Past MOCRA Events

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Name

Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Live!

Dates

May 3, 2025

Description

About the Event

The MOCRA Voices series “Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit” explores the intersection of spirituality and the artistic practice of Black creatives encountering ideas within the wide lexicon of abstraction. On May 3, 2025, MOCRA welcomed artists, curators and art historians in a public conversation on these topics. After each participant presented about their individual practice and research, the group engaged in a lively discussion that included audience questions

This program was made possible with generous financial support from the Regional Arts Commission.

About the Speakers

Bentley Brown

Bentley Brown is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and doctoral candidate at The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is based in the Bronx, New York, and Phoenix. His research at the institute explores the pioneering role of Black artists and Black creative spaces within New York City’s contemporary art movements of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. In his artistic practice, inspired by African American cultural production, abstract and figurative expressionist approaches to the artistic process and the desert landscape of his native Phoenix, Brown uses the mediums of canvas, found objects, photo-collage and film to explore themes of Black identity, cosmology, and American interculturalism.

Dail Chambers

Dail Chambers is a St. Louis-based visual artist, creative consultant and grower. Her visual art practice is a multimedia exploration in genealogy, women’s narratives and social environmental art. She has received numerous awards and fellowships throughout the United States. As a homeschooling, teaching artist mother, she has traveled internationally, creating curriculum lesson plans to enhance and motivate inter-generational learning environments.

Damon Davis

Damon Davis is a post-disciplinary, Emmy Award-winning artist based in St. Louis. He is co-director of the critically acclaimed documentary Whose Streets? chronicling the Ferguson uprisings. Davis is known for his work designing the recent monument to Mill Creek Valley in downtown St. Louis as part of the Brickline Greenway. His work has been nominated for the Peabody Award and is featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Davis is a Firelight Media, Sundance Labs, TED and Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow.

Bukky Gbadegesin

Bukky Gbadegesin is an assistant professor in art history and African American Studies at Saint Louis University. She has published in African Arts, History of Photography and Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled Picturing Modern Selves in Colonized Places: Photography as a Strategy of Power in Lagos, Nigeria. Her broad research interests center on photography, portraiture, politics of representation, and print culture in Africa and the Diaspora.

Summer Sloane-Britt

Summer Sloane-Britt is an art historian and curator based in Los Angeles. Her research centers on the intersection of photography and liberation movements through a global lens. Her dissertation explores the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) photography department, emphasizing their innovative contributions to the 1960s Black Freedom Movement. She has held positions at the National Gallery of Art, the Grey Art Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Duke University Press, Open Book Publishers, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Museum of Modern Art have published her writing. She received her Ph.D. in art history in 2025 from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She serves as the program director of the Billie Holiday Theatre’s Black Arts Initiative and in the fall will begin as assistant professor of contemporary U.S. art history at Occidental College.

Sydney Vernon

Sydney Vernon lives and works in College Park, Maryland. The question of what her work is has a simple answer: Drawing. She uses drawing materials to sketch through thinking, documentation and preparing for what's next. She sketches through theory, fine art, mutual aid, and love, mapping the relationships between empire and collapse, dignity and survival. Her practice is one of integrity, pleasure, and legitimacy — not because institutions define it as such, but because she does. Most recently, Vernon has shown at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Kapp Kapp in New York, and 125 Newbury in New York

above:
The event speakers

Related MOCRA Voices episodes

Watch Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Live!

Watch Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit - Season 1 Intro

Watch Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Felipe Luciano and Malcolm Mooney

Watch Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Lauren Kelley and Summer Sloane-Britt

Watch Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Chester Higgins and Leslie King-Hammond

