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Fall 2021 Exhibition Series:

This Mortal Coil and The Labor of Remembrance are two interrelated exhibitions in dialogue, seeking to mitigate emotional suffering and corporeal pain. The ideology of craft collectively employs active and investigative methodologies, alongside devout and obsessive tendencies to facilitate one’s redemption. This impassioned approach to making by hand, with the inherent connection of ritual and process to that of materiality and craft, draws one to consider the ability of compulsive labor to serve as a remedy for grief. Conceptions of anguish, memory, and extreme vulnerability are displayed in extravagant and brutal force to reveal how histories, both shared and individual, articulate the human condition. The themes addressed in these two exhibitions are more relevant than ever, in response to current shared grim realities and global struggles and their relationship to loss, [in]justice, and mortality. Thus, the works selected illuminate empathy, grief, and loss, as shared universal themes. 

Note: Based on guidance from the University System of Georgia (USG), all vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are encouraged to wear a face covering while inside campus facilities. Unvaccinated individuals are also strongly encouraged to continue to socially distance while inside campus facilities, when possible. Learn more. 

 

  • Rosemary Laing  a dozen useless actions for grieving blondes #5, 2009  C type photograph  Paper size: 30 1/2 x 52 9/16 inches (77.5 x 133.5 cm)  Frame size: 31 3/4 x 53 3/4 inches (88.3 x 136.5 cm)  Edition 2 of 8  2009 Courtesy Rosemary Laing and Galerie Lelong & Co., New York

    This Mortal Coil

    August 28—December 11, 2021

    Location: Mortin Gallery

    Curated by Cynthia Nourse Thompson

    A collection of works by seventeen prominent contemporary artists present a visual dialogue that is strikingly raw and at the surface of our emotional armature— one which most individuals work diligently to prevent illuminating. This imposing presence of fear and loss is conveyed through dramatic images, which while beautiful, are laden with sorrow and despondency. Each artist summons the viewer to pause and reflect on unbearable suffering, both individual and collective, and the frailty of the human condition. Works on display are presented through a timely and despairing lens, pleading empathy, suffering, and sacrifice as shared universal causes. Moreover, the quiet ferocity of devotion as presented through craft, materials, and process provokes one to somatic response beyond exercised humility. Although the artists in This Mortal Coil confront us with fearful depths lurking beneath our exterior, their perspectives beckon us to fathom its darkness and arise to find clarity and strength and the self-recognition that without this palpable dimness, light would not exist. Within darkness, there are moments of great beauty and certainty.  

    Featured artists: Janine Antoni, Louise Bourgeois, Sonya Clark, Gail Deery, Carson Fox, Markus Hansen, Donna Smith Jones, Anders Krisár, Rosemary Laing, Pixy Liao  , Roberto Mannino, Martha McDonald, Oscar Muñoz, Tony Orrico, Dario Robleto, Piper Shepard, and Anne Wilson.  

    Featured image: Rosemary Laing , a dozen useless actions for grieving blondes #5, 2009 , C type photograph  Paper size: 30 1/2 x 52 9/16 inches (77.5 x 133.5 cm)  Frame size: 31 3/4 x 53 3/4 inches (88.3 x 136.5 cm)  Edition 2 of 8 , 2009 Courtesy Rosemary Laing and Galerie Lelong & Co., New York 

  • Louise Bourgeois TOPIARY, THE ART OF IMPROVING NATURE (detail, plate 6), 1998 Portfolio of nine drypoint and aquatint etchings on paper Each: 39 1/4 x 27 3/4"; 99.7 x 70.5 cm. Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY  

    The Labor of Remembrance Print and Textile Works by Louise Bourgeois

    August 28—December 11, 2021

    Location: Don Russell Clayton Gallery

    Curated by Cynthia Nourse Thompson

    Louise Bourgeois calls upon both subtle and obvious metaphors associated with textiles within her work: the spider, the needle, clothing, and flax. She has stated, “I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.” This art of making, specifically a return to the physicalness of creating, is wholly present in Bourgeois’ needlework. She poignantly renders the construction of a diary, through entries realized in strands of thread and layered fabrics, as dimensional compositions. The careful presentation of a select grouping of her works, in association with those comprising This Mortal Coil, further establishes the relationship of craft with contemporary artistic practice while also rendering an impactful narrative. 

