Browse the chronological list of past exhibitions at the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCRA), or search for a specific exhibition. Click “View” for more information about an exhibition. If you need further information about an exhibition, please contact us.
MOCRA: 25
September 16, 2018 to March 3, 2019
The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art began with an audacious assertion: many of today’s visual artists engage with the religious and spiritual dimensions in their work—even if they sometimes go about it in ways quite different from prior generations.
Despite skepticism from members of both the art world and communities of faith, and practical challenges like an unexpected asbestos abatement project, MOCRA opened in a renovated seminary chapel on the campus of Saint Louis University on Feb. 14, 1993. Since then, through the course of more than 60 exhibitions, accompanied by wide-ranging programs (including a podcast), MOCRA has established itself as a critically hailed voice in the world of contemporary art, a celebrated feature of the St. Louis cultural landscape, and a committed participant in the work of interfaith dialogue and understanding
A single exhibition cannot hope to do justice to the many talented artists and outstanding artworks that have made up MOCRA’s exhibitions over two-and-a-half decades. Instead, this exhibition aims to sketch a portrait of MOCRA, from its origins to the present moment, in the work of 25 artists:
Craig Antrim | Salma Arastu | Eileen Bird | Sr. Helen David Brancato, IHM | Frederick J. Brown | Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons | Michael David | Eleanor Dickinson | Erika Diettes | Jordan Eagles | Juan González | Steven Heilmer | DoDo Jin Ming | Adrian Kellard | Frank LaPena | Dinh Q. Lê | Whitfield Lovell | Jim Morphesis | Daniel Ramirez | James Rosen | Christopher Schulte | Susan Schwalb | Shahzia Sikander | Thomas Skomski | Michael Tracy
For both newcomers and long-time visitors, MOCRA: 25 will reveal many facets of the museum.
- Discover how the support and guidance of several key artists and curators, given at MOCRA’s early stages, established a solid foundation for the young museum.
- Explore MOCRA’s curatorial understanding of how the religious and spiritual dimensions are expressed in contemporary art, embodied in the wide range of artists, themes, media, and visual vocabularies included in MOCRA: 25.
- Experience the ways visual art can be a vehicle for interfaith encounter, enriching personal understandings of spirituality while opening viewers to new ideas and perspectives.
One constant theme runs through MOCRA’s 25 years: dialogue. Dialogues between artists and religion and spirituality, and between viewers and artworks—from these encounters emerge new perspectives that deepen our awareness and challenge us to live more fully and more compassionately. We invite you to come join in the conversation.
above:
Installation view of MOCRA: 25 at MOCRA, 2018. Photo by Kevin Lowder.
Exhibition |
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Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World |
Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting |
Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937 |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995 |
Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
MOCRA: The First Five Years |
Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
Consecrations Revisited |
Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ |
Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994 |
Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Visible Conservation |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations |
Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
MOCRA: 25 |
Gary Logan: Elements |
Gratitude |
Surface to Source |
Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
Selections from the MOCRA Collection |