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2023 Summer Arts Guide

Photo: “Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” by Tangela Mathis at Crosstown Arts

If you’re looking for a retreat from the heat this summer, the Memphis art scene has you covered — with cool exhibitions, cool performances, and very cool experiences. Just take a look through our 2023 Summer Arts Guide, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

Art For All will celebrate its inaugural Art for All Festival this weekend. (Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)

Art For All Festival

From Downtown to Whitehaven to Collierville and back, Shelby County’s government wants to make the arts inclusive and accessible to everyone countywide. Earlier this year, the Arts and Culture Nonprofit Subcommittee announced its “Art For All” campaign, a series of free arts and culture experiences. This Sunday, June 25th, marks its flagship Art For All Festival.

The festival will highlight a sample of what Memphis arts and culture organizations have to offer, with a variety of performances, installations, experiences, and more. Attendees can expect an interactive pop-up art gallery from TONE, demonstrations by the Mini Mobile Metal Museum, dance movement therapy from Image Builders Memphis, activities with Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, art activations from Orpheum Theatre and Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and performances by Opera Memphis and Hattiloo Theatre. The Museum of Science & History, the festival venue, will also offer activities linking art and science.

“Art For All [stems from] the fact that we have a multitude of organizations within Memphis and Shelby County with a variety of wonderful offerings that we want to bring awareness to and uplift,” says Nykesha Cole, Shelby County’s arts and culture liaison. “And we want everybody to have the opportunity to have access to arts and culture ’cause, truly, when you look at it, that is one of the most vibrant things in society.”

Museum of Science & History, Sunday, June 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free

Collage Dance Collective (Photo: Courtesy Collage Dance Collective)

Memphis Dance Festival

This September, Collage Dance Collective will host its third Memphis Dance Festival, and already, the organization has confirmed top-notch talent for the day — Memphis’ own Lil Buck, dancers from New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (NYC), Alonzo King LINES Ballet (San Francisco), SOLE Defined tap company (DC), Nashville Ballet, of course Collage Dance Collective, and many more local dance organizations.

“We are really trying to curate something very special so that our community can experience these world-class national artists in their own backyard,” says Marcellus Harper, Collage’s executive director. “That’s meant to really get the community excited about dance and to elevate dance as a powerful transformative art in our community and our city.

“One of the taglines [of the festival] is, ‘Dance is for everyone,’” Harper continues. “So we’re hoping that really resonates throughout the festival, but also this focus on physical well-being, emotional well-being, how we prioritize those things. Whether it’s a physical wellness program or an emotional wellness program, movement is always a big part of that practice, so dance can really be great for the soul and the spirit, too.”

Collage Dance Center, September 16, free

Andrew Thornton’s Many Faces metalwork (Photo: Courtesy Andrew Thornton)

“We Are Here”

This month, the Metal Museum opened a juried exhibition of 40 works of art from 26 queer-identifying metal artists from across the country. For the exhibition, three jurors — matt lambert, Al Murray, and Memphian Lawrence Matthews — selected pieces they felt spoke to the intersectional spectrum of what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

“Rather than the typical ‘the work looks like it’s queer,’ I think this show also really highlights that there are people from these backgrounds in all areas,” says lambert. “We’re making space for a lot of types of identity that include queerness, but it’s not just that. [The artists in the exhibit] place themselves [along] those spectrums, but for some it was an option to just be themselves, and maybe they don’t want to stress that part of them. Just applying [for the exhibition] already implies that they see themselves as part of this community.”

“[The exhibit] feels like it’s a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people,” adds one of the artists, Funlola Coker, “but it also feels poignant right now, especially given what’s happening not just in Tennessee but around America and the world, and how queer people are being oppressed. It feels really important to keep showing work like this and talking about it and supporting artists who talk about these issues because it’s a more nuanced expression of who we are.”

“We Are Here: LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Contemporary Metals Community” is on display at the Metal Museum through September 10th.

Zao Wou-Ki’s “Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens. (Photo: Abigail Morici)

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics”

In 2018, Zao Wou-Ki became the world’s third best-selling artist, after Picasso and Monet, with auctions of the late French-Chinese painter’s work generating $327 million, according to Forbes. Now, he sits at a comfortable 23rd ranking, above names as recognizable as Botticelli, Degas, Renoir, Banksy, O’Keeffe, Manet, Pollock, and Matisse. Yet, as Julie Pierotti, a curator at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, says, he’s not a household name in the United States. Even so, with its latest exhibit, “Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics,” the Dixon is hoping to change that, with an impressive display of 80 works in watercolor and on ceramics, all drawn exclusively from European private collections.

Throughout his prolific and successful career, Zao channeled Chinese calligraphy in his abstract expressionist work on canvas, ink on paper, lithography, and engraving, and watercolor, bridging the artistic traditions of the East and the West. However, for the first time, his watercolors will be taking center stage in a museum setting at the Dixon.

“Watercolor [was] a kind of a constant medium for him,” says Pierotti. “He explored watercolor throughout his career, but with a lot of vigor in the last years of his life. He was known really for his oil painting, but these works really are authentic to who he was and what his artistic vision was.”

“For an artist who worked in a variety of media but has this kind of little-known dedication to watercolor, we feel like we’re showing, for those people who knew Zao Wou-Ki before, a different side to his career,” Pierotti adds, “and for those who didn’t know him, it’s a great time to get to know him.”

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens through July 16th. Accompanying the exhibit is “Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment,” on display through July 9th. Admission to the museum is always free.

