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Past Exhibitions

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.

Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones

Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones

February 7, 1997 to March 16, 1997

Expertly carved in Carrara and Vermont marble, the sculptures of Steven Heilmer juxtapose raw stone with highly finished sculpted fabric. In a dramatic partnering of surfaces, the “cloth” variously presents, wraps, confines, conceals and reveals roughly hewn marble, tangibly evoking the mystery of the Incarnation and the humanity of the Word-made-flesh.


Rock is . . . “the bone under the flesh of soil in the body of the earth. . . .”

Michelle Stuart,
Return to the Silent Garden


Heilmer draws on an Eastern perspective both in his handling of his medium and in the points of entry he offers to visitors. For instance, cushions around his Pietastone/Meditation on the Last Temptation invite visitors to come to floor level and spend time with the work.

Heilmer draws inspiration and insight from a variety of theological and literary sources, seeking dialogue with mythical and archetypal meanings in addition to the Judeo-Christian tradition.


I was a stone; mysterious stone; my breach was a violent one,
   my birth like a wounding estrangement,
but now I should like to return to that certainty, to the place of the center,
   the matrix of mothering stone.

Pablo Neruda,
Skystones


Steven Heilmer is a highly respected sculptor and educator. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota, and he has taught at the University of Minnesota, Brooklyn College, Bethel College, and Greenville College. Mr. Heilmer was the recipient of the 1995/1996 Arts Midwest/NEA Visual Arts Fellowship. In 1997 Mr. Heilmer was selected to create a sculpture titled Gratia Plena for Seattle University’s St. Ignatius Chapel, designed by noted architect Steven Holl.

A rough-hewn stone is a repository for the soul intended to evoke that image which lives within the stone. It is both spirit and spirit's dwelling place. | Abram Tertz

above:
Installation view of Steven Heilmer: Pietre | Sante at MOCRA, 1997. Photo by Jeffrey Vaughn.


Related programming

The Artist and the Theologian Dialogue: The Body of Christ as Veiling and Unveiling the Invisible God

Read an interview with Steven Heilmer about carving Gratia Plena for the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, WA.

Exhibition
Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral

Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral
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Bernard Maisner (b.1954) is regarded internationally as one of the greatest contemporary masters of calligraphy. Maisner first became familiar with illuminated man...
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

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January 26, 2016 to May 8, 2016

Georges Rouault was born in working-class Paris in 1871, and apprenticed as a youth to a stained glass workshop. In late 1890, he enrolled in the École des Beaux-...
Erika Diettes: Sudarios

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September 25, 2016 to December 11, 2016

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Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World

Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World
January 24, 2015 to May 10, 2015

The images in this exhibition, taken in Thimpu, Bhutan in 2010, center on the ordinary surroundings of a culture both remarkable and mysterious (Bhutan only opened its borders in the 1950s and still strongly restricts tourism). Bhutan’s history is intricately woven with Tibetan Buddhism. There ...
Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu

Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu
September 13, 2015 to December 6, 2015

Drawing on her Hindu and Muslim background, and combining expertise in Arabic calligraphy with Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, Salma Arastu creates large, evocative canvases that invite viewers into quiet contemplation on texts from the Quran, the poet Rumi, and other sources....
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade

Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade
February 16, 2014 to August 1, 2014

MOCRA celebrated a milestone anniversary with a two-part exhibition surveying works by artists displayed during MOCRA's first twenty years. Part Two of Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 embraced the variety of artistic expressions exhibited throughout MOCRA's history and included works by thirty-six...
Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi

Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi
September 14, 2014 to December 14, 2014

MOCRA's first site-specific installation, created by Los Angeles-based artist Rebecca Niederlander, utilizes multiple elements to create an abstracted environment of color, form, and contemplative space exploring the necessary connection among ourselves, others, and the world around us. ...
 Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT

Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT
January 20, 2013 to May 12, 2013

For over a decade, artist Jordan Eagles has garnered public and critical attention for his unique, signature use of animal blood in his works. Through an experimental, self-invented process, the artist combines blood with Plexiglas, UV resin, copper, gauze, and other media to produce arresting wo...
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade

Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade
September 22, 2013 to December 15, 2013

MOCRA celebrated a milestone anniversary with a two-part exhibition surveying works by artists displayed during MOCRA's first twenty years. Part One of Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 embraced the variety of artistic expressions exhibited throughout MOCRA's history and included works by forty-one ...
Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah

Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah
February 26, 2012 to May 20, 2012

