Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai | Opening Celebration @ MOCA

Join us as we celebrate the opening of Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) on Oct 1 at 8 p.m. This event is free and open to all. MOCA Members are invited to an exclusive early access preview of the exhibition. Not a member?

explores the narrative artistic practice of Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero. Spanning the past decade of her work, the exhibition presents a thematic examination of Romero’s complex and layered images, which celebrate the multiplicity, beauty, and resilience of Native American and Indigenous experiences.

Romero’s visual storytelling challenges dominant narratives of Indigenous decline and erasure. Blending documentary and commercial aesthetics, she creates stories that draw from intertribal knowledge to expose the fissures and fusions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and futurity.

The title Panûpünüwügai means “living light” in the Chemehuevi language and refers to the spirit of light. It speaks to the way light interacts with the subjects in Romero’s photographs and to the nature of photography as a “painting with light.”

Questions? Contact MOCA Membership Coordinator Le Milford at [email protected]

Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) is organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, and curated by Jami Powell, PhD, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art. It is generously supported by leadership gifts from Claire Foerster and Daniel S. Bernstein, Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo, and support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Charles Gilman Family Endowment, and a gift from Karen Miller Nearburg and Charles Nearburg.

MOCA Jacksonville has partnered with local restaurants to provide dining options for event guests. Show your event tickets to your server at any of the restaurants below to receive 10% off your order before or after attending the Opening Celebration event at MOCA!

• Pour Tap Room (closes 10 p.m.)
• Sweet Pete's (closes 8:30 p.m.)

If you have a disability and require an accommodation for this occasion, please contact MOCA Jacksonville at 904-620-1214 or [email protected] five days before the event to enable us to provide you with a reasonable accommodation for the event.

About MOCA

Located in the heart of historic Downtown, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville is one of the city’s most significant cultural assets. As the oldest art museum in Northeast Florida and one of the first contemporary art museums established in the United States, MOCA focuses on promoting the discovery, knowledge, and advancement of the art, artists, and ideas of our time.

Among the most prominent contemporary art museums in the Southeast, MOCA’s exhibitions and programs set the pace for arts and art-integrated programming on a regional and national stage. Renowned in this community, MOCA casts a spotlight on Jacksonville as a burgeoning, vital arts destination.

The museum is also a cornerstone of Jacksonville’s multibillion-dollar downtown revitalization plan with exhibitions and programs that bring new visitors to the civic core during the day, at night, and on weekends.