Harmonia Rosales’ Beyond the Peonies (Photo: Courtesy Harmonia Rosales)

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative”

At a young age, Harmonia Rosales fell in love with the Renaissance masters who wove tales from Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity in their paintings, but years later when she showed these paintings to her daughter, her daughter didn’t fall in love with them. “She was like, ‘They don’t look like me,’” says Rosales, “It just hit me that I didn’t want her to feel like her hair wasn’t beautiful, her skin wasn’t beautiful.”

And so Rosales took to the canvas to give her daughter the representation she was missing in the Western Renaissance paintings that have been celebrated for centuries. As an Afro-Cuban American, she turned to the Lucumí religion of her ancestors and wove those tales into her paintings, made in the style of the Renaissance paintings that once filled her imagination.

At first, her peers discouraged her from painting these stories centered around African and Black figures in the Renaissance style. Her advisors told her she wouldn’t be able to sell them, but Rosales didn’t care. This work made her happy. “To see us in there, our ancestors, our history in a format where it’s just as time-consuming, looks just like the Renaissance paintings — the priceless paintings, the most beautiful paintings of the world, can’t touch ’em, can’t buy ’em — I wanted to do that in order to empower us and see our history in the same light,” she says. “Inclusion, it’s all about inclusion. Seeing this is what I want for my children.”

Rosales intended these pieces to be public-facing, wanting to reach as broad of an audience as possible, just like the Renaissance masters she reimagines and reinvents. And thanks to the Brooks, she is one step closer to that goal as her first solo museum exhibition, outside of her home state California, opened this spring. Titled “Master Narrative,” the exhibition contains more than 20 breathtaking paintings completed over the past few years and closes this weekend.

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative” is on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through June 25th.

ON DISPLAY

“In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now”
Explore paintings, sculptures, and photography from the past 70 years.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, ongoing

“Build a Heaven of My Own: African American Vernacular Art and the Blues”
This group show explores how the musical and verbal tropes, meaning, and context of the blues not only share traits, but have informed the visual culture of African-American artists from Memphis.
Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), through June 24

(Photo: Courtesy Frederick Asbury)

Art at Artvision
Witness over 100 years of combined experience from artists E.P. Simon and Frederick Asbury, featuring works in realism, impressionism, expressionism in painting, drawing, photography, and computer-driven image-making. Guest artist Missy Isely-Poltrock (Kenosha, WI) will show her work through July 4th.
Artvision Fine Art Gallery, 484 N. Hollywood

“Passenger Pigeons and Ecological Tipping Points”
Experience the powerful collage art of local artist Jennalyn Speer, exploring the extinction of passenger pigeons and currently endangered bird species.
Morton Museum of Collierville History, through July 8

“Reimagining the Real: Ana M. Lopez & Natalie Macellaio”
These artists take everyday objects — air-conditioning fixtures, fences, road signs, and construction debris — and transform them into unique works of art as statements about power, privilege, and the environment.
Metal Museum, through July 9

“Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment”
Susan Maakestad highlights the marginal spaces of the urban landscape in her watercolors.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, through July 9

Ed Hall’s Dancing in the Sky at L Ross Gallery (Photo: Courtesy Ed Hall | L Ross Gallery)

“Paper Palooza”
L Ross Gallery presents a group show of works on paper, featuring work by special guest artists Brantley Ellzey and Ed Hall.
L Ross Gallery, through July 22

“Boys 2 Men (If You Don’t See Black, You Don’t See Me) A Traveling Exhibition”
This show energetically focuses on the diversity of artistic expression within an African-American male pool of visual art creatives in Memphis.
Arkwings, through July 22; Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), September

“RE(de)FINED”
Johnson Uwadinma’s exhibition reflects on the fraught but integral relationship between humans and nature.
Urevbu Contemporary, through July 31

“Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas”
McLean Fahnestock presents videos from his “Stratagem” series, where the sea and sky flip and merge to generate a new, seductive yet false horizon.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt”
Tangela Mathis presents contrasting aspects of personality, showcasing the yin and yang of pneuma.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Edgewise: Exploring Pattern and Rhythm with Line”
Khara Woods presents a collection of paintings, sculpture, and creative devices.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

Yangbin Park’s Clothline at Porch Window Gallery (Photo: Courtesy Yangbin Park)

“Echoes of Home: Memory and Belonging”
Yangbin Park reflects on his memories of home in this exhibition of prints on hanji paper.
Porch Window Gallery, Studiohouse on Malvern, through August

“Rich Soil”
Created by American artist Kristine Mays, the 29 sculptures in this exhibit are inspired by the movements and gestures of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations.
Memphis Botanic Garden, through October 1

“America at The Crossroads: The Guitar and a Changing Nation”
Explore America’s evolution through the lens of the guitar.
Museum of Science & History, through October 22

MoSH celebrates the guitar with two new exhibitions. (Photo: Collins Dillard)

“Grind City Picks: The Music That Made Memphis”
Learn about the evolution of notable music genres in Memphis through an impressive display of instruments, band merchandise, and photographs.
Museum of Science & History, through October 22

“Tommy Kha: Eye Is Another”
Photographer Tommy Kha explores themes of identity, (in)visibility, and sense of place in this site-specific installation for the Brooks’ Rotunda.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, through October 29

2022 Accessions to the Permanent Collection
Take a look at the 24 objects the Metal Museum welcomed into its permanent collection last year. 
Metal Museum, through November 12

“The World in Pieces”
Beth Edwards showcases her contemporary still-life paintings, referencing and reinventing historical vanitas paintings with sensuous, metaphorical realism.
David Lusk Gallery, June 27-July 29

