INTERVIEWS
BRIDGET COOKS ON “EXHIBITING BLACKNESS” AND ART MUSEUMS
Burnaway
Art historian Bridget R. Cooks didn’t know how popular her 2011 book Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum had become until recently, when she found out that, among other things, Titus Kaphar had named one of his paintings after it.
IN THE STUDIO: SANFORD BIGGERS
Art in America
Sanford Biggers has been a quiet force in the art world since the late 1990s. His projects often combine video, music, performance, sculpture, painting and drawing, and mix disparate cultural references in oblique expiorations of both self-constructed and social identity.
Q&A: DIRECTORS GLENN LOWRY AND MICHAEL SHAPIRO ON MOMA/HIGH COLLABORATION
ArtsATL
The High Museum of Art’s “Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 >> 2013” is the latest in its ongoing collaboration with New York’s Museum of Modern Art. We sat down with High Director Michael Shapiro and MOMA Director Glenn Lowry to discuss the themes of this exhibition and museum collaborations in general.
AT THE HIGH MUSEUM WITH THOMAS STRUTH
Burnaway
We met with German photographer Thomas Struth as he was installing his exhibition “Nature and Politics” at the High Museum of Art. The show features 30 works photographed in such locales as Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel and Palestine. Struth focuses on places that usually are overlooked or not accessible to the general public.
STUDIO VISIT WITH CRAIG DRENNEN
Burnaway
Burnaway paid a visit to the studio of Craig Drennen, located in the Arts Exchange building, as he was preparing for his show at Samson Projects in Boston. Always erudite and witty, and often dripping with irony, the Georgia State University assistant professor schooled us on Shakespeare’s perhaps most obscure play, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and basketball.
STUDIO VISIT: LARRY WALKER IN LITHONIA
Burnaway
The home of Larry and Gwen Walker is a multi-faceted dwelling. While certainly “home,” it also houses their art collection, including works by their daughter Kara and numerous local artists, along with treasured memorabilia and Larry’s spacious studio. The Walkers reminisced about their early days and talked about how they ended up in Atlanta. At 80, Larry Walker is hitting his stride.
Q&A WITH KIRSTEN PAI BUICK
Burnaway
On February 4, 2016, we sat down with Kirsten Pai Buick, the 2015 winner of the High Museum of Art’s Driskell Prize and associate professor of art history at the University of New Mexico, chatted with us about the practice of responsive art history, 19th-century mixed-race painter Edmonia Lewis, and the problem of Kara Walker.
Q&A WITH HIGH MUSEUM DIRECTOR RANDALL SUFFOLK
Burnaway
Randall Suffolk has been the executive director of the High Museum of Art for a year now, so we thought it’d be a good time to check in with him. We met with Suffolk on November 9 and talked about Atlanta, his accomplishments so far, and what we can anticipate from the museum over the next few years – primarily growth, increased diversity, and originality.
PAM LONGOBARDI USES ART TO “SEDUCE” VIEWERS TO AWARENESS OF OCEAN CRISIS
ArtsATL
The artist, who cites Jacques Cousteau as a childhood hero, combs beaches and coastal caves, sometimes with a team of assistants, that are littered with thousands of plastic items. The act of removing the debris serves both to clean up the site — an activist gesture — and to provide her with raw material to recycle as art.
BETHANY COLLINS EXPLORES RACE AND IDENTITY THROUGH A PERSONAL LENS
ArtsATL
Bethany Collins makes art about herself. Or rather, art about race and identity through a very personal lens. Never strident or didactic, her approach is as subtle as the subtle forms of racism she often encounters. She simply holds up a metaphorical mirror to society to expose its assumptions about race. (A telling “60 Minutes” experiment demonstrating those assumptions is here.)