Month: December 2024

Made a visit to the New Orleans Museum of Art late last month; my favorite exhibit was actually Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art (through Feb 10) mainly because of this incredible chandelier by Fred Wilson

In 2019, Pace wrote:

We are pleased to inaugurate our new global headquarters in New York with a monographic exhibition showcasing five of Fred Wilson’s Murano glass chandeliers. Installed hanging from the 7th floor gallery’s 19-foot ceiling, these works span fifteen years and are being shown as a group for the first time.

Speak of Me as I Am: Chandelier Mori, Wilson’s first chandelier, was made in 2003 when he represented the United States at the 50th Venice Biennale. Since then, Wilson has continued to experiment with Murano glass design elements as his chandeliers have evolved over the years as vehicles for the artist’s meditations on blackness, beauty, and death. 

Fred Wilson was  one of five American Academy of Arts 2024 ‘Arts and Letters Award’ recipients.

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I was taken with this display of American liquor flasks, many of which might have been suited also for the Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South exhibit going on now through January 5, 2025 in another part of the museum.

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Sharif Bey‘s Domestic: Queen

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and from the Afropolitan exhibit, this Incredible Hulk lunchbox coffin by Theophilus Nii Anum Sowah where these bespoke boxes are a popular way to celebrate one’s interests in Ghana.

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…always enjoy seeing the NOMA collection of Palissy Ware — the most I’ve ever seen in one place was last year’s Antiques & Garden Show in Nashville which will be taking place again beginning January 31.

Visited Guinea Church just outside Moundville, Alabama in mid-October and this was the state of things:

Soon, it will be to the point that if you don’t know it’s there…you won’t. I’ve been photographing this church for years now.

In 2009:

2013:

2021:

Christenberry photographed it several times; these are prints from his visits in 1972, 1976, and 1977

My friend, the artist Church Goin Mule, has an exhibit on now through February 8 at Lowe Mill in Huntsville.

 

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Mule (@churchgoinmule) • Instagram photos and videos

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I have the zine she did about living in Delta; the envelope she drew to me was so fun that I framed it:

right around then, she did an artist residency at Jx Farms in Cleveland MS

 

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Church Goin Mule’s website is here.

Dezeen did a feature on an actually somewhat attractive and certainly sure to be a landmark watertower for a town in Sweden. It’s designed to last for centuries, is made of concrete, and supported by nine columns. Called “the wave” it has that feel, especially from different sightlines.

Some faves I’ve photographed:

Luling, Texas’ watermelon

Gaffney, South Carolina’s peach

Minter City, Mississippi’s cotton boll

Crenelated water tower in Marvel, Alabama

Pensacola Beach’s beach ball

Bourbon, Missouri

Hot and Cold in Ruleville, Mississippi

DeKalb Theatre
Ft Payne AL, 2024.

I just saw that Rachel Feinstein’s ‘The Miami Years’ is on at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami through August 17, 2025, so plenty of time to drop by, still. Of course there’s a lot of talk since Art Miami is finishing up right now. At Gagosian:

Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years spans almost three decades of work by the artist and explores Feinstein’s multidisciplinary approach encompassing sculpture, painting, video, performance, and installation. The exhibition reflects on themes of intimacy, vulnerability, and abjection, foregrounding Feinstein’s examination of societal factors that shape human behavior and female identity. It includes the museum’s commission of site-specific painted mirrored wall panels spanning 30 feet—a work that probes Miami’s contradictory image and reflects the artist’s interest in scenography and artifice.

I was taken with her Facade exhibit last year at SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah. About it, SCAD wrote:

In Façade, New York-based sculptor and painter Rachel Feinstein lays bare the underpinnings of the fantasy realms she so often constructs. Painted panoramas, large-scale sculptures, and 40-foot-long wall-reliefs from across her decades-long career come together to form a labyrinth that shifts between reality and illusion.

Each work featured in this multidimensional installation is an amalgamation of aesthetic and conceptual references, ranging from fairy tales and religious myths to art historical 18th-century European craft and 20th-century American kitsch. With a heightened awareness of the power that accompanies storytelling, Feinstein also draws inspiration from personal memories of her frequent childhood trips to Disney World, her college degree in religion and philosophy, and her upbringing in 1980s Miami. The artist reconfigures these source materials, bridging time periods and spanning a variety of materials to fabricate idyllic landscapes and decadent genre scenes that convey twisted tales of her own device.

Here are some pics from my visit to Facade:

Galerie did a feature on Rachel Feinstein’s NY studio earlier this year.

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Not all, but some of the other exhibits at the SCAD Museum from that 2023 trip:

Ann Craven, Twelve Moons

Gyun Hur, My Peace Like a River

Mika Rottenberg, Cosmic Generator

Ana Bel Lee Washington’s posthumous exhibit, Rejoice!, of 18 works

Chase Hall

Jorje Pardo

Here’s what’s on at the SCAD Museum of Art now.