“Mud Huts to Paper”
Collierville artist Amruta Bhat offers a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old practice of Madhubani painting, an ancient Indian folk-art technique.
Morton Museum of Collierville History, July 11-September 9

“Sally Smith: Adrenaline Rush”
Sally Smith’s canvases demonstrate her careful observation of the natural world and deft handling of oil paint.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 11-October 1

“To See With New Eyes, Richard Carr”
Blacksmith Richard Carr uses salvaged local materials to share his love of architecture, organic forms, and the Memphis community in this exhibition.
Metal Museum, July 16-September 24

“American Perspectives: Highlights from the American Folk Art Museum”
This exhibition presents 70 works of art from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 30-October 8

“Black American Portraits”
The exhibition chronicles the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture from 19th-century studio photography to today.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, August 17-January 7, 2024

“Mary Sims”
David Lusk Gallery presents an exhibition of work by Mary Sims, who was celebrated for her extraordinary, stylized oil paintings based on both real and invented environments.
David Lusk Gallery, September 5-September 30

ON STAGE

Mary Poppins
The arrival of Mary Poppins brings whimsical imagination and a bit of magic to the Banks family of London.
Theatre Memphis, through July 2

Jersey Boys
The Broadway smash hit, chronicling the rise and eventual breakup of the legendary doo-wop group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, makes its regional premiere in the Bluff City.
Playhouse on the Square, through July 16

Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen (Photo: Deen van Meer)

Frozen
An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical.
Orpheum Theatre, June 22-July 2

24 Hour Plays: Memphis
Witness this electrifying theatrical event as six new plays are written, rehearsed, and performed within a thrilling 24-hour time frame.
TheatreWorks@The Evergreen, June 24, 7 p.m.

Don’t Hydroplane
Winner of the 2022 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition, Don’t Hydroplane follows a family as they navigate the difficult task of finding a final resting place for their loved one.
TheatreWorks@The Square, July 7-July 23

The Color Purple
The musical adaptation of The Color Purple features awe-inspiring soul, gospel, jazz, and blues vocals underpinned by raw dialogue and a masterful plot.
Hattiloo Theatre, July 28-August 28

(Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)

Karlous Miller: At the End of the Day
Karlous Miller is an American comedian, actor, writer, host, and co-founder of the 85 South Show. He began his comedy career in Atlanta, Georgia, and is widely known for his star roles in MTV’s Wild ’N Out, HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, and BET’s ComicView.
Orpheum Theatre, August 5, 7 p.m.

Billy Cherry … The Final Curtain
Bill Cherry pays tribute to CBS’s Elvis in Concert, the posthumous 1977 television special.
Halloran Centre, August 12, 2:45 p.m.

Sister Act
When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she is relocated to a convent for her protection. Her stay with the nuns helps her and the sisters, quite literally, find their true voices.
Theatre Memphis, August 18-September 10

The Prom
A group of Broadway stars comes to the rescue when a student is refused the opportunity to bring her girlfriend to the prom.
Playhouse on the Square, August 18-September 17

A Raisin in the Sun
Set on Chicago’s South Side, Lorraine Hansberry’s celebrated play concerns the divergent dreams and conflicts in three generations of the Younger family.
Hattiloo Theatre, August 25-September 24

Fat Ham
In a deliciously funny retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in the American South, William returns home after his father’s death and must confront corruption and betrayal.
The Circuit Playhouse, September 15-October 8

The Crucible
Based on events which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, this tragedy tells the story of a village that becomes embroiled in a witch hunt.
Theatre Memphis, September 15-October 1

Father Comes Home from the Wars
An explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love.
Hattiloo Theatre, September 29-October 22

Pictures at an Exhibition & Chris Brubeck Guitar Concerto
Memphis Symphony Orchestra brings you the world premiere of Chris Brubeck’s double guitar concerto, featuring both classical and blues guitar.
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, September 30, 7:30 p.m.; Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, October 1, 2:30 p.m.

AROUND TOWN

First Wednesdays at the Brooks
Every first Wednesday the Brooks will have incredible live music.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Wednesdays of the month, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Munch and Learn
Every Wednesday during lunchtime, join the Dixon for presentations by local artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing on a variety of topics.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Wednesdays, noon-1 p.m.

Super Saturdays at the Brooks
The first Saturday of every month, the Brooks will have free admission from 10 a.m.-noon and art-making led by art educator Mrs. Rose. (PS: Every Saturday, admission is free from 10 a.m.-noon.)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Saturdays of the month, 10 a.m.-noon

Free Family Day
On the second Saturday of each month, the Stax Museum offers free admission for everyone. There will also be food trucks, games and activities, arts and crafts for children, bouncy houses, face painting, balloon artists, and live music.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music, second Saturdays of the month, 1-5 p.m.

Oil Painting with Glynnis
In this class, students will paint a still life composition using oil paints.
Arrow Creative, June 25, 11 a.m.

Rich Sounds at the Garden
Join the Memphis Botanic Garden on the last Sunday of each month to enjoy performances and demonstrations from local arts and culture organizations.
Memphis Botanic Garden, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, 2-5 p.m.

Whet Thursdays
Enjoy a free after-hours event held at the Metal Museum on the last Thursday of the month with games on the lawn, food truck fare, live music, metalsmithing demos, and more.
Metal Museum, June 29, July 27, August 31, 5-7 p.m.

Public Art Yoga
UrbanArt Commission will offer free 45-minute outdoor public art yoga sessions this summer.
Various locations, July 8, August 12, September 9

Art Club with Joi Purvy
Decorate and take home your own terra-cotta pot with acrylic paint and gold foil!
Arrow Creative, July 10, 6 p.m.

