Project Atrium: Nari Ward

Great Greetings

March 5 - August 16, 2026

Great Greetings is a new exhibition which transforms MOCA Jacksonville’s Atrium into a shimmering space of gold and silver by using everyday, disposable emergency blankets. The blankets, often used for survival or post-marathon recovery, drape the Atrium’s walls and dangle overhead as pennants, enveloping viewers in gleaming metallic color. Each blanket is cut with handwritten text of everyday greeting-card categories, such as Condolences, Kids, and Thinking of You. Underneath, pink newspaper excerpts from The Financial Times evoke the role of the marketplace, exposing the contrast between mass-produced sentiments and lived emotional experiences. Expanded to monumental scale through dazzling gold-silver blankets, such prepackaged sentiments overwhelm the space, reflecting on relationships, rites of passage, and social expectations.

Ward is known for his use of found objects and materials which draw out webs of narratives, meanings, and memories. Often working in sculpture and installation, he transforms the ways objects and materials are understood, imbuing them with new energy to enliven the imaginations of viewers. As with previous exhibitions by Ward, Great Greetings seeks to engage with the surrounding space, immersing viewers in transformed ways of seeing and understanding the world. The work, combining emergency blankets, greeting card sentiments, and newspaper collage, blends anxiety and overwhelm with celebration and care, inviting reflection on how language forms our interactions.

Great Greetings was made in collaboration with students from the University of North Florida’s Department of Art, Art History and Design Enlivened Spaces studio course, centered on the transformative potential of installation art and its ability to activate and reimagine architectural and social space. Under the direction of Visiting Instructor Aisling Millar McDonald, students worked with Ward, helping shape the physical articulation and compositional structure of the work.

Following the installation of the project, the students will develop original works in response to Ward’s installation, which will be exhibited in MOCA’s Lobby Gallery opening on April 29, 2026. 

Special thanks to the UNF Sculpture Seniors who assisted the artist with the project: Emily Bailey, Melanie Berends, Maya Bird, Kaliyah Chance, Matthew Green, Carter Mangle, Heaven Marshall, Sophia McGahuey, Kazuki Rocha, Kayla Sumner, Matthew Szostek, Madelyn Trythall and Hanna Vickers.

Thanks also to volunteer Karmen Welch, Art Installer Leif Dickens, and Intern Sai Keerthan Panga, who assisted with the project’s installation and formulation, under the direction of MOCA Preparator Melanie Berends.

ABOUT PROJECT ATRIUM

Since its launch in 2011, Project Atrium has commissioned artists to create site‑specific and site‑sensitive installations that engage the museum’s public-facing architecture, inviting audiences to witness the making process and experience immersive art from multiple vantage points across three floors. The Atrium serves as a visual anchor for the entire building and a hallmark of MOCA’s commitment to bold contemporary practice. This project serves as a significant contribution to MOCA Jacksonville’s mission to promote the discovery, knowledge, and advancement of the art, artists, and ideas of our time—presenting contemporary art that provokes inquiry and fosters community connection.