By Jenna Anderson – MC Intern
The Carr Center will open its first dedicated gallery space on Saturday, Oct. 19, featuring “Beyond Space,” an art exhibit showcasing the work of the Independent Scholars program curated by Carrie Mae Weems. Weems is considered one of America’s most influential artists, best known for her photography.
The artists in the program have been collaborating for about a year, with this opening a culmination of their work.
“We wanted to get a group of emerging artists together and have them study under a master teacher,” said creative director Erin Falker-Obichigha. “We did a brain dump and the idea of ‘space’ kept coming up,” she added
The opening of “Beyond Space” at the Carr Center Gallery is a continuation of an exhibit first presented at the Havana Biennial, an art event in Cuba.
“It doesn’t just refer to physical space,” Falker-Obichigha said. “It refers to emotional space, spiritual space, making space and taking space, beyond those boundaries of our narrow definition.”
The Independent Scholars presenting Saturday are all African American. Falker-Obichigha said their work also looks at “black space” and what it means to take up space as an African American in 2019.
One presenter, Michelle May-Curry, created an exhibit inspired by the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case. This landmark decision struck down any laws banning interracial marriage.
“She looks at the figure of Mildred Loving,” Falker-Obichigha said. “She looks at the Loving home as a place of liberation, but also a place of entrapment.
Anita Bateman, another artist of the Independent Scholars program, looked at the geographical space of Africa. Falker-Obichigha said Bateman considered the boundaries of space that humans create. “People exist within the margins of space,” she said of Bateman’s work.
Carr Center president Oliver Ragsdale said the gallery is part of the overarching Contemporary project. “We’re creating a hybrid experience between a museum and gallery,” Ragsdale said of the Carr Center Gallery. “They are living, working artists.”
In 2020, the space will also be used to display “Grails: The Sole and Black Culture” from Jan. 24 to March 19. Then the Carr Center Gallery will showcase “The Rock and The Hard Place” from April 17 to June 28. The season will end with “Affirmations for Dope Brothers and Sisters: A New Black Romanticism” from July 17 to Sept. 27.
“Beyond Space” opens at 7 p.m. in the Contemporary at the Park Shelton. Tickets for the artist reception are $10. The exhibit will be open from Oct. 19 to Jan. 5.