Fairy Garden Planting Party (21+)
Put together your own unique fairy garden! All supplies will be provided, including plants, pots, soil, and decorations. Bring your own drinks and snacks to enjoy while you’re creating. This event is for adults only 21+.
Memphis Botanic Garden, July 21, 6:30 p.m.

Crown Me Royal Film Fest
This noncompetitive film festival showcases panels, workshops, and independent films from BIPOC behind-the-scenes filmmakers and creatives from all media platforms.
Various locations, August 4-6

Night at the Museum
Explore the Dixon galleries like never before as works step out of the canvas for an evening of special performances and music, activities, and much more.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, August 12, 5-8 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion
Shop colorful new prints, creative cards, and fun stickers to throw onto your new notebooks. Stop by Friday night to grab a cold drink while you shop, or bring your kids through on Saturday for them to pick out their own decorative school starter pack.
Arrow Creative, August 18-August 19

Art on the Rocks: Garden Cocktails & Craft Beer (21+)
Enjoy botanical cocktails, craft beer, and wine in the Dixon Gardens. Each admission ticket includes all drink tastings and bites from local restaurants along with live entertainment.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, September 8, 6-9 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion
Shop from local makers, grab a drink, and catch a football game with some friends.
Loflin Yard, September 23, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

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Art News News Blog

The Brooks Digs In

Barbara Hyde brought a gift to the groundbreaking of the future Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Speaking before a crowd of dignitaries and press under a tent at Union Avenue and Front Street Thursday morning, she announced that she and husband Pitt were making a $20 million commitment toward the completion of the facility that is expected to open in 2026.

That contribution brings the total raised to 75 percent of the $180 million fundraising goal for the project.

Zoe Kahr, the Brooks’ executive director, said she was confident that the museum will reach its goal. “Memphians invested $100 million in their new art museum before seeing a single rendering,” she said. “Tennesseans committed another $35 million to their oldest and largest art museum before construction began.”

Groundbreaking for the Brooks on the Bluff, June 1st. Photo by Jon W. Sparks

Four years ago, the museum had an event on the site to announce that renowned design firm Herzog & de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland and New York, would collaborate with Memphis-based archimania, the architect of record.

Occupying the site that day was a fire station and parking garage. In recent months, those have been razed and plans are proceeding to do seismic work and construction.

The new 122,000 square-foot building will feature nearly 50 percent more gallery space than the museum’s current home in Overton Park. The space will be used to to exhibit Memphis’ growing permanent art collection, as well as new spaces for education and art-making for all ages. Officials said the new Brooks will include “600 percent more art-filled public spaces than the current facility.”

The new Brooks will have a restaurant and gift shop, highlighting Memphis markers and artists. A community courtyard in the heart of the building will be 10,000 square feet, the size of two full NBA courts. The rooftop will provides visitors with an expansive green-space: an art park in the sky with an event pavilion. The courtyard and the rooftop will be open to the public without museum admission. 

The museum campus will include a new pedestrian plaza shared by the museum and Cossitt Library as well as connecting the Bluff Walk, which now ends behind Cossitt Library, and the River Walk on Union Avenue.

The museum’s wide open areas will afford views of the Mississippi River. Pedestrians on Front Street will have a view into the gallery level. The other side facing the river will be more closed off to minimize the effects of sunlight, but there will be two windows.

Brooks executive director Zoe Kahr faces the media at the museum groundbreaking on June 1, 2023.

“Our architects did a beautiful job of thinking about the site and how to optimize that pedestrian experience where you look into the museum and you understand what’s in there so you’re not intimidated,” Kahr said.

She also noted that the entire rooftop will be a garden. “It will have art, it’ll have programs, it’s going to have a beautiful event pavilion. I think it’s going to be the best place to get married in Memphis, but I may be biased.”

Kahr said that the museum is intentional about its art spaces. “We’re creating discrete moments where you’re immersed in the art and then you’re brought back to the river. Its public spaces are all about the river.”

When she arrived to take over at the Brooks last November, Kahr knew that changes and challenges would be in the mix, and she was looking forward to it.

“It’s so unusual to get the chance to reexamine and reinstall your permanent collection,” she said. “I’d say we’re leading with that as a set of projects, and our curatorial team has really been spending a lot of time thinking about what stories we can tell from our collection.”

They’re also looking at what objects are not in the collection. “What do we need to tell those stories that we think are important? That’s been a primary focus. But then we’re also thinking about what will be on view here in terms of loan exhibitions.”

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Harmonia Rosales’ “Master Narrative” at the Brooks

Oshosi Gets His Crown, 2019 (Photo: Courtesy Harmonia Rosales)

At a young age, Harmonia Rosales fell in love with the Renaissance masters who wove tales from Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity in their paintings. “They tell a full story, corner to corner, like a children’s book where you don’t have to really have the text,” she says. “You can almost look at the image and know this is what happened. When I was younger, though, I never looked at the image and thought, ‘Okay, this is the story of the Great Flood,’ or what have you. I would make up my own stories. It wasn’t until my daughter that I then became more aware of what was missing. When I had my daughter, it was like I was reborn almost, with these really innocent eyes. And when I took her to see these beautiful paintings that I fell in love with, she didn’t fall in love with them. … She was like, ‘They don’t look like me.’ It just hit me that I didn’t want her to feel like her hair wasn’t beautiful, her skin wasn’t beautiful.”

