This Black Gay Artist Unapologetically Makes Black, Gay Portraits

OUT MAGAZINE
By Trevel Anderson

“I really don't care about the white gaze at all,” Jarvis Boyland said.

There’s something different about Jarvis Boyland’s work. Walking the exhibition rooms of Los Angeles’ Kohn Gallery — where Boyland’s “On Hold:” exhibit is on view through Thursday, May 23 — I was arrested by his portraits of Black queer men. Though simple and straightforward, there’s a complexity in the color story, particularly in his subject’s skin tones. They were rich and nuanced and complex, both imagined and realistic, and unlike any paintings I’ve come into contact with. Three days later, I shared these observations with the artist-in-residence at University of Chicago over the phone. “I think Black flesh is so complex,” he said, “and it's so beautiful.” “Jarvis Boyland: On Hold:” is the Memphis native’s first solo exhibition and includes a suite of new paintings.[More]

Collectors Mr. & Mrs. Frist: She prefers art that’s ‘in your face’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Ted Loos

Billy and Jennifer Frist with Doug Aitken’s “RIOT” (2011).CreditCreditEric Ryan Anderson for The New York Times

NASHVILLE — It would be easier to list the famous photographers that Billy and Jennifer Frist don’t collect. Lining the walls of their hilltop home, once featured in Architectural Digest, are images by dozens of the greatest practitioners of the genre (Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Berenice Abbott, Sally Mann). Even though they own more than a thousand photographs that range widely in era, subject and style, the Frists don’t emphasize numbers, in either scope or value. The Frists’ own mini-museum at home is loosely organized by genre. “So we have high-fashion upstairs, and we have the Southern things downstairs,” Ms. Frist said[More]

Collector Mel Ziegler’s home is alive in stone

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By FRANK ROSE

The artist Mel Ziegler in Nashville, with his wall of Mount Rushmore-related souvenirs collected there and across the United States. Credit Jake Giles Netter for The New York Times

NASHVILLE--They call Mount Rushmore the “Shrine of Democracy”: four presidents blasted out of the face of a granite escarpment in the Black Hills of South Dakota. For the artist Mel Ziegler, it’s literally a touchstone. In the mid-1980s, he and his partner, Kate Ericson, stopped there on a cross-country trip and returned home with the four rocks off the rubble at the base of the mountain that would comprise “From the Making of Mount Rushmore,” one of their signature works. His obsession fits the locale: For all of Mount Rushmore’s patriotic themes, tourism is its reason for being. The mountain’s 60-foot faces were the work of Gutzon Borglum, who led the team chiseling and blasting the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. [More]

'Power & Piety' exhibition brings Spanish colonial art to Dixon Gallery

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
By Fredric Koeppel

Power & Piety: Spanish Colonial Art

MEMPHIS---When the Spanish conquistadors and their accompanying priests began to infiltrate the rivers and jungles, the mountains and deserts of the New World in the early 1500s, they brought a yen for treasure and a zeal for conversion. The title of the current exhibition at Dixon Gallery and Gardens has it right — “Power & Piety: Spanish Colonial Art.” On display through Sept. 24, this intriguing show consists primarily of a selection of religious art, with a few pieces of ecclesiastical furniture and silver objects, from the collection of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, that illustrates with colorful and imaginative fervor how quickly and thoroughly Roman Catholicism made progress to full establishment in an alien culture and geography. [More]

Sacred communication inspired new mural by Nigerian American artist

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"Drawing Memory" musral by Victor Ekpuk

MEMPHIS---Memphis Brooks Museum of Art commissions Victor Ekpuk, a Nigerian American artist, to paint "Drawing Memory: Essence of Memphis" for the African art gallery. His art is inspired by nsibidi, a sacred means of communication among male secret societies in southeastern Nigeria. Evolving out of the graphic and writing systems of nsibidi, Ekpuk’s art embraces a wider spectrum of meaning to communicate universal themes. “The subject matter of my work deals with the human condition explained through themes that are both universal and specific: family, gender, politics, culture and identity,” said Ekpuk. The 58-foot mural is the beginning of the renovation of Arts of Global Africa, which will culminate in fall 2017.

Secrets of Buddhist Art continues at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts

NASHVILLE LIFESTYLES

Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha and the Kings of Hell, Korea, late 19th or early 20th century, late Joseon period (1392–1912). Colors and cloth. Newark Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. John P. Lyden, 2001, 2001.75.1

NASHVILLE---The Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea at the Ingram Gallery February 10 through May 7, 2017. The exhibition showcases approximately 100 works from the Newark Museum’s authentic collection, exploring the depths of the Buddhist faith within Tibet, Korea, and Japan through art. Visitors will have the opportunity to watch Tibetan-Buddhist monks create a sand mandala painting. The painting will be on view in the galleries until the closing weekend of the exhibition, when it will be ceremonially destroyed. [link]