Dates	Exhibition
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2017-04-20	“The Hand Acts Out a Joyous Dance”: Celebrating the Art of Bernard Maisner April 20, 2017 About the Event A master calligrapher and manuscript illuminator, artist Bernard Maisner brings together materials and design in unexpected ways. From tiny illuminated manuscripts to large-scale pain...
2016-09-25	Erika Diettes: Stories Told from the Threshold September 25, 2016 About the Event Colombian artist Erika Diettes has received international acclaim for a body of work that draws upon her training as both an artist and an anthropologist. In 2011 she set up a studio ...
2015-12-06	So That You Know Each Other: Intercultural Reflections on Art, Beauty, and Islam December 6, 2015 About the Event This program explores historic and contemporary approaches to Islamic art, from perspectives both within and outside of Islam. The guiding concept of the program is interculturalit...
2014-11-15	John Handley: The Religious Art of Pablo Picasso November 15, 2014 About the Event Art historian and theologian John Handley will shed light on a scarcely known aspect of the career of the renowned twentieth-century artist Pablo Picasso: his religious beliefs and hi...
2018-09-28 to 2018-09-29	Fleur-de-Lis Floral Art Walk September 28, 2018 to September 29, 2018 About the Event Celebrate Saint Louis University’s Bicentennial with a Floral Art Walk taking place throughout campus and the nearby Grand Center Arts District, and see art in a new way through the...
2014-02-23	“The Economy of Gift” in Socially Engaged Art Practices: A Public Deliberation February 23, 2014 About the Event Gift involves moving out of oneself. The economy of gift questions the dominant measure of value in the art world and beyond. Socially engaged art practices apply artistic meth...
2013-10-02	Art21: The Spiritual Light screening at CAM October 2, 2013 About the Event MOCRA's neighbor institution, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, offers an opportunity to view a special screening of "Spirituality," an episode of the popular PBS documentary series ...
2013-03-02	Rituals and Spirituality in the Performative Photographic Work of María Magdalena Campos-Pons March 2, 2013 About the Event Hailed as a leading artist of the Afro-Cuban diaspora, María Magdalena Campos-Pons’ work encompasses installation art, performative photography, painting and cultural activism, all...
2012-11-11	Breaking Boundaries: A Conversation about the Art of Patrick Graham November 11, 2012 About the Event Patrick Graham has been credited with changing the face of contemporary painting in Ireland. Join us for a panel discussion bringing together five distinguished voices who will consid...
2012-05-20	Stephen P. Durchslag: The Jewish Experience and the Haggadah May 20, 2012 About the Event The Jewish holiday of Passover recalls and celebrates the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The haggadah is the book that contains the ritual guide to the Passover Sede...
2012-03-27	2012 Loyola Chair Lecture: The Image of the Wounded Body of Christ and the Modern Social Consciousness March 27, 2012 About the Event MOCRA's Director, Terrence Dempsey, S.J., delivers the Loyola Chair Lecture at Fordham University. “The Image of the Wounded Body of Christ and the Modern Social Consciousness”...
2011-10-06	2011 Loyola Chair Lecture: The Pursuit of the Spirit – The Renewed Interest in the Spiritual and Religious Dimensions in Contemporary Art October 6, 2011 About the Event MOCRA's Director, Terrence Dempsey, S.J., delivers the Loyola Chair Lecture at Fordham University. “The Pursuit of the Spirit: The Renewed Interest in the Spiritual and Religious...
2011-05-01	Terrence Dempsey, S.J.: Georges Rouault and the Art of Sacred Engagement May 1, 2011 About the Event From his earliest works, Georges Rouault selected subjects that combined a strong religious conviction together with a concern for suffering humanity. This lecture will offer an overv...
2010-11-15	Terrence Demspey, S.J.: Creating a Religious Environment through Contemporary Art and Architecture November 15, 2010 About the Event Rev. Terrence Dempsey, S.J., founding Director of MOCRA, presents the lecture “Creating a Religious Environment Through Contemporary Art and Architecture.” Celebrating his 25th ye...
2010-03-28	Terrence Dempsey, S.J.: The Wounded Body of Christ and the Modern Social Conscience March 28, 2010 About the Event MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., offers an overview of how images associated with the suffering and death of Jesus still have vitality, even in a pluralistic world. Images refer...
2009-12-01	Day With(out) Art December 1, 2009 About the Event MOCRA observes the twentieth anniversary of Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis, by exhibiting The Promise, an important work by th...
2009-11-15	Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears: Word and Image November 15, 2009 About the Event Artist Michael Byron will discuss the development of his Cosmic Tears series and how it relates to other work in his oeuvre and to the history of Abstract Painting. Byron’s talk ...
2009-03-29	Art and the Religious Imagination March 29, 2009 About the Event MOCRA assembles a panel of distinguished museum directors and theologians to discuss the roles that secular and religious art museums can play in the presentation of art with spiritua...
2008-04-15	Wu Hung: What Is Contemporary Chinese Art? April 15, 2008 About the Event The curator of the MOCRA exhibition Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace discusses the concept of “contemporary Chinese art” in relation to the medium, content, and styl...
