

March 30 - May 26, 2024

Federico Cuatlacuatl: Tiaxcas Intergalácticxs, Topileastronáuticxs

Truland Gallery, Lower Level

Liz Ensz: NO GRIDS NO MASTERS: a Post-Cartesian Experiment

Chairmen's Gallery, Main Level

Clarissa Pezone: The Woods of No Name

Experimental Gallery, Lower Level

Johab Silva: Tales of a New World

Wyatt Resident Artists Gallery, Upper Level

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

Solace and Sisterhood

Through May 26, 2024

Meyer & Smith Galleries, Main Level

Reclining Liberty

Through July 28, 2024

Front Lawn

PROGRAMS

Art After Hours

Saturday, April 6, 5pm-8pm

MoCA Arlington celebrates the opening of four new exhibitions. Exhibiting artists will be in attendance and MoCA Arlington Resident Artists will also open their studios to the public. The event is free, open to the public and will include light refreshments and a cash bar.