Art and sand mandala ritual at the Frist in Tennessee

THE TENNESSEAN

TENNESSEE---“Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan and Korea” opens at the Frist Center’s Ingram Gallery. Organized by the Newark Museum and featuring 109 Buddhist paintings and sculptures by Japanese, Korean and Tibetan artists that span the late 13th century through the early 21st century, the exhibition delves into how artistic representation and art objects function within the “secret” Vajrayana sect of Buddhism. Sand Mandalas represent the cosmic order, and their construction from millions of grains of colored sand is a devotional expression unique to Tibetan Buddhism. [link]

Hanukkah at the Jewish Museum, New York

BLOUIN | ARTINFO 

Yaacov Agam, Candelabra Agam, c. 1980 The Jewish Museum, New York. Gift of the Noon Foundation, Cecilia and Samuel Neaman, 1981 (Courtesy: The Jewish Museum, New York)

NEW YORK---“Masterpieces & Curiosities: Memphis Does Hanukkah,” a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York will run through February 12, 2017. This edition centers on designer and artist Peter Shire’s Menorah #7 (1986) and connects Los Angeles’ native history, to the history and resonance of Memphis design. The Museum’s Judaica objects, textiles, and artworks that resonate with Shire’s artistic approach to form and materials, will be exhibited alongside an array of objects and ephemera relating to both Shire and the Memphis movement. [link]

New Christian Drawings by Chicago Artist Daniel Mitsui

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Series of new works by Daniel Mitsui

ILLINOIS---In August, Chicago-based artist Daniel Mitsui and his wife welcomed their fourth child, a daughter, Lux Helena. During weeks before and after the birth, Mitsui has made many new, smaller original drawings that are now available for sale including eighteen of these appear in his September 2016 e-newsletter. On Saturday, October 1, 7:00 p.m., Mitsui will be speaking about sacred art in the hall of St. Peter Church in Memphis, TN as a guest of the Wojtyla Institute.

2017 Frist Center Exhibition Schedule Features Buddhist Art

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Crowned Buddha, Tibet, 15th–16th centuries. Mercury gilding, copper alloy, and turquoise. Newark Museum, Purchase 1920 Shelton Collection, 20.454

TENNESSEE---A 15th-century Tibetan crowned Buddha statue will be on display as part of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts' 2017 exhibition lineup. Tibet, Japan, and Korea all practice a form of esoteric or “secret” Buddhism. Called Vajrayana Buddhism, this form utilizes works of art that reveal a complex array of both human and divine figures. This exhibition showcases superlative works from the Newark Museum’s first-rate collection and will make its first appearance at the Frist Center, introducing a general audience to the dazzling aesthetics of Buddhist art and providing a basic understanding of these objects’ function within Buddhist practice.

2017 Frist Center Exhibition Schedule Features Buddhist Art

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Crowned Buddha, Tibet, 15th–16th centuries. Mercury gilding, copper alloy, and turquoise. Newark Museum, Purchase 1920 Shelton Collection, 20.454

TENNESSEE---A 15th-century Tibetan crowned Buddha statue will be on display as part of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts' 2017 exhibition lineup. Tibet, Japan, and Korea all practice a form of esoteric or “secret” Buddhism. Called Vajrayana Buddhism, this form utilizes works of art that reveal a complex array of both human and divine figures. This exhibition showcases superlative works from the Newark Museum’s first-rate collection and will make its first appearance at the Frist Center, introducing a general audience to the dazzling aesthetics of Buddhist art and providing a basic understanding of these objects’ function within Buddhist practice.

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest & Gregory Disney-Britton

Hassan Hajjaj, Maalem Simo Lagnawi, 2010, Metallic lambda print on 3mm dibond, 53 1/2h x 39 5/8w in

In today's post, we introduce you to an Islamic artist whose photographs are energized with religious imagination. In the context of the upcoming holy month of Ramadan (June 5-July 5, 2016), his work is a perfect link between the past and present. Meet Hassan Hajjaj (b. 1961), a Moroccan-born contemporary artist. Entirely self-taught, his work is influenced by a mix of hip-hop, reggae, and his Islamic heritage. He is a photographer, filmmaker, and a designer. He is also widely known as “The Andy Warhol of Marrakech." This Ramadan, visit the recently re-opened Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis and experience the religious imagination of Hassan Hajjaj.

‘Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars’ brings North African flavor to Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
By John Beifuss

Hassan Hajjaj, Luzmira, 2010, Metallic lambda print on 3mm dibond, 53 1/2h x 39 5/8w in

TENNESSEE---If a method is emerging during this centennial-celebration year at the renovated, rearranged and perhaps re-energized Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, it may be the desire to reintroduce the public to the institution through art that is accessible, approachable and — yes — fun. Now comes "Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars," the first installation in the large downstairs exhibit space since the Brooks reopened May 7 after two months of interior redesign and re-prioritizing. [link]

"The Family" by Marisol at the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"The Family" (1969) by Marisol, American (1930-2016). Mixed media: Wood, plastic, neon, glass

TENNESSEE---The mission of the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis is to enrich the lives of our diverse community "through the museum's expanding collection, varied exhibitions, and dynamic programs that reflect the art of world cultures from antiquity to the present." One of the many such works in the collection is "The Family" by Marisol Escobar, which is boxy and frontal, like upright sarcophagi, with carved pieces that are overlaid with figurative drawings and bright, patterned paint. The piece was commissioned for Brooks through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and matching funds from the Memphis Arts Council, Brooks Fine Arts Foundation and Brooks Art Gallery League.

