MOCA North Miami Marks 30th Anniversary With Spring 2026 Exhibitions and Public Art Installations
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Anniversary Season
The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a season of exhibitions and public art installations focused on South Florida artists, community engagement, and the museum’s evolving permanent collection.
Running through October 4, the Spring 2026 program includes Anchors of Light, South Florida Cultural Consortium 2026, and Antithesis, alongside the return of MOCA’s Art on the Plaza commissions.
“At we reflect on three decades, MOCA stands at a meaningful threshold, one that asks us to look back with rigor and forward with intention,” said Chana Sheldon, Executive Director of MOCA North Miami. “These presentations are not only celebrations. They are an affirmation that contemporary art, rooted in place and community, has the power to transform how we understand ourselves and one another.”
Collection Focus
At the center of the season is Anchors of Light, a large-scale exhibition curated by Miami-based curator Catherine Camargo. Drawing from more than 56 works in MOCA’s permanent collection, the exhibition revisits the museum’s history through film, sculpture, painting, and print, while placing local and international artists in conversation with one another.
Artists featured include Dawoud Bey, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Dennis Oppenheim, Alfredo Jaar, Barbara Jones Hogu of AfriCOBRA, Pat Steir, Purvis Young, and Pablo Cano.
The exhibition is organized into three sections titled The Body, The Garden, and The Miami Room. According to MOCA, the presentation examines how the museum has served as a cultural anchor for artists and audiences in South Florida over the past three decades.
“Anchors of Light is a testament to what MOCA has always offered, a space of possibility and a launchpad not only for artists, but for the broader cultural ecosystem of South Florida,” said Camargo.
The anniversary exhibition also reflects nearly a decade of collection research and conservation efforts supported by the Knight Foundation and Mellon Foundation. MOCA said its digitized collection will soon be integrated into a redesigned website.
Regional Artists
Running alongside Anchors of Light is South Florida Cultural Consortium 2026, a group exhibition featuring 15 artists working across sculpture, photography, film, textiles, ceramics, and installation. The exhibition was co-curated by MOCA Curatorial Assistant Kimari Jackson and guest curator Laura de Socarraz-Novoa.
Participating artists include Jen Clay, Luke Jenkins, Diana Larrea, Amanda Linares, Lauren Shapiro, Nina Surel, and Manuela Gonzalez, among others. The exhibition explores themes tied to spirituality, identity, heritage, and environmental change in South Florida.
“Though initially varied in form and approach, each of these artists’ works share resonant thematic through lines that reflect the cultural and environmental realities of South Florida,” said de Socarraz-Novoa.
MOCA’s Teen Art Force program also presents Antithesis, a group exhibition examining contrast through painting, sculpture, abstraction, and realism. The exhibition is part of the museum’s youth leadership and creative development initiative.
“Having the SFCC exhibition simultaneously presented alongside the 30th anniversary collection exhibition is so deeply resonant with MOCA’s mission,” said Jackson. “All three shows as a whole act as teaching moments of the institution's history.”
Public Installations
Outside the museum, MOCA’s Art on the Plaza program returns with three new public installations by South Florida artists Joan Edmundo Jiménez Suero, Carrington Ware, and Josh Aronson.
Jiménez Suero’s Bailando Nuestros Problemas features iron sculptures inspired by community life and Afro-descendant traditions. Ware’s Homespun presents suspended fabric flags installed above the museum’s fountain, while Aronson’s installation includes sail-like banners incorporating imagery from Florida’s natural environment.
More information about the museum’s Spring 2026 exhibitions and programs is available at mocanomi.org.