63 Objects Taken from my Son’s Mouth, Lenka Clayton  2011 – 2012 / acorn, bolt, bubblegum, buttons, carbon paper, chalk, Christmas decoration, cigarette butt, coins (GBP, USD, EURO), cotton reel, holly leaf, little wooden man, sharp metal pieces, metro ticket, nuts, plastic “O”, polystyrene, rat poison (missing), seeds, slide, small rocks, specimen vial, sponge animal, sticks, teabag, wire caps, wooden block / size laid out as shown 40″ x 40″ x 1″.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

April 22 – September 3, 2017 / Consisting of approximately 75 remarkable works, State of the Art seeks to de-mystify contemporary American art.

In 2013, representatives from the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art embarked on a coast-to-coast curatorial road trip. Their objective: to discover new and intriguing works of art existing outside of typical metropolitan venues. Former Director Don Bacigalupe and Curator Chad Aligood traveled 100,000 miles and conducted nearly 1,000 studio visits with artists who had been recommended by their colleagues in each state. Their findings formed the basis for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, an unprecedented nationwide survey of contemporary American art.

Consisting of approximately 75 remarkable works of art ranging from paintings and drawings to sculpture, photography, video, and installations by 42 artists from every region of the country, State of the Art seeks to de-mystify contemporary American art. Works of art and artists were chosen based on their innovative use of materials, their relevance to modern life, and their deep connections to their communities and present-day issues. In order to further enhance that engagement, The Mint Museum is working directly with a selection of participating artists to offer a wide range of exhibition-related programming.

State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now was organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Exhibition programs are supported, in part, by the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation.

Please visit the Mint for more details about this exhibition.

SPONSORS

This exhibition is presented in Charlotte with the generous support of PNC Financial Services, with additional support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Young Affiliates of the Mint.

Charlotte-born artist Romare Bearden is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking use of collage; however, he was also an equally skilled draftsman and painter. An avid reader and excavator of human history and culture, Bearden often took up themes of classical literature, incorporating symbolic, layered imagery into his work. His vibrant depictions of American life, whether they are contemporary urban scenes of Harlem or nostalgic recollections of the South, are rooted in ritual. Bearden understands ritual as an important universal practice central to all human life, making this among his most powerful and pervasive subjects.

In the suite of twenty watercolors, originally conceived as collages, Bearden reinterprets scenes from Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. With great attention to composition, color, and clarity, Bearden skillfully renders the fantastical and sometimes frightening characters and obstacles that the hero, Odysseus, must overcome to find his way home to Ithaca after the Fall of Troy. The idea of journeying, whether by land or sea, by railroad or ship, is one that translates across cultures and across time. Bearden’s portrayal of The Odyssey through a cast entirely composed of black figures illustrates the historical continuity between the ancient struggle of finding one’s home and contemporary African American life.

In choosing to portray a character such as Odysseus, the quintessential traveler in perpetual search for home, Bearden invokes multiple associations with his own personal history and the Great Migration of African Americans within this country, as well as the colonial history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that displaced millions and Africans between the sixteenth- and nineteenth-centuries.

Bearden once stated: “Life is going to triumph somehow.” It is this particular understanding of victory and heroism that characterizes Bearden’s Odysseus series. In contrast to the Homeric sense of victory as conquest, victory for Bearden means the triumph and resilience of the human spirit and its capacity to overcome challenges, circumstances, and struggles.

This exhibition is on view until November 12, 2017.  For more information, please visit the Mint Museum.

Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 | Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm | Admission: $40 | Members save 25% | Register Now

If Gastonia native John Biggers (1924-2001) was alive today, he might give us the following advice about interpreting his art: “It’s all in there – you just have to look.” Until now, visitors to The Mint Museum have not had the opportunity to see a significant body of Biggers’ work. This exhibition, featuring 12 important paintings, drawings and prints, as well as a rare example of the artist’s sculpture, will give them the opportunity to do so. Through the use of a rich symbolic language and beautiful craftsmanship, Biggers found connections between personal, familial, and regional histories, traditions, symbols, which he wove together to articulate broader cultural and historical concerns. Themes would remain central to his work throughout his career are prevalent in the works in the exhibition, most notably the importance of women and family and the power of the human spirit to triumph over adversity. This spotlight show was organized by The Mint Museum and will remain on view until November 4, 2017.

Visit the Mint for more details about this exhibition.

Like Shishmaref

Ranis has said: “The disappearing barrier islands and increasingly ephemeral coastal lines are not anymore just one of the first signals of changing environment… it is not anymore the search for recognition of the inevitable. It is the search for the response.”

Click here for more information about the film.

