Five contemporary artists based in the Mid-Atlantic were awarded the opportunity to have solo exhibitions at MoCA Arlington in 2025 through SOLOS, one of the museum's longest running programs.

ARLINGTON, VA. – Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington is proud to announce the artist awardees of the museum's 2025 SOLOS exhibitions program. Artists Joshua Challen Ice (Pittsburgh, PA), Brandon Morse (Washington, DC), Kei Ito (Baltimore, MD), Christina Lorena Weisner (Kill Devil Hills, NC), and Kelli Williams (Elkridge, MD) were honored at the museum's 50th Anniversary Gala and are all preparing for solo exhibitions at the museum in 2025.

Joshua Challen Ice and Brandon Morse will have solo exhibitions at the museum from February 14 to May 25, 2025. Solo exhibitions by Kei Ito, Christina Lorena Weisner, and Kelli Williams will take place from June 13 to September 7, 2025. Including work in sculpture, installation, stop-motion animation, and new media work created with generative systems, the exhibition series covers a range of contemporary practices, highlighting work by artists at the forefront of contemporary art.

Launched in 1988, SOLOS is one of MoCA Arlington's longest running programs and its primary open call exhibition opportunity. The program invites artists based in the Mid-Atlantic to submit proposals for solo exhibitions in one of the museum's nine gallery spaces. The 2025 SOLOS artist awardees were chosen by a selection panel which included artist and former SOLOS participant Phaan Howng (Effigy, Elegy, Eulogy, 2018), Cynthia Stucki, Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art and Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Dr. Andrew Wasserman, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Design, Missouri State University.

Through SOLOS, MoCA Arlington supports the careers and artistic practices of some of the Mid-Atlantic's most cutting edge artists. The program invites early career artists to have their first institutional solo show and gives mid-career artists the opportunity to exhibit ambitious new bodies of work and experiment with new directions in their practice. In both cases, the program acts as a crucial opportunity and stepping stone as artists develop their practices and thrive in their careers. The program reaffirms MoCA Arlington's commitment to supporting contemporary artists, reflecting its legacy as the only museum in the DC metropolitan area founded by artists.

SOLOS 2025 Exhibition Schedule:

February 14 - May 25, 2025: Brandon Morse (Washington, DC); Joshua Challen Ice (Pittsburgh, PA)

June 13 - September 7, 2025: Kei Ito (Baltimore, MD), Christina Lorena Weisner (Kill Devil Hills, NC), Kelli Williams (Elkridge, MD)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Joshua Challen Ice

Born 1995, Monroeville, PA

Based in Pittsburgh, PA

Joshua Challen Ice creates sculpture, kinetic, and light-based installation art to explore ideas related to architecture and philosophy. Drawing on his background in lighting design and technology for the stage, he creates fully immersive works. Ice’s practice operates as a quasi laboratory for developing new ideas. Without limiting himself to one medium or even sensory experience, Ice uses the tools, materials, and skills he has collected over time to instigate endless possibilities and explorations.

Ice's work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH), Carlow University Gallery (Pittsburgh, PA) and Gradient Project Space (Thomas, WV) and in group exhibitions at Miller ICA at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), SPACE Gallery (Pittsburgh, PA), and The Royal Danish Academy (Copenhagen, Denmark), among other venues. He has participated in artist residencies and fellowships in the United States and Europe and created numerous immersive public art installations throughout Pittsburgh. Ice graduated from Point Park University with a BFA in Lighting Design and Entertainment Technology.

Kei Ito

Born 1991, Tokyo, Japan

Based in Baltimore, MD

Kei Ito is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is centered around utilizing the conceptual framework of photography to visualize the invisible. Mainly employing camera-less photographic techniques, performance, and installation, Ito creates large-scale installations and a variety of photographic projects that excavate hidden histories. As a third-generation atomic bomb victim living in the US, Ito employs his generational history as a series of case studies that often applies the language of monuments and memorials, initiating a journey of healing and growth while inviting audiences to explore nuanced social issues and honor the memories of those lost to both historical and contemporary tragedies.

His solo and group exhibitions have been reviewed in the Washington Post Magazine, Hyperallergic, BBC Culture & Art, BmoreArt, ArtMaze Magazine, ESSE Magazine and various newspapers worldwide. Ito’s works are included in major institutional collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, IL), the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, FL), the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art (Fort Collins, CO), En Foco (NYC, NY), the Eskenazi Museum of Art (Bloomington, IN), and the Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA). Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology followed by his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Brandon Morse

Born 1974, Arlington, TX

Based in Washington, DC

Brandon Morse works with generative systems in order to examine the poetic and metaphorical potential of physical phenomena such as entropy and emergence. Through the use of code and the creation of custom computer software, he builds simulations of seemingly complex systems. The resulting videos and video installations seek to draw parallels between the ways these systems work and the ways in which we, both individually and collectively, navigate the world around us.

Morse's previous exhibitions include the Kreeger Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Washington, DC), the Nanjing Museum (Nanjing, China), and Kusthalle Detroit, as well as many gallery exhibitions across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Morse holds an MFA from the Ohio State University and a BFA from University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. He is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art at University of Maryland.

Christina Lorena Weisner

Born 1982, Richmond, VA

Based in Kill Devil Hills, NC

Christina Lorena Weisner is a sculptor and an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the College of the Albemarle. Weisner explores complex relationships between objects, humans, and the natural environment, from the organic to the technological. Her work draws parallels between the vast and the microscopic, the subjective and the objective. It invites the viewer to consider the deep geological time of water, rocks, and the landscape as well as the more fleeting existence of living beings.

Weisner has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design (Raleigh, NC), Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston Salem, NC), and SteM Zwijgershoek / Mercatormuseum (Sint-Niklaas, Belgium). In 2013-2014, she was awarded a Fulbright Grant for Sculpture and Installation Art to Germany, where she worked on a series of site-specific sculptures based on the Ries Meteorite Impact Crater. Weisner received a BFA in Sculpture and BA in World Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from University of Texas at Austin.

Kelli Williams

Born 1989, Landover, MD

Based in Elkridge, MD

Kelli Williams is an animator and visual artist who uses stop-motion animation, photography, augmented reality, installation, and humor to create work that explores the impact of social and mass media on the construction and perception of identity. In Williams' work, the physicality of stop-motion animation, with its meticulous and hands-on process, acts as a material metaphor for the tangible effort involved in crafting personal identity.

Williams' work has been exhibited widely, including most recently at the Peale Museum, the Eubie Blake Center for the Arts, and Gallery CA, all in Baltimore, MD. Her work has screened at film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Columbus, and Edinburgh, Scotland, among many other locations. Williams contributed to Netflix’s Peabody award-winning short film Cops and Robbers and her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Columbus Live, Hyperallergic, Artnet, and Baltimore Magazine. Williams holds a BA in Fine Art from Morgan State University and an MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design. She is a professor at Maryland Institute College of Art.