MOCA North Miami's galleries have been closed since October 5 while the installers worked. They reopen today, Thursday, November 12, with Geoffrey Holder: Black Magic, a survey that stays up until April 4, 2027. For anyone with a North Miami address on their ID, the museum is free. Over the next few weeks the plaza outside will host food trucks, jazz and an Art Week party. On the same street, a Michelin Bib Gourmand Ecuadorian kitchen has just reopened in a bigger room. Put those together and NE 125th Street becomes a plan for a weeknight this season, and you don't have to save it for a weekend.
Holder as a painter
Most people know Geoffrey Holder from the stage. In its October coverage, Miami Living Magazine notes that he won Tony Awards for directing and for costume design on the original 1975 Broadway production of The Wiz. MOCA's show turns to the work he did off the stage. The museum calls it the first museum survey to center Holder's visual art. It brings together more than 60 paintings, drawings, collages and sculptures, and many of them have never been shown in public.
AnOther gives the background. Holder was born in Trinidad in 1930 and moved to New York in 1953. He kept painting, drawing and sculpting alongside his work in dance, choreography, acting and costume design. Miami New Times put the show in its November picks and says the work covers his eight-decade career.
Guest curator Erica Moiah James, PhD, arranged the galleries in five themes:
- Portraits, including portraits Holder painted from memory
- Epistles
- The Sacred and the Profane, where biblical allegories are restaged with a modern sensibility
- Genre, which covers landscapes and luminous still lifes
- Figure Studies, where the museum says the body, seen through Holder's choreographic eye, is both subject and instrument
On its exhibition page, the museum describes the color as "saturated" and the gesture as "sweeping." Because the show runs for almost five months, you can make more than one visit, and five sections is a lot for one afternoon.
Free with a resident ID
That repeat visit costs a North Miami resident nothing. The museum's visitor page sets out the prices:
| Visitor | Admission |
|---|---|
| Adults 18–64 | $10 |
| Seniors 65+, students with ID, ages 12–17, visitors with disabilities | $5 |
| North Miami residents and City employees with ID | Free |
| Children under 12, veterans, all MOCA members | Free |
| Caregivers accompanying a visitor with a disability | Free |
| Bal Harbour Unscripted Art Access cardholders | Free |
| Bank of America cardholders, first full weekend of each month | Free |
Parking is free as well. MOCA points visitors to the lots east, west and south of the building, to three numbered public lots nearby, and to the surrounding streets. If you need accessible parking, the museum recommends Lot #10 behind the building.
With free entry and free parking, a resident can stop in for half an hour without thinking about getting their money's worth. You can come back for the Figure Studies section alone, or stand in front of one painting and then head home.
Wednesday runs late
The gallery hours shape the rest of the plan. MOCA is closed Monday and Tuesday. Thursday through Sunday it opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Wednesday it opens at noon and stays open until 7 p.m.
That makes Wednesday the only regular day you can see the galleries after a workday. It also lines up with dinner. COTOA starts its Wednesday service at 5:30 p.m., so you can see Holder's still lifes at 6 and sit down to eat right after.
On other days, the evening programs happen outside the museum, on the plaza.
The plaza calendar through December
MOCA Plaza at 770 NE 125th Street is where the city and the museum hold their evening events. These dates are open to the public:
| Date | Event | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | Draw Me Nearer, figure drawing with Marcus Torbert | 1–3 p.m. | $15 with art pack; $10 members |
| Friday, Nov. 20 | NoMi Night Market | 5–9 p.m. | Free to browse |
| Friday, Nov. 27 | JAZZ at MOCA with Chris Ryan Williams | Seating 7 p.m., music 8 p.m. | See MOCA |
| Tuesday, Dec. 1 | MOCA Miami Art Week general reception | 8:30–10:30 p.m. | $10; free for eligible residents |
| Friday, Dec. 4 | NoMi Night Market | 5–9 p.m. | Free to browse |
| Friday, Dec. 18 | NoMi Night Market | 5–9 p.m. | Free to browse |
Each date connects back to the show inside.
The drawing workshop draws on Holder's figure studies, and Torbert guides adult participants through drawing and interpreting the human figure. If you saw the Figure Studies gallery and wanted more time with it, this is a hands-on way to get it.
The NoMi Night Market is on the City of North Miami's calendar for the first and third Friday of every month. It brings food trucks and local vendors to the plaza from 5 to 9 p.m. and is billed as family-friendly. The dates in the table follow that first-and-third-Friday schedule.
JAZZ at MOCA on November 27 features Chris Ryan Williams, a Brooklyn-based artist whose electroacoustic work explores family history, time, sound and space. MOCA keeps the galleries open until 10 p.m. that night. That is one of the few chances to see the Holder paintings after dark.
The Art Week reception falls on a Tuesday, a day the galleries are normally closed, and it celebrates Black Magic. Tickets are $10. Entry is free for MOCA members, for residents of North Miami, Bal Harbour and SoLé Mia, and for VIP pass holders from partner art fairs. Bring your Resident ID, membership card or VIP pass to the door that evening. On its Miami Art Week page, the museum asks guests to "put on your most artful outfit." If you're a member, MOCA also holds its Member Appreciation Breakfast on Saturday, December 5, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, with artist- and curator-led tours of the exhibitions at noon.
The free list for December 1 covers the three communities closest to the museum, along with visitors carrying partner-fair VIP passes, in the same week MOCA members can sign up for a guided tour of Art Basel at the convention center on Friday, December 4.
Dinner on the same street
Plenty of restaurants could follow a gallery visit. COTOA fits the walk especially well because it moved this fall and is still on NE 125th Street.
Time Out Miami reported that chef Alejandra Espinoza closed her original North Miami location in October and moved to a bigger space at 1111 NE 125th St., Suite 200. Time Out describes an 80-seat restaurant with a 60-seat dining room, a 10-seat bar and TOA, an intimate eight-seat private dining room. Ecuadorian artwork hangs throughout. The Miami Herald confirmed the new location has opened.
Time Out says the bigger kitchen means new dishes on the menu while some signatures stay. Its writers single out three:
- Pan de yuca
- Mahi mahi manicero
- Cevichocho, a ceviche made with lupini beans
Time Out also reported that bartender James MacInnes was developing a new cocktail menu for the new room. Espinoza appears in Season 2 of Apple TV's Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars. She is also working on a cookbook about Ecuadorian ingredients and food traditions.
The restaurant's hours line up with the museum's week:
- Wednesday and Thursday: 5:30–10 p.m.
- Friday: 5:30–11 p.m.
- Saturday: 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5:30–11 p.m.
- Sunday: 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5:30–10 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday lunch run while the galleries are open from 10 to 5, so you can see the show in the morning and eat at noon. On night-market Fridays, dinner starts at 5:30 and the trucks stay until 9. If you want a quieter plan, Wednesday works best: galleries until 7, then a table at COTOA. Reservations are taken through COTOA's website.
Geoffrey Holder: Black Magic stays at MOCA North Miami until April 4, 2027.
Neila came to Miami real estate after nine years running a fashion brand in New York, where color and gesture were part of the daily work. A show like Holder's, built on saturated color and the human figure, is the kind of thing she likes to talk about. Whether you're furnishing a North Miami home with art in mind or just want to compare notes after the Art Week reception, Neila Granzoti is happy to talk, in English, Portuguese or Italian. Let's Connect.