Moroccan Artist Hassan Hajjaj Photographs His Rock Star Friends

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Hassan Hajjaj, Mr Toliver, 2010, Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibond, 53 1/2h x 39 5/8w in, 136h x 100.5w cm. Courtesy of the Newark Museum

TENNESSEE---The Brooks Museum of Art showcases Moroccan-born, UK-based art Hassan Hajjaj and the eclectic group of nine musicians from around the world whom the artist sees as his own personal “rock stars.” The exhibition, "Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars" features the artist’s video of these musicians, composed of nine separately-filmed performances each in the same compositional format as accompanying photographs. The video and related photographs are being presented in a salon environment designed by Hajjaj to evoke the color, style, and energy of a contemporary Moroccan marketplace.

Knoxville's Arnstein Center Honors Artist Arnold Schwarzbart

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL
By Amy McRary

Courtesy of Jean-Philippe Studios. This work by Judaic artisan Arnold Schwarzbart is called “Omer Counter: The Time Til Sinai” and will be exhibited in a new gallery dedicated to Schwarzbart at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center. An omer is a unit of measure. The Torah tells the Jewish people to count the days from Passover to the day they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. That time is called the Counting of the Omer.

TENNESSEE---A gallery showing works by the late Arnold Schwarzbart, whose Judaic art is nationally renowned, opens Sunday, Jan 31, at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center. Knoxville Jewish Alliance President Adam Brown calls the 20-foot gallery "the crown jewel" in the first phase of a series of planned renovations and improvements at the 6800 Deane Hill Drive center. The Schwarzbart Gallery opening and dedication is 3-5 p.m. and open to the public and members of all faiths. [link]

Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents "Ink, Silk, and Gold: Islamic Art"

ARTDAILY

Tile Lunette, Ottoman, Ottoman period, about 1573. Iznik, Turkey. Composite body (quartz, clay, and glaze frit) with colors painted on white slip under clear glaze; Overall: 27 5/8 x 55 11/16 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Mrs. Martin Brimmer, 06.2437.

TENNESSEE—This fall, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents Ink, Silk, and Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a dazzling display of the museum's finest examples of Islamic art, which it has been collecting for more than 130 years. The exhibition spans chronologically from the eighth century to the present and geographically from Spain to Indonesia. Ink, Silk, and Gold will be on view at the Frist Center—its first stop on a highly anticipated tour—from October 9, 2015, through January 10, 2016, and is the Frist Center's first survey of Islamic art. [link]

McClung Museum acquires important early Buddhist sculpture

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Stela with Buddha Sakyamuni, Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), China, Painted Limestone, Gift of Drs. Colin Johnstone and John Fong, 2015.11.1.

TENNESSEE---The McClung Museum recently acquired an important early Chinese Buddhist sculpture, which is currently on view at the museum. The piece was given to the museum by Colin Johnstone and John Fong of Boston, Massachusetts, who are collectors of Chinese art. The stela, or relief sculpture, is made of painted limestone and once would have graced a Buddhist temple. It serves as an important example of the first distinctively Chinese style of Buddhist art, which emerged during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534). [link]

Phyllis Tickle, who energized a market for books on religion, dies at 81

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Sam Roberts

Phyllis Tickle, a writer and the founding religion editor at Publishers Weekly. Credit Karen Pulfer Focht/Religion News Service

TENNESSEE---Phyllis Tickle, who helped energize the religion publishing market in the 1990s, wrote dozens of books on spirituality and gave voice to a movement that believes Christianity is entering an epochal new phase, died on Sept. 22 at her farm in Lucy, Tenn., north of Memphis. She was 81. The cause was lung cancer, her daughter Rebecca Tickle said. Ms. Tickle was the founding religion editor at Publishers Weekly, the leading journal in the book trade, serving from 1991 to 1994. In that post she identified and covered a rapidly emerging market for religious-themed books and helped publishers tap into its profitability. [link]

Buddhist monks create works of art and enlightenment at McClung Museum

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL
By Amy McRary

Tibetan Buddhist monk Lobsang Tashi demonstrates the process for Camille Clark, 8, who worked on a portion of the community sand mandala painting at the McClung Museum Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. 

TENNESSEE---A team of Tibetan Buddhists monks are at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture this week creating a sand mandala painting — a colorful, detailed and temporary design invoking enlightenment and healing. Four of the five monks from the Derpung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta will paint with shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, red and charcoal-black sand to make what's called a green tara design. On Friday the monks will dust away the design they created, sweeping up the sand as a symbol of life's impermanence. [link]