2007-10-07	Celluloid Bible Classics: The Ten Commandments October 7, 2007 About the Event In conjunction with the exhibition The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture, MOCRA presents one of the most successful film epics ever made, on the big screen at St....
2007-11-04	Celluloid Bible Classics: Ben-Hur November 4, 2007 About the Event In conjunction with the exhibition The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture, MOCRA presents one of the most successful film epics ever made, on the big screen at St....
2007-09-16	Michael Morris, O.P.: Moving Pictures – The Bible and Beyond September 16, 2007 About the Event Professor and Dominican priest Rev. Michael Morris, O.P., gives a wry and highly informed survey of Hollywood’s relationship with Judeo-Christian scripture (in fact, the motion pic...
2007-03-30	Peter Frank: An Oskar Fischinger Tribute March 30, 2007 About the Event Peter Frank, curator of the MOCRA exhibition Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit discusses pioneering German filmmaker and animator Oskar Fischinger, in a program that also includes...
2006-12-01	Day With(out) Art December 1, 2006 About the Event MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis, with a special presentation of images from the photographic project titled Livi...
2005-12-04	Robert Rosenblum: DoDo Jin Ming – An Art Historian's View December 4, 2005 About the Event Renowned art historian Robert Rosenblum places the work of photographer DoDo Jin Ming in a wider art historical context, bringing forth compelling insights about both Jin Ming's work ...
2003-09-07	To Make Extraordinary: The Role of Sacred Objects in Life and Worship September 7, 2003 About the Event MOCRA presents an interfaith panel discussion that considers the wide range in form, use, and significance of sacred objects across the world's religious traditions. This event is he...
2002-05-04	The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: A University Response May 4, 2002 About the Event With this panel discussion about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, approached from diverse disciplines and personal backgrounds, we seek to encourage the St. Louis community to assess...
2002-04-30	Fred D. Gray: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: A Study That Should Never Have Occurred April 30, 2002 About the Event Fred D. Gray is a civil rights attorney whose career spans nearly 50 years. He has represented some of the most pivotal figures in civil rights history, including Mrs. Rosa Parks and ...
2002-01-31	Cloudlanders January 31, 2002 About the Event MOCRA presents several of St. Louis'’ finest dancers performing two evenings of improvisatory dance with and amidst Pop artist Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds. The dancers respond to ...
2002-01-26	Thomas Sokolowski: The Last Temptation – Andy Warhol’s Art as Belief January 26, 2002 About the Event Thomas Sokolowski examines Pop artist Andy Warhol’s outlook on art and aesthetics as they parallel the interaction between art and faith, and as influenced by the generally unrecogn...
2000-11-30	Day With(out) Art November 30, 2000 About the Event MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis. Day With(out) Art has been observed by galleries and museums annually since 198...
2001-04-06	Bare Naked Statues in concert April 6, 2001 About the Event The Bare Naked Statues, Saint Louis University’s premier all-male a capella ensemble, present their debut concert in the reverberant acoustics of MOCRA’s main gallery, originally ...
1999-04-15	Two Lectures: Ellen Dissanayake and Jack Renard April 15, 1999 About the Event MOCRA presents lectures by two distinguished scholars. Ellen Dissanayake Ellen Dissanayake: “In the Beginning, Art” An innovative scholar makes a case for an innate human dri...
1999-03-27	Bernard Maisner: The Art of the Illuminator March 27, 1999 About the Event Bernard Maisner, considered one of today’s foremost practitioners of the art of illuminating manuscripts, gives a lecture and presentation on the materials and techniques of illumin...
1998-03-22	Renaissance and Modern March 22, 1998 MOCRA presents a lecture and a public conversation. The Lecture Dr. Carolyn Valone“Matrons and Motives: Why Women Built in 16th-century Rome” Carolyn Valone is Professor of the Department of ...
1997-11-15	The Role of the Computer in Contemporary Art November 15, 1997 About the Event Join artist Manfred Stumpf and members of the St. Louis arts community in an exploration of the role of the computer in contemporary art, examined from the perspectives of the artist,...
1997-07-24	Jennifer Biddle: Body, Country, Canvas – Meaning and Identity in Central Desert Aboriginal Women’s Art July 24, 1997 About the Event Dr. Jennifer Biddle, of the department of Anthropology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, explores the relationship between traditional and contemporary painting practices of t...
1997-06-07	Creativity as Ancestral Mind: Living with the Ancestors June 7, 1997 About the Event MOCRA presents an afternoon symposium focusing on the art of the Aborigines of Australia's Central Desert. In the unique setting of the world's first museum of contemporary interfaith...
1997-02-27	The Artist and the Theologian Dialogue: The Body of Christ as Veiling and Unveiling the Invisible God February 27, 1997 About the Event MOCRA presents a conversation between artist Steven Heilmer and theologian John Markey, O.P. in conjunction with the exhibition Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante \| Holy Stones. About th...