And so Rosales took to the canvas to give her daughter the representation she was missing in the Western Renaissance paintings that have been celebrated for centuries. As an Afro-Cuban American, she turned to the Lucumí religion of her ancestors. “These gods [of Greek and Roman mythology] are very similar to the orishas I grew up with all my life, but took for granted because I grew up with them,” she says. “There’s no real images I can find on the internet, and so I was like, ‘Let me tell a story, where it’s easy for the masses to understand, but also add in our history.’ And then when I say our history it’s from people from the African diaspora, the Atlantic slave trade, our life, and how we survived through the gods and how the gods survived.”

At first, her peers discouraged her from painting these stories centered around African and Black figures in the Renaissance style. Her advisors told her she wouldn’t be able to sell them, but Rosales didn’t care. This work made her happy. “To see us in there, our ancestors, our history in a format where it’s just as time-consuming, looks just like the Renaissance paintings — the priceless paintings, the most beautiful paintings of the world, can’t touch ’em, can’t buy ’em — I wanted to do that in order to empower us and see our history in the same light,” she says. “Inclusion, it’s all about inclusion. Seeing this is what I want for my children.”

Rosales intended these pieces to be public-facing, wanting to reach as broad of an audience as possible just as the Renaissance masters she reimagines and reinvents have achieved. And thanks to the Brooks, she is one step closer to that goal as her first solo museum exhibition, outside of her home state California, opened last week. Titled “Master Narrative,” the exhibition contains over 20 breathtaking paintings completed over the past few years. The exhibit will be on display through June 25th, with museum programming throughout its run. Learn more at brooksmuseum.org.

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, on display Through June 25th.

“Creolization in the Work of Harmonia Rosales” Lecture, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Wednesday, March 22, 6 p.m.

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Art Art Feature

A Gallery of Pixels at Brooks

Karl Erickson, Be Almost Miraculous, still of digital video, 2022 (Photo: Courtesy Karl Erickson)

As a high school student, the last couple years of my life have been hyper-digitized. The pandemic pushed even my freshman year of learning to a digital platform. Like almost every teen I know, out of a combination of boredom and curiosity, I downloaded many apps that allow me to create my own version of digital art — from the photos I curate to post on Instagram to the short videos I make for TikTok. Digital art abounds in today’s world, whether it’s feats of photography, videography, music, dance, or comedy.

“As humans and machines become more enmeshed than ever, digital art once again asks us to consider what art can be and how it can be experienced,” says Patricia Daigle, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Digital art can be loosely defined as any art that uses technology as part of the creative or presentation process. Artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, and virtual reality have opened up many possibilities, allowing artists to create surreal, unique experiences and virtual worlds that transcend traditional boundaries.

The “Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis” exhibition at the Brooks provides a glimpse into the growing digital art scene in Memphis and features works by Kenneth Wayne Alexander II, Karl Erickson, Coe Lapossy, Sarai Payne, and Anthony Sims. “The exhibition includes works that are purely digital, a combination of the digital and physical, and work that is made digitally for a material existence,” Daigle says.

“They range from finely rendered animations to the decidedly low-tech or intentionally glitched. In this context, the digital is not only a tool but a space in which artists can create alternative physical and psychological environments or states of being.

“For this exhibition,” continues Daigle, “I wanted to feature [Memphis] artists who were working in digital mediums. There are several artists in our community engaging with digital art in different, interesting ways. Several of the artists in the exhibition — Kenneth Wayne Alexander II, Sarai Payne, and Anthony Sims — were born and raised in the Memphis area and had wonderful, influential art teachers in the public schools they attended.”

The works in the exhibit mark a shift away from traditional art forms and mix the traditional and the digital — the style and content of which reflect changes in society.

As part of the exhibition, viewers can peer through a “trapdoor” — a sewer cap on the floor — to watch a video of choreographed art. Another piece, King, features a skull wearing a crown and is a 16-panel digital collage inspired by Memphis street art. “I [thought I] should try and do something to recognize and commemorate the city that really helped me become an artist,” says King creator Anthony Sims.

“This city and the community mean a lot to me. The background in the artwork, I actually made it in 2019 when I was living in Memphis,” Sims says. “The character is kind of an ode to street artist Birdcap. And I usually like throwing an ode to Latin-American culture in my art. The blue squares I liked because that’s the color of Memphis: blues [music], Grizzlies is blue, the University of Memphis is blue — that’s Memphis. I titled the piece King because of the crown, which was inspired by an Inca crown.”

With a boom in everything digital, artists can release their artistic skills through many mediums. There are creative tools from open-source programming to apps that artists can use to hone their skills digitally.

“I started as a physical artist, that is my realm,” Sims says. “I am a physical painter. Just because you are passionate about something doesn’t mean that you need to put yourself in a box and stay in that box. Once I started making digital art, everything in my life changed. I made the most money and [was] met with the most media success through digital art. Never limit yourself as an artist. Don’t be scared of new technologies.”

“Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis” runs through September 11th at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Visit brooksmuseum.org for more info.

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Art Art Feature News Blog

Zoe Kahr to Lead Brooks Museum

Zoe Kahr (Courtesy Memphis Brooks Museum of Art).

Zoe Kahr has been named as the next executive director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Kahr comes to Memphis from her current position as deputy director for curatorial and planning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she led a staff of 80 professionals and oversaw the museum’s artistic programs. At LACMA, Kahr produced more than 300 exhibitions and developed new museum partnerships in Asia, Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East. She also conceived and launched Local Access, which expands access to LACMA’s collections through a series of exhibitions touring to museums in Los Angeles County and adjacent areas.

She joined LACMA in 2010 and was previously the assistant director of exhibition planning at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Kahr holds a B.A. in Art History (Magna Cum Laude), and an M.B.A. with a specialization in Nonprofit Management from Yale University, as well as a PhD in Art History from University College London.