    Featured image: 
    Louise Bourgeois 
    TOPIARY, THE ART OF IMPROVING NATURE (detail, plate 6), 1998 
    Portfolio of nine drypoint and aquatint etchings on paper. Each: 39 1/4 x 27 3/4"; 99.7 x 70.5 cm.  
    Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY 
      

    • Associated Programming:

    • Jenni Sorkin Virtual Scholar Lecture: Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 7:00 pm

    • ZMA After Hours: Thursday, October 14, 2021, 5:00 pm In gallery presentation by Cynthia Nourse Thompson

    • Virtual Panel Discussion and Presentation: Art Empathy, and Wellness: Thursday, October 28, 2021, 7:00 pm, Presenters Include: Marcia Day Childress, PH.D., Melissa Jordan Live, Ph.D.

    • Virtual Scholar Lecture with Sewon Kang & Felix Harlan: Lecture and discussion on
      The Print Work of Louise Bourgeois on Content and Process: Thursday, November 3, 2021, 7:00 pm

    • Closing event and reception: Saturday, December 11, 4:00 - 6:00 pm

  • Photo of sculptural work by Ruth Zuckerman featured in the exhibition, Inside Out.

    Ruth V. Zuckerman Collection: Inside Out

    Long-term display 

    Location: Ruth Zuckerman Pavilion 

    Curated by Teresa Bramlette Reeves

    For the preservation of artwork, museums must often hold their permanent collections in storage rather than on public view. "Visible storage," maintains necessary safe-keeping of the objects while allowing museum visitors to see and study work that would otherwise be unavailable. This installation employs visible storage to showcase a substantial number of Ruth Zuckerman's sculptures and drawings from the KSU Permanent Collection, while making aspects of a collection's care transparent for the public.

 

ZMA Projects Wall Installations:

  • Photo of artist Tony Orrico performing 8 Circles. The artist is seen face down with arms in motion, covered in graphite.

    North Project Wall: Tony Orrico

    September 11—December 5, 2021

    Artist Tony Orrico presents Prepare the plane, a performative piece with dental occlusions on paper made over the course of an 8.5-hour performance. The work is on view now on the Zuckerman Museum of Art's North Project Wall. 

    • Tony Orrico is a visual and performance artist, choreographer, and dancer. Merging the act of drawing with choreographic gesture and bio-geometrics, his work has reached mass circulation for its ingenuity within the intersections of performance and drawing. His work explores how consciousness and physical impulses manifest into visible forms. He often uses his own somatic research, Suspension Practice, as point of entry into his visual work. Orrico has performed/exhibited his work across the US and internationally in Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. His visual work is in collection at of The National Academy of Sciences (Washington DC) and Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC, Mexico City) as well as prominent private collections such as Grazyna Kulczyk, Kablanc/Fundación Otazu and Bergmeier/Kunstsaele, among others. He has presented at the CCCB, Centre Pompidou-Metz, The New Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum and Poptech 2011: The World Rebalancing. Orrico was one of a select group of artists to re-perform the work of Marina Abramovic during her retrospective at MoMA (2010). As a former member of Trisha Brown Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, Orrico has graced such stages as the Sydney Opera House, Teatro La Fenice, New York State Theater, and Theatre du Palais-Royal.  

    Featured image: Tony Orrico performing 8 Circles.Photo by Michael Hart.

  • Kayte Terry's SURVIVING PIECES photography series created in 2017. The photo shows a figure with bare shoulders and a fabric headdress created from many white and gray socks.

