Ages: All ages

Cost: $10 general admission, $5 for members

ABOUT THIS EVENT

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Gantt Center will host an evening celebrating the life and work of the legendary artist and activist, Dr. Maya Angelou.

The celebration begins with a screening of the PBS American Masters broadcast of Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise. This unprecedented film—the first feature-length documentary on Dr. Angelou—weaves her words with rare and intimate archival photographs and videos, telling hidden stories of her exuberant life during some of America’s most defining moments.

Guests will be encouraged to explore the exhibitions in each of our galleries, including a special pop-up exhibit of artwork from students of Northwest School of the Arts. The cornerstone of the partnership that exists between Northwest School of the Arts and the Gantt Center is exemplified by the number of art-making and creative engagement opportunities for all students, across disciplines. Six students from each of the departments, including Dance, Visual Arts, Theatre, Costume Design and Music will have an opportunity to showcase their unique talents, inspired by the depth and breadth of Dr. Maya Angelou’s life and work.

To learn more about this event and to purchase tickets, click here.

“We applaud the Arts & Science Council for its efforts to highlight the vast spectrum of the arts and for enabling the community to enjoy all that our institutions have to offer, for free,” says David Taylor, President & CEO of the Harvey B. Gantt Center. “By Bringing renowned artists such as Alison Saar to exhibit her work here in Charlotte, we are demonstrating the endless ways in which visual art can be presented and perceived, particularly as it pertains to people of color. Our aim is to eliminate stereotypes by exposing individuals to the work of abstract and contemporary artists who are sculptors, photographers, and painters.”

The Gantt Center will host a series of free events as part of the opening weekend and ASC Connect with Culture Day. Additional details about the artists and programming are available at ganttcenter.org.

Jordan Casteel: Harlem Notes is an exhibition of recent paintings by Harlem based artist, Jordan Casteel. The exhibition combines her exterior portraits with details that explore intimacy and the document.

Each painting hints toward a treasure trove of stories and memories shared between Casteel and her subject. Perhaps as much autobiographical as observational, Casteel’s paintings are imbued with the tenderness of her gaze. Family, neighbors, patrons – all enter her studio via a photographic snapshot captured in the specificity of their space before being projected in paint onto the surface that immortalizes. Resting with grandeur on the canvas, the subjects penetrate in a scale that is just slightly larger than life.

Through color, Casteel both embraces and push backs against signifiers of blackness revealing a multiplicity in tone and hue that feels supernatural in it’s matter-of-factness. Offering a chromatic spectrum that mirrors the complexity of being and circumvents any cingular reading, these works tease what is familiar while chronicling what is lived in that very moment.

Building a tapestry of structure and dimension through a weaving of loose and tightly knit brush strokes, Cateel builds upon the canvas’ plain surface an orchestra of color and texture. With the application of paint not unlike the caress of a familiar hand.

To learn more about this exhibit, click here.

Zun Lee: Father Figure is at once documentary photography and personal visual storytelling. Through intimate black-and-white frames, the aim is to provide insight into often-overlooked aspects of Black fatherhood.

The project offers a close-up view into the lives of Black men with whom Zun Lee worked closely since 2011 and who are parenting under a variety of circumstances – as married and single fathers, social fathers, young and older, middle class and poorer. The everyday scenes bring into focus what pervasive father absence stereotypes have distorted – real fathers who are involved in their children’s lives in very individual and specific ways. Men who may not be perfect but are not media caricatures.

The work quietly exposes the viewer to aspects of Black male identity and masculinity that many have not seen, or perhaps do not want to see. It shows these men not as victims of their circumstances but as empowered agents in their own lives, as capable parents, and above all as loving, wholesome human beings.

For more information on this exhibit, click here.

COMING JANUARY 28TH, 2017!

(Open until July 8th, 2017).

Alison Saar: The Nature of Us explores themes of motherhood, the role of women, the intensity of their hearts, and their embodiment as nature by highlighting the works of renowned artist Alison Saar.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alison Saar is one of the most acclaimed contemporary artists practicing in the United States today. Her work evokes ancestors, African cultural traditions, the contemporary experiences of women – the significance of their hair – as well as the tropes of women and nature. Saar uses nature as metaphor in imagined intersections with the female body and frequently creates assemblages that transform found objects. Her career as an artist spans more than three decades. In addition, both her parents – Betye and Richard – and her sisters are artists.

Saar’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and her permanent site sculptures can be found across the nation, from Los Angeles to New York. She works primarily in sculpture but also incorporates prints, paintings, and works on paper in her practice, most often with a focus on the female form. Saar grapples with motherhood, the role of women, the intensity of their hearts and their embodiment as nature and its forces. This exhibition of new sculptures, mixed-media works, and prints, mounted by the Harvey B. Gantt Center, illumines these themes.

