Virginia MOCA to open by January 2026 with exhibit featuring nationally renowned painter
Construction on the new Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art building is about one-third complete, and curators have booked a prestigious artist to debut their future gallery space.
The museum, commonly called the MOCA, announced plans in 2023 to move from its home at 2200 Parks Ave., near the Virginia Beach Convention Center, to a custom-built facility on the Virginia Wesleyan University campus. Work began on the new site last fall.
This month, Virginia MOCA Executive Director Alison Byrne updated the city development authority on the progress of the estimated $25 million construction project, expected to finish by January 2026. During a subsequent interview with The Virginian-Pilot, she revealed the artist chosen to christen the space.
Contemporary painter Nina Chanel Abney's work will be the first exhibition, and Byrne said she couldn't be happier about the choice.
Put simply, Abney is an artist of renown.
Her paintings and other works touch on subjects such as sex, celebrity, race, religion and politics. A 2004 Master of Fine Arts graduate of the Parsons School of Design, she infuses her work with techniques and color theories found in art history's masters, such as Matisse, Picasso and Harlem Renaissance luminary Aaron Douglas.
Her work has been featured at vaunted venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Neuberger Museum of Art in New York City and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
In a 2018 issue of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, writer Lindsay Preston Zappas commented on Abney's art: 'The works become a portrait of the modern brain, a marker of the manic hyperactivity that preoccupies contemporary American life.'
The new MOCA building, with more than 30,000 square feet, will feature larger galleries. Although located on a university campus, museum spokesperson Linda Koller said, the museum will remain independent from the VWU board of trustees, and staff will have complete curatorial and programmatic control.
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
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