Haggadah (הַגָּדָה)‎ is Hebrew for “telling,” namely, the telling of the Exodus story at the Seder service during the Jewish festival of Pesach, or Passover. The term also signifies a book that contains the ritual guide to the Seder, along with scripture passages, commentary, prayer...
A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown

A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown
June 12, 2012 to August 26, 2012

Frederick J. Brown (1945-2012) was one of America's finest and most prolific expressionist artists. His paintings draw on many sources, including his African-American and Choctaw ancestry, his religious upbringing, and the folklore of the South. He referenced religious, historical and urban theme...
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting

Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting
September 23, 2012 to December 16, 2012

Patrick Graham has been credited by critics and art historians with changing the face of painting in Ireland. Art historian, writer and curator Peter Selz, who curated this exhibition, says that Graham "confronts the viewer with drawings and paintings of shattering force . . . [he] makes us aware...
Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion

Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion
September 24, 2011 to December 18, 2011

MOCRA presents a selection of work by Adrian Kellard (1959-1991). After art studies at SUNY Purchase he moved to New York City and studied under the artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt. In his...
Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art

Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art
February 2, 2010 to May 16, 2010

MOCRA gives an encore presentation of one of its most popular exhibitions ever. Good Friday was originally presented in Spring 2009 as the second of two exhibitions celebrating MOCRA’s fifteenth anniversary. The exhibition includes works by over 30 artists of diverse backgrounds who have...
James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer

James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer
September 26, 2010 to February 13, 2011

Over his six-decade career, James Rosen has produced a body of visually arresting paintings, watercolors, and drawings, that gently invite viewers to stay a while. Rosen seeks "capable observers" who bring to bear their own intellect and imagination in order to observe poetic images that are cond...
MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday

MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday
February 15, 2009 to May 17, 2009

On February 14, 1993, the world’s first interfaith museum of contemporary art opened its doors. Fifteen years later, Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) continues to serve as a forum for the ongoing dialogue between today’s artists and the major faith tradi...
Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears

Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears
September 13, 2009 to December 13, 2009

In the evocative paintings of the Cosmic Tears series, Michael Byron explores the relationship of the individual to the universal. The works are based on a text by the artist that meditates on the inevitable mix of emotions that accompanies the act of creation; pain and joy together elicit...
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace

Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace
February 3, 2008 to May 18, 2008

Chinese artist Miao Xiaochun asked himself an interesting question: "How would Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment appear from behind?" To explore this premise, Miao Xiaochun rendered a 3-D digital model of his own body. Then he mapped this model onto all 400-plus of the figures in Michelan...
MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit

MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit
September 21, 2008 to December 14, 2008

On February 14, 1993, the world’s first interfaith museum of contemporary art opened its doors. Fifteen years later, Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) continues to serve as a forum for the ongoing dialogue between today’s artists and the major faith tradi...
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit

Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit
March 31, 2007 to June 24, 2007

Oskar Fischinger (1900–1967) was a significant figure in the early days of filmmaking, attracting attention for his technological innovations, imaginative anim...
The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture

The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture
September 16, 2007 to December 09, 2007

A uniquely modern art form, film and its associated motion picture industry have taken Judeo-Christian scripture as subject matter from the very beginning of the medium and have continued that treatment to the present day. The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture examines...
Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937

Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937
January 22, 2006 to March 12, 2006

Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) is widely regarded as one of the most pivotal and significant artists in the development of 20th-century American art. After moving to America from Armenia in 1920, he quickly became a lightning rod for other artists in the late 1920s and early 30s, sparking the genesis ...
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds

Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds
November 9, 2001 to February 10, 2002

MOCRA is pleased to bring Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds to St. Louis for the first time, in one of the largest-ever installations of this charming 1966 work. Silver Clouds is a visual, auditory and tactile experience that appeals immediately to the child in everyone. ...
Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness

Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness
March 18, 2005 to July 31, 2005

The Breath of Consciousness is Japanese-American artist Junko Chodos' first Midwest exhibition. It surveys the predominant themes and media in her oeuvre. The exhibition title references a recurrent image in her work, the lungs. In part originating in her personal history (a childhood batt...
DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea

DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea
September 15, 2005 to December 18, 2005

"Respecting the awesome power and drama found only in the sea," writes curator Catherine Evans, "DoDo Jin Ming creates violent black and white images that transport the viewer to a precipice about to be submerged under a cascade of water. Printing her pictures from a combination of two negatives,...
Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria

Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria
March 28, 2004 to June 13, 2004

MOCRA is pleased to present the work of three significant Latin American artists to St. Louis audiences. While their personal and artistic backgrounds vary, all three artists share a common interest in creating multimedia works that extend the traditional bounds of each medium. These particular w...
Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl

Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl
September 10, 2004 to February 27, 2005

Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture is MOCRA's first exhibition dedicated to architecture. By means of photographs, drawings and plans, it brings together two of today's most important architects in an examination of their approaches to designing two houses of worship, one a ...
Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen

Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen
September 10, 2004 to February 27, 2005

Concurrently with the exhibition Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture, MOCRA presents a series of etchings by Daniel P. Ramirez. First shown in 1981 at the Art Institute of Chicago, this set of 20 small abstract works are a response to a piano suite by French composer Olivier ...
Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn

Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn
September 2, 2003 to October 12, 2003

Avoda is the Hebrew noun for "work," as well as for "prayer/worship," and the active mode implied by this title reflects Tobi Kahn's interpretation of the rising interest and active participation in spiritual expressions. The Avoda exhibition consists of 42 Jewish ceremonial objects...
Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist

Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
February 23, 2002 to August 9, 2002

The Tuskegee Experiment began in 1932 when the United States Public Health Service initiated a study of syphilis in African American males in Macon County, Alabama. With whatever intentions the study was begun, it evolved into a 40-year study of untreated syphilis in 412 African American men that...
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation

Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation
August 27, 2002 to December 14, 2002

MOCRA is pleased to bring back Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds (1966) in an encore presentation. Mercurial and buoyant, these pillow-shaped silver mylar balloons roam the air currents of MOCRA's spacious nave gallery and respond to the touch of the viewer. Silver Clouds is a visual, aud...
Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration
September 10, 2006 to December 17, 2006

After introducing St. Louis audiences to Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds in 2001 and reprising the exhibit in 2002, MOCRA is pleased to bring back the Silver Clouds on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their 1966 debut at New York’s Leo Castelli Gallery. Mercurial and buoyant, t...
Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana

Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana
April 15, 2000 to November 05, 2000

Lewis deSoto’s Paranirvana, a 25-foot long image of the reclining Buddha made of a nylon skin and inflated with air, based on a well-known Sri Lankan sculpture. Paranirvana was created especially for the 1999-2000 Bay Area Now 2 exhibition, the second in a planned series of biennial exhibitions...
Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995

Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995
November 18, 2000 to April 01, 2001

New York artist Robert Farber turned to art in his mid-30s and pursued it until his death in 1995 at the age of 47. His work has been shown in such distinguished insti...
Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium

Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium
November 14, 1998 to June 28, 1999

The late art historian George Kubler wrote in The Shape of Time, "[Works of art] are like gateways, where the visitor can enter the space of the painter, or the time of the poet, to experience whatever rich domain the artist has fashioned. But the visitor must come prepared: if he brings a...
Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses

Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses
March 8, 1998 to May 8, 1998

Curated by the distinguished art historian Peter Selz, Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses brings together 37 paintings and 20 sculptures of an artist who extends an American tradition-the distillation of the natural world into elemental forms. Kahn's antecedents in landscape painting include Albert ...
MOCRA: The First Five Years

MOCRA: The First Five Years
May 26, 1998 to October 25, 1998

MOCRA celebrates its fifth anniversary with selections from its first fifteen exhibitions. Artists in the exhibition include: Dan Addington | Alvin Ailey | Seyed Alavi | Peter Ambrose | Frederick J. Brown | Heidy Sumei Chuang | Jon Cournoyer | Michael David | Eleanor Dicki...
Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones

Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones
February 7, 1997 to March 16, 1997

Expertly carved in Carrara and Vermont marble, the sculptures of Steven Heilmer juxtapose raw stone with highly finished sculpted fabric. In a dramatic partnering of surfaces, the “cloth” variously presents, wraps, confines, conceals and reveals roughly hewn marble, tangibly evoking the myste...
Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections

Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections
April 4, 1997 to July 31, 1997

A vigorous cultural revival is evident today throughout Aboriginal communities in Australia. Artists at Utopia -- a tract of Aboriginal freehold land in the central desert of Australia -- have produced some of the most vital, exuberant, and distinctive imagery of the contemporary Aboriginal art m...
Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem

Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem
September 26, 1997 to December 21, 1997

Born in 1957, German artist Manfred Stumpf studied in Frankfurt, New York, and Vienna. He is a versatile artist whoo has worked in the media of drawing and painting...
Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece

Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece
December 2, 1995 to April 19, 1996

In 1992, prolific expressionist artist Frederick J. Brown offered to execute a large, multi-paneled altarpiece based on the life of Christ for the new Museum of Contemporary Religious Art. A generous gift of UMB Banks and the Crosby Kemper Foundations helped make that project a reality. ...
Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter

Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter
June 30, 1996 to June 30, 1996

When appraising the long career of an artist, we tend to focus on the mature style, or the works best known by the public. Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter seeks to render another view of the artist's career, by presenting not only the large-scale allegorical works for which Boccia is kno...
Consecrations Revisited

Consecrations Revisited
December 1, 1996 to February 5, 1997

Consecrations was the first group exhibition that put AIDS within a spiritual framework. Its 28 diverse artists, working in a range of media, expressed their experience with the disease in ways that reflected a profound empathy for anyone who has been touched or will be touched by the real...
Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ

Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ
April 8, 1995 to May 7, 1995

Keith Haring's work is known throughout the world for its unique and immediately recognizable pictorial language. His often light-hearted art reaches beyond the confines of museums. It can be found in subways, churches, schools, on T-shirts and watches, and even at one time on the Berlin Wall. Ha...
Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994

Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994
May 19, 1995 to July 2, 1995

MOCRA is honored to present the first American retrospective of Australian artist Ian Friend. Common concerns thread their way through the diverse works in the exhibition: a sense of awe for landscape; an appreciation for ritualistic and protective instruments (e.g., the spears from New Guinea, t...
Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective

Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective
August 26, 1995 to October 22, 1995

Throughout Eleanor Dickinson's work, the human form is seen as a reflection of the soul. Walter Hopps, former director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, has called Dickinson "one of the country's most powerful artists committed to figure drawing." The current exhibition presents works from three of...
Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists

Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists
May 3, 1994 to June 27, 1994

The Minimalist movement, appearing in the mid-1960s and continuing well into the 1970s, is characterized by a reduction of forms to simple, basic geometric shapes, devoid of any ornamentation. Figuration was removed, and in some expressions of Minimalism, the artifacts look as though they were pr...
Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS

Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS
October 15, 1994 to February 19, 1995

Consecrations is the first group exhibition that seeks to put AIDS within a spiritual framework. The 28 artists in Consecrations represent the religious, ethnic, cultural, sexual and geographical diversity of this country. Several of the artists are expressing first-hand experience ...
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One

Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One
February 14, 1993 to April 11, 1993

MOCRA’s two-part inaugural exhibition features more than 100 works from an wide-ranging roster of artists working in styles ranging from traditional Western figuration to minimalist and geometric abstraction. The artists, generally in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, tend to be disillusioned with the c...
Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
October 24, 1993 to December 19, 1993

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Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
April 26, 2017 to April 8, 2018

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Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre
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Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

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March 2, 2003 to May 11, 2003

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Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre
January 18, 2000 to April 2, 2000

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Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre

Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre
March 21, 1994 to April 26, 1994

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Visible Conservation

Visible Conservation
September 22, 2017 to April 8, 2018

In 2016 MOCRA acquired Michael Tracy's powerful 1981 work Cruz to Bishop Oscar Romero, Martyr of El Salvador. With Visible Conservation, we gave visitors a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of the process of documenting and cleaning the work prior to its reassembly and first presentation at MOCRA. ...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
July 25, 2016 to September 3, 2016

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with lesser known gems. Featuring works by Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Doug DePice, Robert Farber, Luis González Palma, DoDo Jin Ming, Dean Kessman, Chris McCaw, Daniel Ramirez, and Susan S...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
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Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross
April 21, 2018 to July 28, 2018

Seven months of conservation work culminate in the first public showing at MOCRA of Cruz to Bishop Oscar Romero, Martyr of El Salvador, a major mixed media sculpture by Michael Tracy (b. 1943), who first achieved international recognition in the 1980s, exhibiting in the 1982 Venice Biennal...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

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Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
June 20, 2004 to August 29, 2004

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with lesser known gems. Featuring works by Peter Ambrose, Gryphon Blackswan, Daniel Goldstein, Steven Luecking, Gary Passanise, Susan Schwalb, Michael Tracy, and other artists. above: Anne Minich, Annie...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
November 4, 2003 to March 5, 2004

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Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
January 7, 2003 to February 23, 2003

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Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
May 6, 2001 to November 8, 2001

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with lesser known gems and some works on loan. Featuring works by Peter Ambrose, Lori Bert, Sr. Helen David Brancato, Daniel Goldstein, Carolyn Jones, Stuart Klipper, Horatio Hung-Yan Law, Thomas Skomski, and other arti...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
July 29, 1999 to December 22, 1999

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with lesser known gems. Featuring works by Michael David, Eleanor Dickinson, Steven Heilmer, Charlotte Lichtblau, J. W. Mahoney, Jeffrey Miller, and other artists. above: Michael David, Missing in Actio...
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection

Highlights from the MOCRA Collection
January 15, 1998 to February 22, 1998

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with lesser known gems. Featuring works by Gryphon Blackswan, Heidy Sumei Chuang, Greg Edmondson, Jeffrey Miller, Carl Tandatnick, and other artists. above: Gryphon Blackswan, Chasuble for Mass in the T...
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations

Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations
April 18, 1993 to August 29, 1993

MOCRA's two-part inaugural exhibition features more than 100 works from an wide-ranging roster of artists working in styles ranging from traditional Western figuration to minimalist and geometric abstraction. The artists, generally in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, tend to be disillusioned with the cel...
Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition

Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition
May 24, 2018 to November 12, 2018

MOCRA, in collaboration with the Special Collections division of the Saint Louis University Libraries, presents an exhibition in the Lambert Gallery at St. Louis Lambert International Airport as part of the ...
MOCRA: 25

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 mem...
Gary Logan: Elements

Gary Logan: Elements
March 19, 2019 to June 30, 2019

Trinidadian-American artist Gary Logan explores humanity’s relationship with the Earth and its elements through dramatic lighting, atmospheric ambiguity, vivid colors, and rich textures. He finds visual and conceptual inspiration in two rich sources that utilize landscape as a means of explorin...
Gratitude

Gratitude
September 15, 2019 to December 15, 2019

Terrence Dempsey, S.J., Founding Director of MOCRA, retired from Saint Louis University on June 30, 2019, after nearly thirty years as a professor of Art History. With the exhibition Gratitude, he desires to express a deeply felt “thank you” — for the opportunity to establish a museu...
Surface to Source

Surface to Source
February 05, 2020 to November 22, 2020

For his first show curated as Director of MOCRA, David Brinker delves into the MOCRA collection, bringing out works that haven’t been shown in a number of years and juxtaposing them with perennial favorites. The works from the collection are joined by several works on loan. Meanwhile, the remov...
Quiet Isn

Quiet Isn't Always Peace
February 03, 2021 to May 20, 2021

People everywhere were captivated as Amanda Gorman delivered her poem The Hill We Climb on the steps of the Capitol on Inauguration Day. Her cascading cadences of imagery alluded to orators of the past but unequivocally asserted her own voice in addressing the present moment. A short phrase from...
Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings

Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings
September 03, 2021 to December 19, 2021

In July 2003, fine art photographer Tom Kiefer started working part-time as a janitor and groundskeeper at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility near Ajo, Arizona. In mid-2007, he was given permission to collect food confiscated from migrants and asylum seekers and donate it to...
Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections

Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections
February 16, 2022 to May 22, 2022

Three museums and seven centuries of art Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections speaks to the unique role of art in Jesuit teaching as an instrument for finding meaning in life through imagination, feelings and reflection. The exhibition features 28 works ...
Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest

Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest
August 24, 2022 to October 16, 2022

MOCRA is pleased to present three new collage-paintings by Lesley Dill, an American artist who works at the intersection of language and fine art in sculpture, printmaking, installation and performance, exploring the power of words to cloak and reveal the psyche. Dill transforms the emotions of t...
Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE

Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE
October 26, 2022 to December 18, 2022

Medium and Message Jordan Eagles is the master of a most unlikely medium: blood. His signature preservation technique permanently retains the organic material’s natural colors, patterns, and textures. In recent years, he has produced works made with donated human bloo...
This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection

This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection
August 24, 2022 to December 18, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated harmful systemic inequities and our responsibility to name and respond to them. Simultaneously, we are recognizing the importance of attending to our own well-being in mind, body, and spirit, a holistic vision of human wellness that Ignatian spirituality refe...
Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos

Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos
March 19, 2023 to June 25, 2023

Engaging a Living Tradition Artists Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado are forging new links in the chain of the continuing story of the people of New Mexico. Telles is firmly rooted in the Santero tradition (the making of santos, or images of saints), w...
Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual

Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual
January 28, 2024 to May 19, 2024

Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual assembles the work of six intergenerational artists from across the country who use everyday materials, found objects, and elements of craft production to explore issues related to faith and spirituality, personal and cultural identity, and tradition and ...
Selections from the MOCRA Collection

Selections from the MOCRA Collection
September 06, 2023 to December 17, 2023

Enjoy a look at some of the most popular works in the MOCRA collection, along with recent acquisitions and lesser known gems. In particular, we pay tribute to the late James Rosen (1933–2023). In a career spanning more than six decades, Rosen demonstrated a keen under...