Tag: Patricia Daigle

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WE SAW YOU: “Black American Portraits” Opens With a Bash

"Black American :Portraits' opened with a party at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Memphis filmmaker Kevin Brooks was impressed with “Black American Portraits,” the new exhibit at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The exhibit, which features 129 works of art and 90 artists, was curated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

“As I walked through the gallery — as a black artist myself — I was profoundly moved by the intention of the curation,” Brooks says. “It was a poignant reminder that the Black experience is multifaceted and complex, encompassing a wide spectrum of emotions and experiences. I left there with a renewed sense of pride and purpose. It reminded me of the transformative power of art to shape perspectives, challenge narratives, and celebrate the beauty of the black experience.”

Brooks, who attended with Kathryn McCullough, were among the more than 750 people who attended the opening party, which was held August 17th.

Kevin Brooks and Katheryn McCullough at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Babbie Lovett at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Toni Crutchfield and Dianne Fletcher at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Logan Scheidt and Brooks executive director Zoe Kahr at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Brooks board president Carl Person at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Christine Moore, Carl E. Moore, Roy Tamboli, Eric O. Harris, Carol Bachman at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Valerie Person, Angela Wright, Leslie Johnson, Tamika Richmond at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)

It was great to be holding a big party at Brooks again, says Patricia Daigle, Brooks curator of modern and contemporary art. “We have a few good years left in our Overton Park location,” she says. So, it’s nice to see people “really excited about the Brooks and what we’re doing here.”

As far as the reaction to the show, Daigle says, “Many people have just been happy and excited to see such incredible works here. A special part of the show is how many of those works by significant artists, both historical and contemporary, are on view.”

“Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
MIckell and Chonisa Lowery at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Aniseya Butler, Michael Butler Jr., and Marley Smith at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Emma Primous, June Griffin James, Elaine Parks at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
“Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Jason and Molly Wexler at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Matt Roumain, Alexis Miche, Linda McNeil, Major McNeil at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Daigle says she’d love to have all these artists included in the permanent Brooks collection, but, in the meantime, visitors are fortunate to get to see work by artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Kerry James Marshall, on display at the Brooks.  

And, she says, visitors appreciate the fact they can see these works in Memphis.“The general feeling I’ve experienced is just the excitement and the joy the exhibit is really trying to lean into.”

No single piece of art is the most popular, Daigle says. Some people are drawn to “the largest work and the most sort of physically-demanding work. But other people really gravitate to a small drawing. Something quiet.”

Part of the appeal is the range of visions in the show, she says. “There’s something for everybody.”

Deejay Jared “J B.” Boyd played music during the evening. Boyd also curated, according to the Brooks website, “a soundtrack of Memphis music that exemplifies Black Love, Power, and Joy. The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack celebrates the vibrant legacy and future of Black musicians in the city of Memphis.”

Jared “Jay B.” Boyd at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“Black American Portraits” will run through January 7th. “We’ll have it for a good long time. I think it gives people a chance to make it out and see it.”

The museum will be featuring a number of programs during the show. Among those will be “Super Saturday: Black American Portraits,” which will be held from 10 a.m. to noon September 2nd. Free admission and art making. The event will celebrate and discuss the “Black American Portraits” exhibit.

Efe Igor Coleman, Blackmon Perry Assistant Curator of African American Art & Art of the African Diaspora at the Brooks Museum, will give a special gallery talk on the exhibit from 6 to 7 p.m. September 13th.

“Bia Butler in Conversation,” a talk with the contemporary textile artist, will begin with a reception at 5 p.m. and the talk at 6 p.m. on September 22nd. Daigle will moderate the conversation.

Shamessia Lee, Lydia Milton, Yvonne Jones at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Logan Scheidt, Cameron Mann, Lauren Kennedy, Justin Taylor at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Willie Taylor, Raven Martin, Ariel Cobbert, Aljammi Davis, Charlene Graves at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Anita Williams and Jerome Smith at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Caitlin Bertsch and Brad Vest at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Ashley and Jeff Borgsmiller at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Billie Gholson, Sandra Burke, Karen English at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Paul Thomas, Margaret Craddock, Amy Greer, Charlie Nelson at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
We Saw Me and Atlanta Ellington at “Black American Portraits” (Credit: Michael Donahue)
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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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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.