She was chosen by the Board of Trustees of the museum and starts at the Brooks on November 1st, 2022. Mark Resnick, who has been acting executive director, will remain with the Brooks to facilitate a smooth transition process.

“From our first meeting with Zoe, it was clear that she was the perfect person for this role: eminently qualified, universally well-regarded among her peers, and excited to lead our museum forward,” says board chairman Carl Person. “The process undertaken by our search committee was professional, thorough, and rigorous, and concluded with the selection of the perfect candidate. Dr. Kahr’s deep curatorial experience, global perspective, and managerial acumen make her ideally suited for this position.

Kahr also led DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) efforts for LACMA through its exhibitions and acquisitions, as well as through the development of programs to attract and retain staff from diverse backgrounds in the museum field. She oversaw the gallery design for LACMA’s 350,000-square-foot David Geffen Galleries, currently under construction, and secured significant funding for the project.

She currently serves on the boards of the French American Museum Exchange and FEAST (Food Education Access Support Together) Los Angeles. In addition, she is an Accreditation Visiting Committee Member and Museum Assessment Program Peer Reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums.

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Brooks Museum Hosts Panels on Digital Art and NFTs

Tower of Babel, 2021. (Photo: Courtesy Kenneth Wayne Alexander)

When Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million in March 2021, I can bet $69 million that you hadn’t heard of NFTs before then. Okay, maybe that’s just me. But digital art has been around since the 1960s as artists experimented with early computer art. Today, though, after a pandemic-induced shift toward virtual environments, digital art seems more mainstream than ever. “Whether or not you think this is valid art,” says Patricia Daigle, “the way we use digital, it’s just part of who we are. I think you’ll just increasingly see [digital] art in general.”

Daigle, who has curated the Brooks’ latest exhibition “Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis,” points out that digital art is not just “a tiny GIF or something you can view on the screen, that the digital can be thought of as a tool or space.” In this exhibit, artists like Kenneth Wayne Alexander II, Karl Erickson, and Anthony Sims, do turn to animation and NFTs as their preferred medium, but Coe Lapossy and Sarai Payne demonstrate the use of digital in sculpture featuring video and collage using online images and Photoshop.

“I find it really interesting how artists of all backgrounds are using these digital tools,” Daigle says. “I think it’s really interesting and exciting we’re living in this moment where [a new art movement is] being developed. … The market and sort of the attitudes are always shifting. What you’re looking at isn’t staying static.”

To speak on our constantly changing, hyper-digitized world, the Brooks is hosting two panels this weekend, the first of which will touch on how and why artists engage with digital forms, the second of which will delve into NFTs. “We’re almost at a point where we feel overwhelmed by technology,” Daigle says, but she hopes that by engaging with the exhibition we can find pleasure in the digital and perhaps reflect on our connection to technology, “whether it’s positive or negative or neither.”

“Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, on Display through September 11. Artists’ Talk: Art in the Digital Age, Friday, July 15, 6 p.m. | NFTs: Beyond Boom or Bust, Saturday, July 16, 2 p.m.

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Art Art Feature

Adhesive Art: Monika Grzymala at the Brooks’ Rotunda Projects

Monika Grzymala’s Raumzeichnung (Messe Sepe), 2022 (Photo: Lucy Garrett)

Drawing is the foundation of art and, seemingly, fundamental to human consciousness — drawings are the oldest recorded form of human expression and the precursor to written language. In traditional art schools, students practice drawing for a year before picking up a paintbrush. Many artists who work broadly in other mediums continue drawing as a core of their practice. They do so because there is something primal about the act of drawing, about the translation of thought into gesture and gesture into line. The artist Cy Twombly wrote that, in drawing, “Each line is inhabited by its own history, it does not explain, it is the event of its own materialization.”

The Berlin-based artist Monika Grzymala — whose site-specific installation is on display in the Brooks Museum Rotunda through the end of 2022 — trained as a stone sculptor but always maintained a daily practice of drawing. One day, while she was drawing in her sketchbook, she felt the need to expand her drawing past the limits of the page and decided to use tape to extend the drawing across other surfaces in her studio. When she finished, she found she’d made something new: a sculptural drawing. She’d arrived at an artistic question that has preoccupied her ever since, the question of how to extend the act of drawing into three-dimensional space. Today, her sculptural drawings have been shown throughout the world, but this summer is the first time her work has been shown in the American South.

To craft her artwork at the Brooks, she used four different varieties of tape that she has specially manufactured in Germany. The tape varies in width and adhesiveness, allowing the artist to achieve a variety of lines as well as shapes. According to Brooks Museum curator Rosamund Garrett, who first encountered Grzymala’s work while a young student in England, Grzymala “thinks like an engineer” and is always paying attention to the weight and balance of her installations. Her work in the museum stretches the length of the Rotunda, attached to column and ceiling. The artist used miles of the tape, arranging it in long lines and clustered loops or layering it to craft structured supports. The black-and-white color of the piece recalls simple line drawings. A thin and nearly invisible fishing net provides a ceiling for the installation, but otherwise the work is completely made of tape, a tangle of expanding and contracting lines that appear differently depending on vantage point.

Monika Gryzmala at work on the Rotunda Project, June 2022. (Photo: Lucy Garrett)

In looking at a traditional, two-dimensional drawing, a viewer experiences immersion by letting their eye follow the shape of the line. Grzymala’s work offers a version of that same experience, but rather than following a line visually, viewers can experience her work physically. She considers each installation to be a performance and the installation to be a temporary artifact of that performance. Likewise, viewing her work, you remain aware of time and space — not its illusion, but its frustrating reality. Standing beneath Grzymala’s artwork, it feels monumental, while viewing it from the museum’s second floor immerses the viewer in a complicated network of shapes. Things appear for a moment and then disappear depending on how you move through the piece. Shadows come and go as the light and hour changes.