1996-12-01	Day Without Art December 1, 1996 About the Event MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis, with a presentation of selected works from Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art ...
1996-05-19	The Artist as Poet: Readings by Edward Boccia May 19, 1996 About the Event Artist Edward Boccia gives a reading of his poetry. The event takes place in McNamee Gallery, located in the lower level of Samuel Cupples House in conjunction with the joint exhibiti...
1995-05-20	Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief May 20, 1995 About the Event Artist Ian Friend delivers a lecture focusing on his series of paintings titled The Protestant Affliction and their relationship with the essay “Holbein’s Dead Christ” by Julia ...
1995-05-04	Peter Selz: Degenerate Art May 4, 1995 About the Event In this lecture, renowned art historian, author and curator Peter Selz examines the 1937 Nazi-organized Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”) exhibition, the most virulent campaign e...
1995-02-05	Lynn Hague in recital February 5, 1995 About the Event MOCRA welcomes Lynn Hague of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in a solo violin recital. The program includes works by Bach and Paganini, as well as original improvisations that take...
1994-11-13	Terrence Dempsey, S.J.: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS November 13, 1994 About the Event MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., considers the diverse artistic and spiritual expressions dealing with AIDS found in the MOCRA exhibition Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in ...
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1994-11-05	Thomas Sokolowski: The Changing Face of AIDS November 5, 1994 About the Event Thomas Sokolowski is the Director of the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center of New York University. He is also a co-founder of Day Without Art, an annual observance by galleries and mu...
1994-11-01	The Amici String Quartet in recital November 1, 1994 About the Event The Amici Quartet performs an evening recital in the elegant setting of Historic Samuel Cupples House. This performance is held in conjunction with the exhibition Consecrations: The S...
1994-10-15	Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the TIme of AIDS dance program and opening reception October 15, 1994 About the Event MOCRA marks the opening of the first national group exhibition that explores AIDS within a spiritual framework with dance performances by three outstanding artists. Each dancer will p...
1993-10-29	I Remember Alvin October 29, 1993 About the Event Three people closely connected with Alvin Ailey reminisce about their experiences with the pioneering choreographer spanning over 25 years. This program takes place in conjunction ...
1993-11-05	An Evening with Katherine Dunham November 5, 1993 About the Event Living legend Katherine Dunham discusses the famous “Dunham Technique” and provides valuable insight into Alvin Ailey and her influence on his career. This program takes place ...
1992-11-07	The Artist and Sacred Space November 7, 1992 About the Event This symposium held in conjunction with the Fall 1992 meeting of The Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture (ARC) celebrates the birth of the Museum of Contemporary ...
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2019-11-10	Pursuing the Spirit in Contemporary Art: A Celebration of Terrence Dempsey, S.J. November 10, 2019 About the Event On June 30, 2019, MOCRA Founding Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., retired from Saint Louis University after nearly three decades of teaching and museum leadership. Fr. Dempsey jokes t...
2021-10-26	Religion and Complex Social Issues Series: Panel on Immigration, Justice, and Religion October 26, 2021 About the Event The Religion and Complex Social Issues series began in fall 2017 to provide informative, thoughtful, discussion-oriented opportunities for students, faculty, and various other communi...
2021-11-03	Sobrevida: A Conversation with Prof. Daisy Vargas November 3, 2021 About the Event Dr. Daisy Vargas explores life and death at the Mexico-U.S. borderlands through the material objects that migrants bring on their journeys. The Religion and Complex Social Issues s...
2021-11-05	Meet the Artist: Tom Kiefer November 5, 2021 About the Event Join us in the gallery for informal conversations with photographer Tom Kiefer about his exhibition Pertenencias / Belongings, currently on display at MOCRA. No formal talk is planned...
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2022-04-07	Tom Lucas, S.J.: Art in the Jesuit Tradition April 7, 2022 About the Event Fr. Tom Lucas, S.J., speaks about Art in the Jesuit Tradition, an illustrated presentation that surveys the important role of art in Jesuit education and spirituality from the earlies...
2022-09-29	Artist, Poet, Curator: A Conversation with Lesley Dill, Tom Sleigh and René Paul Barilleaux September 29, 2022 About the Event On September 29, 2022, MOCRA welcomed acclaimed visual artist Lesley Dill for a virtual, Zoom-based presentation. Dill was joined by poet Tom Sleigh and René Paul Barilleaux, head of...
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2024-12-01	Day With(out) Art December 1, 2024 About the Event Day With(out) Art has been observed by galleries and museums annually since 1989 on December 1, World AIDS Day. Originally a day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis,...
2025-05-03	Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit – Live! May 3, 2025 About the Event The MOCRA Voices series “Meditations: Black Expression, Abstraction, and the Spirit” explores the intersection of spirituality and the artistic practice of Black creatives encount...