Andrea Morales, (Left) A community vigil for the victims of violence at Northside High School; (Right) Santaria, 12, in the studio
ARTIST TALK AT 2 PM; PORTRAIT SESSIONS TO FOLLOW
This summer, Andrea Morales has been photographing Memphis as part of Crosstown Arts’ Studio Residency program. The Peruvian-born and Miami-raised photographer’s ongoing project looks at the details of life in the city’s neighborhoods (particularly in Crosstown and North Memphis) through documentary and portraiture work. Motivated by her background as a photojournalist at community newspapers, this addresses a communion of sorts with Memphis as a new home.
The studio space afforded by the residency is dubbed “Daisy Curtain” Studio for the season and serves as a means to meet folks while developing studio portraiture practices. Come visit Daisy Curtain, view some work in progress and learn a little about the documentary process. Folks who come by also have the option of having their portrait made, perhaps as part of the project, but mostly because there’s no such thing as a bad face. Participants will get a free print and/or digital file for their time.
The artist will host 2 additional portrait sessions over the summer:
Sunday, July 24, 2016; 1PM-5PM Sunday, July 31, 2016; 1PM-5PM
Looking to schedule some time? Have any other questions? Contact the artist, Andrea Morales at morandrea@gmail.com
On View: Wednesday, August 26 & Thursday, August 27, 10 am – 6 pm Reception: Friday, August 28, 6 – 9 pm Gallery Talk: Saturday, August 29, 2 – 4 pm
Superficially, a neighborhood is designated by boundaries, the invisible lines traced along streets and across topographical features. But a neighborhood is given meaning by its inhabitants, the people whose lives enmesh to tell a story and create a sense of place. Here All Along is a collaborative exhibition featuring works from several artists living and/or working in the Klondike Smokey City, New Chicago and Crosstown neighborhoods.
The show’s works are expressions of individual experiences, but together they conjure notions of everyday life in these communities. From portraiture to large-scale public sculpture to intricate leather and fabric goods, Here All Along is a collection of distinct offerings focused on transcending invisible lines and creating connections between neighborhoods, connections between people.
Participating Artists: Calvin Farrar, Renee Hodges, Darlene Newman, Ted Norwood, Artiek Smith, Nelson Smith III, Nelson Smith IV and Larry Walker & Brittney Bullock
Sears Crosstown Building, 495 N. Watkins, Free admission
In partnership with VO2 Networx, the University of Memphis Department of Art, Memphis College of Art, and Rhodes College Art Department, Crosstown Arts is pleased to welcome internationally-recognized installation and social practice artist Theaster Gates for a public lecture and panel discussion at Sears Crosstown on the evening of Saturday, November 16.
His presentation, “A Way of Working,” will introduce and explore his artistic practice and ways of working with various systems, including university, philanthropic, government, studio and museum structures, to create new models for creative engagement and redevelopment.
The historic Sears Crosstown building is in its last few months as an abandoned structure, as the Crosstown Development Project will begin construction in early 2014. Gates’ lecture and panel discussion will highlight this monumental moment of remaking place and space.
Following the lecture, a panel discussion will be held with Gates and members of the Crosstown Development Project’s design team. Panelists include Walter Hood, professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley and founder and principal at Hood Design, and Frank Ricks, principal at Looney Ricks Kiss. Todd Richardson of the Crosstown Development Project will moderate the discussion.
Read an interview with Theaster Gates in the New York Times
Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates has developed an expanded practice that includes space development, object making, performance and critical engagement with many publics. Founder of the non-profit Rebuild Foundation, Gates is currently Director of Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago.
Gates’ current exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago extends the work he conceived for dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany. Recent exhibition and performance venues also include the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Punta della Dogana, Venice; Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Birmingham Museum of Art; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Locust Projects, Miami; the Seattle Art Museum; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; the Armory Show and the Whitney Biennial in New York.
In 2012, Gates was awarded the inaugural Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics, the Wall Street Journal’s Arts Innovator of the Year, a Creative Time Global Residency Fellowship, and became a United States Artists Kippy Fellow. Gates has also received awards and grants from Creative Capital, the Joyce Foundation, Graham Foundation, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and Artadia. He is represented by Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago and White Cube in London.
FEAST is a recurring public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund emerging art-makers. MemFeast is Memphis’ local version founded and facilitated by Crosstown Arts, dedicated to rethinking how the arts are financed and experienced communally. The original FEAST was conceived in Brooklyn in 2009.
At the second installment of MemFeast, seven artists proposed public art projects for Midtown’s Crosstown neighborhood. The most votes went to artist Robin Salant and her proposal to illuminate the Sears Crosstown building with colored solar lights. Learn more about Crosstown Lights at facebook.com/crosstownlights.