    East Project Wall: Kayte Terry

    August 28, 2021—July 30, 2022

    The ZMA is pleased to present a newly commissioned work by Philadelphia artist Kayte Terry.

    Terry’s work examines the literal and figurative boundaries of the body. Through photography, video, collage, installation and object-making, she unravels issues of illness, family, memory, longing and loss. The patchwork of materials she uses form a personal language that speaks to the fuzzy intersection of personal desires and cultural expectations as seen in the work on display. As a queer woman living with a cluster of auto-immune diseases, she is interested in making the invisible illness visible, as well as finding beauty in pain and restriction. Most recently,  she  explores inter-dependency and love, particularly through d/s, communal and ethically non-monogamous relationships. Terry often pieces together materials that are imprinted with the shape of the body such as socks, gloves, and her own skin with materials like shower curtains, balloons and fashion magazines. The patchwork of these materials form a personal language that speaks to the obscured intersection of her own personal desires and feminine cultural expectations.

    • Kayte Terry studied Art History and Women’s Studies at Simon’s Rock College of Bard and received her MFA in Studio Art at University of the Arts. She has also studied abroad with the School for International Training in Fortaleza, Brazil and at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy. Kayte has been in group shows in New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA and Seattle, WA, including the show Adorned: Beauty in Excess at Joy Pratt Markham Gallery at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, AK. Most recently, Kayte has been a visiting artist in grad programs at Mass Arts in Boston, MA and University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Kayte is also a member of the art collective Little Berlin in Philadelphia, where she has curated several shows.  

     

    • Detail of work by Jamele Wright Sr.

      West Project Wall: Jamele Wright Sr.

      August 28, 2021— July 30, 2022

      Curatorial Project Director: Emily Knight 

      The ZMA is pleased to present a newly commissioned work, ReBorn #4.02 by Atlanta artist Jamele Wright, Sr.

       Wright creates abstract works that explore the Black American vernacular experience that also generate dialogue regarding the Black American experience in the South.  Wright collects and combines found materials, Dutch Wax cloth, and Georgia red clay to create conversations surrounding family, tradition, and the spiritual relationship between Africa and the South. The ZMA is thrilled to support a local artist of merit through this commission. 
       
      From January 11 to July 30, 2022, the ZMA is pleased to present additional work by Wright on our North Project Wall by Jamele Wright, Sr., in association with the newly commissioned work by the Atlanta based-artist.  

      • Born and raised in Ohio, at the age of 22, Jamele Wright Sr. moved with his family to Atlanta, Georgia. While raising a family, Jamele produced art, jazz, and poetry events throughout Atlanta. Realizing that many young artists were not being represented, he started a gallery called the Neo-Renaissance Art House. After curating the gallery for over a year, Jamele was inspired to pursue his own artistic career. After several solo and group exhibitions, Mr. Wright graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Art History. He concentrated on African and African American Contemporary Art. Jamele graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York. He completed a fellowship at Project for Empty Spaces in Newark, New Jersey. In August 2020, Wright was one of three artists selected for a collaboration between MARTA Artbound and Decatur Arts Alliance to create public artworks for the East Lake, Decatur, and Avondale MARTA stations. Wright's work will be featured in the upcoming Marietta Cobb Museum of Art (MCMA) exhibition, The Four Elements: A Group Exhibition, on view from April 10, 2020, through June 20, 2021. The artist is represented by September Gray Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.  

         
        “My work is concerned with the Black American vernacular experience. The work entails collecting found materials, Georgia red clay, and Dutch Wax cloth, by creating a conversation between family, tradition, the spiritual and material relationship between Africa and the South. My process is influenced by the way Hip Hop gathers different cultures through sampling and is charged with an energy channeled and passed through the Pan African lineage. The “In Transit” Series and my textile work is inspired by the Great Migration of Black Americans, who left the familiar in the hope of something better.”

         — Jamele Wright, Sr. 

       

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