Perhaps the installation is immemorable because it changes so much depending on how and when you experience it. Or perhaps it is more memorable because any aspect of the work becomes almost immediately reduced to memory. Even the tape, over the course of the year, will sag, changing the feeling of the installation with time. The primal gesture that began the drawing will continue until, still mysterious, it disappears from view.

The site-specific exhibition Rotunda Projects: Monika Grzymala is on view at the Brooks Museum through January 9, 2023.

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We Recommend We Saw You

We Saw You: Rajun Cajun, Return to Studio 54

It was great to be back at the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festial and run into old friends, including Lacey Hudman. Her husband, Richard, snapped the photo.

I’ve covered the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival benefiting Porter-Leath many times over the years. I even bought funny bright red caps adorned with (fake) crawfish pincers and crawfish deely boppers, which I wore in photos that I hope were funny at the time.

But it’s hard for me to believe the last Rajun (one of the hardest words to write on a computer) Cajun Crawfish Festival I covered was three years ago. That was the last one before the most recent festival, which was April 24, 2022.

“We had a drive-through last year,” says Porter-Leath communications director Mary Braddock. “And the year before that was canceled.”

This year’s 29th Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival was at the same location — between Wagner Place and Union Avenue. And it featured the same crawfish vendor. “They drive in thousands of pounds of fresh crawfish straight to us from Louisiana. Fresh Gulf crawfish,” Braddock says, “and they steam and season it on sight.”

Prentice, Phyllis, and Shanicka Merritt at Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Neisha Lashay and James Hampton and some crawfish. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Miles Robinson at Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)

They brought 16,000 pounds this year, Braddock says. “We sold out about 6:30. Thirty minutes before we closed, we were out of crawfish. People were really excited to be down there.”

Once again, I didn’t eat any crawfish at the festival because I didn’t want to smell like crawfish all day. The only place I eat crawfish is at my dining room table, where I can be as messy as I want to be and I can reek of crawfish the rest of the day. Okay, I will eat chef Erling Jensen’s crawfish bisque in public at his restaurant, Erling Jensen: The Restaurant. That is an iconic item on Jensen’s menu. And as an added bonus, someone else did the work of pulling the meat out of the crawfish.

These days, if I attend a crawfish boil, I’ll just eat the potatoes and maybe the corn instead of the crawfish, which, hopefully, the host or hostess will bag up for me to take home.

Now don’t get me wrong — I love the taste of crawfish no matter how much work is involved to get that tiny bite. And the Rajun Cajun festival is one of my favorite events of the year. It’s held in the spring, and people are ready to get outside and party.

Addison Millican and Lila Eudaly at Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)

About 35,000 people attended this year’s event, Braddock says. According to its news release, the festival included “crawfish bobbing, eating, and racing contests.” 

More than 24 gumbo teams competed in the Cash Saver Gumbo Cook-off.

The event included a Kids Area on Riverside Drive, and they also had live music on two stages.

And there were food trucks, including at least one I saw that sold — you guessed it — crawfish.

“Rajun Cajun,” the press release states, “is the largest one-day crawfish festival in the Mid-South.” 

And each year “the festival supports free programs and services that Porter-Leath provides for over 40,000 local children and their families to achieve healthy, optimal, and independent lifestyles.”

Preston Brickey, Greg Floyd, Amanda Deering, and Michael Donahue at Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Brock Cates and Cyrus Rector at Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Where Was Bianca?

A guest experiences “Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds” at the “Return to Studio 54” party at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (Credit: Michael Donahue)

The “Return to Studio 54” party could have been called “Return to a Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Party.” It was the first “true members opening [party] since the pandemic,” says Jeff Rhodin, director of marketing and communications at Brooks.

It was great to be back at a Brooks party. The event featured performances by High Expectations Aerial Arts and food from Paradox Catering & Consulting.

Everything centered around the Brooks exhibits “Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds” and “Andy Warhol’s Little Red Book.” The party also featured an introduction to Warhol by Brooks chief curator Rosamund Garrett, associate curator of modern and contemporary art Dr. Patricia Daigle, and curatorial fellow Heather Nickels. Daigle was curator of “Little Red Book” and Nickels was curator of “Silver Clouds.”

Bianca Jagger wasn’t there. Nor was Liza Minelli. But some guests dressed in their wildest best to commemorate Studio 54, which was a trendy New York disco back in the ’70s.

Saj Crone and Michael Donahue at “Return to Studio 54”
A High Expectations Aerial Arts member floats through the air with the greatest of ease at “Return to Studio 54” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Patrick Hendricks and Kerri Campbell at “Return to Studio 54” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Jeremy Reese, Brooks executive director Mark Resnick,and Jeff Rhodin at “Return to Studio 54” (Credit: Michael Donahue)

We Saw You Cards Are Back

We Saw You cards were all the “rage” at an Elvis 7s tournament on August 9, 2019. (Credit: Michael Donahue)

I passed out my first “We Saw You” cards, which tell you where to find my photos on Instagram, on April 24th at the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival. It was the first time since before the pandemic that I gave people my calling card at an event.

So, get ready to be inundated at future events with these (non)collectible cards that feature half of my face and other Memphis Flyer info.

