MOCA’s ReFocus exhibit features art of the 80s

By Isabella Ortega | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Decades before “Twilight” and “True Blood,” a true cult classic starring David Bowie and Susan Sarandon inspired the vampire craze in the 1980s.

On Nov. 8, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville screened “The Hunger” to highlight the focus of MOMA’s ongoing exhibition entitled ReFocus: Art of the 1980s. The exhibition opened on Sept. 15, is free to the public and will run through Jan. 6, 2013.

Contemporary artists of the 1980s reached unfathomable stardom during this era. Many were influenced by the period’s culture and crisis: conspicuous consumption, sexuality and AIDS.

Earlier this spring, as a part of MOCA’s ReFocus exhibition, the museum hosted a collection of art from the 1960s, followed by a showcase of contemporary art of the 1970s.

“The idea behind this exhibition is to give Jacksonville a background of the beginnings of contemporary art,” said MOCA Public Programs and Tours Coordinator Lauren Spencer.

“The Hunger” embodies a number of serious topics, both political and cultural, that heavily affected artists like Keith Haring, David Salle, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Fischl, whose works of art are being showcased in the exhibition.

For more information on this or other MOCA Jacksonville events and exhibitions, please visit http://www.mocajacksonville.org/exhibitions