EXHIBITIONS¬
WE ARE WHAT WE CURATE
If you’re looking for inspiration from the artists of today, or just something fun to do in Virginia Beach, you’ve come to the right place. As a non-collecting contemporary art museum, our gallery spaces have ever-changing exhibitions. That means every few months, we introduce new, exceptional art for you to see, experience, and celebrate. Check out what is on view now, coming next, and what we’ve shown before.
Admission is free! Tickets can be reserved in advance at the link below.
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EXHIBITIONS
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS¬
Mahari Chabwera, Dadme La Muerte Que Me Falta, 2020. Oil, shells, acrylics, and fabric on stretched canvas. Courtesy of the artist.
Made in VA 2022
MAIN GALLERY
Virginia MOCA continues its celebration of regional artists through our annual juried exhibition, Made in VA. We find our roots in a concerned and connected artist community. We remain committed to keeping close ties with the talented artists who live close to our doors.
OCTOBER 8, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Erin Fostel, Room #3, May 12th, 2022, YWCA South Hampton Roads Emergency Shelter, 2022. Charcoal and graphite on muslin. Courtesy of the artist
More Than Shelter
MAIN GALLERY
The essentials for human survival are food, water, and shelter. These needs take precedence over all the others. Virginia MOCA continues our investigations of basic human needs with the new exhibition More Than Shelter. Eleven artists received an invitation to participate in this exhibition. We asked each one to consider what the idea of shelter means to them and choose an avenue of investigation. The artists connected with partners who provided unique insight into their area of expertise. Shelter is both a verb and a noun. It can mean a home, a community, or the people and places that makes us feel safe and welcomed. It also means to listen, care, and to support one another, our community, our land, our minds, our society, and our futures.
OCTOBER 8, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Art materials used by Made in VA 2022 artists. Photo by Lindsay Collette.
ARTlab Fall & Winter 2022
ARTlab is our interactive space for all ages located off of our main galleries. Explore the main themes and ideas found in our current exhibitions Made in VA 2022 and More Than Shelter through making, sharing, and personal connections.
OCTOBER 8, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Brian Kreydatus, Self Portrait on 53rd Birthday, 2022. Oil on paper mounted on board. Courtesy of the artist.
Brian Kreydatus: Homebodies
COMMUNITY GALLERY
In Homebodies, artist Brian Kreydatus explores relationships and spaces in the time of a pandemic. These paintings and prints document and archive him, his home, and his family during this challenging time. From messy tables, to Zoom meetings, to naps, to mindless internet scrolling, this is how he lived. In fact, it is how many of us lived.
OCTOBER 8, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Dale Chihuly, Mille Colori, 2003. Blown glass. Photo by Echard Wheeler.
Mille Colori by Dale Chihuly
RODRIGUEZ PAVILION
Translating to “1,000 Colors,” Mille Colori certainly lives up to its name. This breathtaking 14-foot glass sculpture by renowned artist, Dale Chihuly, is made up of 520 separate blown-glass pieces and hangs as a permanent fixture in our sunlit Rodriguez Pavilion, which was built specifically to showcase the modern masterwork. As our only permanent work of art on view, Mille Colori can be experienced year-round and has been seen by thousands of visitors throughout the years.
1940 Home Owners Loan Corporation “Redlining” Map of Greater Norfolk.
Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century
FLEMING GALLERY
Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century explores the ongoing impacts of our nation’s long history of housing discrimination.
NOVEMBER 18, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Mia Guile, The Great Escape, 2022. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.
In the Abstract
SATELLITE GALLERY
Color, shape, line, form, and texture are the foundation for the language of visual art. Abstract artists use this language to investigate memory, emotion, and art itself. They move away from the expectations of creating a visual reality in their painting practice. There are few rules for this approach to painting; it exists in many different forms.
DECEMBER 21, 2022–JULY 29, 2023
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS¬
Kara Walker, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated): Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, edition 21/35, 2005. Offset lithography and silkscreen, 39 x 53 in. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. © Kara Walker
Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
MAIN GALLERY
A leading artist of her generation, Kara Walker (b. 1969) works in a range of mediums, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, film, and the large-scale silhouette cutouts for which she is perhaps most recognized. Her powerful and provocative images employ contradictions to critique the painful legacies of slavery, sexism, violence, imperialism, and other power structures, including those in the history and hierarchies of art and contemporary culture.
MARCH 9–JUNE 11, 2023
LaToya M. Hobbs, The Founder, 2020. Acrylic, collage, and relief carving on wood panel, 48 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Ariston Jacks.
LaToya Hobbs: Flourish
MAIN GALLERY
When artist LaToya M. Hobbs sees women of her community, she sees them for the deep, powerful, and complex people that they are. Much like the delicate tendrils of plant life edging their way into her panels, Hobbs’ women are fully formed and thriving in their own right. Drawing from her experience as a printmaker, Hobbs carved their images into wood panel to explore “the print matrix as art object.” These multifaceted, mixed media relief carvings hover between sculpture and painting. Each one is richly textured and three-dimensional, much like the women they represent.
MARCH 9–JUNE 11, 2023
Amber Pierce, Pouring Out to Be Refilled, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Atrium Artists in Residence: Amber Pierce, Poetry Jackson, Nadd Harvin
COMMUNITY GALLERY
This exhibition features the work of Amber Pierce, Poetry Jackson, and Nadd Harvin, who have been invited to participate in the 2023 Atrium Artist in Residence Program. The residency aims to support and amplify the work of regional artists while creating another entry point for Museum visitors to engage with contemporary art and ideas in connection with the main gallery exhibitions, Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick and LaToya Hobbs: Flourish. This group exhibition complements the residency program and celebrates the work of these talented artists.
MARCH 9–JUNE 11, 2023
2022 First Place Artwork, Kendal Whitaker.
Hampton Roads Student Gallery Honorees 2023
FLEMING GALLERY
For over 30 years, Student Gallery has provided students in 11th and 12th grades the opportunity to exhibit their artwork in leading museums and institutions in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. Students participate annually through teacher and school administrator solicitation.
FEBRUARY 16–26, 2023
PAST EXHIBITIONS¬
2022
- Hampton Roads Student Gallery Honorees
- Youth Art Month
- Maya Lin: A STUDY OF WATER
- Open (C)all 2022: What is Missing?
- Visual and Performing Arts Academy Juried Art Show
- Teaching Artists Exhibition 2022
- SITES UNSEEN: A Collaborative Environmental Sculpture Project
- Atrium Artists in Residence
- The Art of the ViBe 3
- Prisms Art Camp Exhibition 2022
2021
- Open (C)all 2021: Food & Memory
- American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art
- Real Food Films
- Nourish
- Summer of Women
- SHE SAYS: Women, Words and Power
- Amplify
- Lauren Keim: Everyday Magic
- First Course
- Made in VA 2021
- Agnes Grochulska: Archetypes
- Shaping Memories: Expressions in Clay
- Emergence: Teen Juried Exhibition
- Selected Works from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2013
EXPLORE MORE¬
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