For more information on this exhibit, click here.

COMING JANUARY 28TH, 2017!

(On display until July 8th, 2017).

Curated by Dexter Wimberly, The Future is Abstract highlights the work of four multidisciplinary, contemporary artists working in abstract painting and mixed-media. The exhibition includes an array of rigorous, process-driven works made from reclaimed or found materials, as well as classic painting and production techniques. The exhibiting artists use abstraction to address concerns that range from the personal to the political. Their challenging work is a testament to the continued evolution and relevance of abstraction.

For more information and to learn about the artists featured in this exhibition, click here.

Quilt scholar, Maude Wahlman, has called African American quilts “the visual equivalent of blues, jazz, or gospel, rich with color and symbolism.”  Many have reflections of African traditions built into them as they combine utilitarian and aesthetic elements. Quilts have long been used in African American life as both functional and symbolic objects, and catalysts for social interaction among women. Traditional quilt making has evolved into artistic expression, hung from walls rather than covering beds, and many fine artists have been inspired by them.

This exhibition uses the work of one of the most renowned artistic quilt makers, Faith Ringgold, as an entry point to look backward at traditional African American quilts and forward to expressive, decorative quilts, artistic quilts, and the work of painters and mixed media artists who improvise upon the form.

The West African cloth tradition includes the use of strips sewn together, as exemplified by the well-known kente cloth from Ghana, and the asymmetrical organization of kente can be found in traditional African American quilts. Additionally there is a patchwork practice that can be found in the Asafo flags of the Asante, and the egungun masquerade costumes of the Yoruba of Nigeria. The improvisational aspects of the patchwork tradition combined with the rhythmic organization create what Robert Farris Thompson calls “offbeat phrasing” to inform the musical aspects of quilt structures Wahlman points out.

Visit the Gantt to learn more about this exhibition.

This exhibit is generously sponsored by:

Image credits: Red Clay with Caribbean Spice, 2016 © Lillian Blades

Considered the art of everyday people, folk art is rooted in tradition, memories and experiences. Nellie Ashford: Through My Eyes features thirty newly crafted mixed-media works by renowned self-taught artist Nellie Ashford.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Charlotte native, Nellie Ashford is a self-proclaimed folk artist whose work expresses cultural identity, shared community values and aesthetics. Inspired by the life that surrounds her and memories of her past, Ashford’s work incorporates a mix of materials that often reflect real-life experiences and depicts families, children, dancers and musicians with vibrant detail and emotion. Each work that she creates has a story to tell. Vintage fabrics cloth images of people who reflect varying ethnic, religious, occupational, age and gender who identities. They identify and complement each other and their world.

Nellie Ashford is represented locally by Foster’s Art Gallery in Huntersville.

Visit the Gantt to learn more about this exhibition.

Image credits: Take Nothing For My Journey © Nellie Ashford

This exhibition of twenty exquisite works in wood celebrates two artists at the pinnacle of their careers – John Mascoll and Avelino Samuel — whose first tool, a wood lathe given to the world by the ancient Egyptians, has served as a springboard to imagination, flights of fancy and ingenuity.

Just as Michelangelo visualized David in a block of marble, Mascoll and Samuel ponder nature’s beauty, seeking what lies within each gift of wood. The artists use a lathe to shape the vessel, yet much of the design, execution and signature work of the two is accomplished after the turned vessel is removed. The elements of line and form are critical to their work but their artistry is unleashed through the tools, embellishments, and genius that only they possess.

Curated by Charles Farrar, Shaping the Vessel: Mascoll + Samuel highlights the mastery — and remarkable achievement — of two artists who have elevated the development of the art form. It is their work, which occurs after the lathe, that has propelled them to acclaim among the best working in the medium today.

Visit the Gantt, for more information about this exhibition.

“A’Lelia will remind us of the importance of compiling family stories and history,” said Gantt Center President & CEO David Taylor. “Collecting familial history is vital to the preservation of our past and as the weather cools down and holiday season begins, there’s no better time.”

Through her presentation, Bundles will guide the audience through the 19th century and Harlem Renaissance-era sharing fascinating stories about both compelling and impressive ancestors, Madam C.J. Walker and A’Lelia Walker.

“Madam Walker has had an impact on my life because I could see what an inspiration she was for others. I feel fortunate that I now am able to inspire others with her story,” said Bundles.

Heritage and History: The Family Collage with A’Lelia Bundles will be held at the Harvey B. Gantt Center at 551 South Tryon Street. Ticket prices are $15 for the general public and $10 for members.

Heritage & History Series is generously sponsored by Duke Energy.