We Saw You
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Music Music Features

Iris Blooms and Keeps Blooming

Awadagin Pratt (Photo: Courtesy of Iris Orchestra)

The Iris Orchestra’s closing concert of the 2021-2022 season, on April 23rd and 24th, was nearly its swan song. For a moment, it appeared that the much-loved collection of virtuosos from around the world, who gather in Memphis for a few select concerts every year, was unsustainable. The notion was deeply troubling for founder and conductor Michael Stern, but he wanted to do the moment justice. “We expressly chose Beethoven’s 5th Symphony because we thought for a moment that we’d be suspending operations, and that this would have been our last concert ever,” says Stern. “I wanted to bring full closure. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony closed our very first concert ever, in 2000. So I thought, if this is going to be our last concert, let it also feature the piece that closed our first concert. But with joy I can say that Iris is not going away!”

As it turns out, Iris will stick around, albeit in new form. After the upcoming concerts, Iris Orchestra will be known as the Iris Collective. “The musicians themselves grouped together, committed to the idea that they simply would not let Iris go away. It was absolutely musician driven. And Iris will continue on. It’s going to have a different feel. I will be less involved, and it will be an amalgam of ensembles, chamber music, orchestra concerts, and new ways of imagining community engagement,” Stern says.

The fortuitous change will be foreshadowed by Iris’ chamber music concert on April 24th. “It’s entirely Iris musicians playing Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, and it’s a fantastic group. It gives a little taste of what the Iris Collective is going to be about.”

Reinvention is par for the course for an organization that’s been dedicated to reimagining music from the beginning, founded to be “an ensemble for the 21st century — flexible, non-hierarchical, and passionate about the highest standards of performance.” And, as Stern sees it, this season’s last program embodies all of Iris’ ideals at once. “We have a wonderful piece from the 20th century, not one but two new pieces by essential American composers, and then an iconic work from the canon. That, in a nutshell, is what Iris is about.”

Stern is especially enthusiastic about the new works. “When we started Iris 22 years ago,” says Stern, “the express intention was, in part, to nurture and promote the music of our time, especially American composers. So this is quite a lovely thing, to have a co-commissioning relationship with two pieces in the program.

“Jonathan Leshnoff has been a great partner and friend to us since we commissioned him to write his first symphony, which was a companion piece to Beethoven’s 9th. This new piece was written to commemorate our 20th anniversary in 2020, which is why he called the piece Score. It’s not only a reference to sheet music, it also means 20 years. Since the premiere got delayed by two years because of Covid, this is a long overdue and very welcome performance.

“And Jessie Montgomery is one of the most compelling voices of the last two or three years, for good reason,” Stern continues. “I’ve done quite a few of Jessie’s works now. This piece especially, Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra, is playful and dancing and really lovely. Awadagin Pratt is making his solo piano debut with us on Jessie’s piece, which she wrote specifically for him. He is a force. A wonderful pianist, a wonderful musician.”

That forward-thinking spirit is also apparent in the classics Iris will present on April 23rd, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, the “Classical.” Stern describes the latter piece as “turning a Haydn symphony on its ear. Through the prism of the early 20th century, Prokofiev writes this really tongue-in-cheek and wonderfully energetic music, doing something new. Beethoven, in his time, was also doing something new. He often said he was writing music for the future. Prokofiev was writing at the dawn of the 20th century, and Beethoven was writing at the dawn of the 19th century. And both were trying to find a new way of speaking in the world.”

Iris Orchestra, featuring Awadagin Pratt, piano, presents Where Past & Future Gather, Saturday, April 23rd, 7:30 p.m. at GPAC; and Iris at the Brooks: Beethoven, Sunday, April 24th, 3 p.m. at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

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Brooks Museum of Art Hosts Two Andy Warhol Exhibits

“Silver Clouds” is an interactive exhibition. (Photo: Abigail Morici)

This past week, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art opened two exhibits, both of them centering around pop artist Andy Warhol. Even though most people recognize the artist for his Campbell’s soup cans or Marilyn Monroe in bright colorful prints, these exhibits highlight Warhol’s interest in photography and sculpture.

“Andy Warhol: Little Red Book” contains 20 polaroids, taken by Warhol, of models, artists, and designers at social gatherings in 1972 — as well as one photo of Warhol himself, though it reveals only a sliver of his face. “These particular polaroids convey an informal, casual sort of party scene and really get across more of an intimate setting,” says Patricia Daigle, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooks. “Photography for Warhol was like a way of life for him. He always had a camera with him at social events.”

To him, Daigle continues, “the polaroid camera was kind of this magic machine in the sense that it could create and develop images instantly. … I think he was very much drawn to the fact that it could be so amateur in that the handheld camera allowed amateur photographers to make images themselves.”

Meanwhile, “Silver Clouds,” a show which first appeared in New York in 1966 and has been recreated in the Brooks, features large rectangular balloons made out of silver scotchpak, the kind of thin material that might be used in packaging. “It’s a fun, unpredictable show in that you don’t know how the balloons will react to your presence in the space. There are several fans in the gallery which is like the original, so the balloons are moving and floating even when no one’s around.”

When the show debuted, Daigle says, Warhol had achieved a considerable amount of fame and had grown tired of painting. “He saw these ‘silver clouds’ as a farewell to painting — as something you could inflate and that would float out into the sky and sort of disappear forever,” Daigle says. “It’s the idea that art is really not precious, that it can be made of everyday materials, and that it can just disappear.” So, Daigle encourages the viewer to reach out and touch the balloons, push them gently into a new direction, and watch them float from one end of the room to the other.

“Silver Clouds”/“Little Red Book,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar, on display through May 15.