Also on display in the adjacent gallery are two other works by Ranis: a digital photograph (Panzerwerk: Barbara Wroclaw 2013) and a sculpture (Bunker III 2013)

GENDERED: An Inclusive Art Show, organized by Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAMs), will be on view for FREE in Mint Museum Uptown’s Level 5 expansion space from Friday, June 16, 2017, through Friday, July 21, 2017. An Opening will be held on Friday, June 16, from 7 to 10 p.m. An Artist Panel moderated by Adam Justice, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum, will be held on Wednesday, June 28, from 6 to 8 p.m.

GENDERED seeks to create an inclusive arts forum for gender and its common intersectionalities with race, class, sexuality, and identity. The current divisive political climate finds people seeking a means to come together and find a common understanding. The YAMs believe in the unifying force of art and seek to create a safe space for expression and dialogue.

GENDERED is a group exhibition featuring twenty-four artists from across the country and representing a variety of viewpoints through diverse mediums that invite viewers to join the conversation. The featured works of art were selected by a panel of esteemed jurors: Kelli Connell, Ryan James Caruthers, John Edmonds, & Carla Hanzal.

FEATURED ARTISTS: Jeremy Brooks, Wendell Brown, Greg Climer, Ani Collier, Margaret Curtis, Stacey Davidson, Robyn Day, Lisa DeLoria Weinblatt, Holly Fischer, Shterna Goldbloom, Gordon C. James, Mariah Karson, Justin Korver, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Betsy Odom, Austin Power, Stacey Bloom Rexrode, Santiago Sanchez, Anna Wehrwein, D’Angelo Williams, Holly Wilson, Celeste Wilson, Guanyu Xu, and Studio 345. Learn more about the artists at youngaffiliates.org.

For more information, please visit The Mint.

hibition to look at the many achievements of women working with glass, from the male-dominated Studio Glass Movement of the 1960s to 21st-century installations and mixed media works that illustrate the porous boundaries between art, craft, and design. Drawn entirely from the illustrious and comprehensive collection of the Toledo Art Museum’s Glass Pavilion, the exhibition features several recent acquisitions that debut in Charlotte.

Ranging in scale from the tiny to the monumental, an international array of approximately forty functional objects and sculpture will demonstrate the keen conceptual, design, and technical contributions of these underappreciated artists. Blown, cast, slumped, lamp worked, or made in unexpected ways, the glass work in Fired Up emphasizes the magical interaction of the medium with light.

Women of Abstract Expressionism is the first major museum exhibition to focus on the groundbreaking women artists affiliated with the Abstract Expressionist movement during its seminal years, between 1945 and 1960. Organized by the Denver Art Museum , this important project brings together approximately 50 major works of art by twelve of the key women involved with the movement on both the East and West Coasts. The large-scale, colorful, and energy-filled canvases in the show, lent by major museums, private collectors, and artist estates, are certain to thrill and inspire museum visitors. Women of Abstract Expressionism includes canvases by such well-known artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Grace Hartigan, as well as works by their colleagues Perle Fine, Jay DeFeo, Sonia Getchoff, Deborah Remington, Ethel Schwabacher, Mary Abbott, and Judith Godwin, whose work is currently gaining renewed appreciation. The exhibition focuses on the expressive freedom of direct gesture and innovative artistic process that was at the core of the movement, while exploring each artist’s highly personal response to particular memories and experiences.

Women of Abstract Expressionism is accompanied by a host of engaging didactic materials and a beautiful catalogue published by Yale University Press featuring contributions by exhibition curator Gwen Chanzit; Robert Hobbs; Irving Sandler; Ellen Landau; Susan Landauer; and Joan Marter. The Mint Museum is one of just two additional venues for this not-to-be-missed show, which makes a significant contribution to art historical scholarship and constitutes a rare opportunity for visitors to see so many key works of modern art together in one place.

Women of Abstract Expressionism is presented to the Charlotte community by Wells Fargo Private Bank. Additional generous support provided by the Mint Museum Auxiliary, Duke Energy, Electrolux, and Davidson College.

Media Partners: The Charlotte Observer and Adams Outdoor Advertising.

Women of Abstract Expressionism is organized by the Denver Art Museum. It is generously funded by Merle Chambers; Henry Luce Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; the Ponzio Family; Harmes C. Fishback Foundation Trust; Dedalus Foundation; Joan Mitchell Foundation; Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign; and the citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

THE MINT MUSEUM CELEBRATES ITS 80TH ANNIVERSARY “YEAR OF THE WOMAN” WITH TWO PIONEERING EXHIBITIONS

Women of Abstract Expressionism and Fired Up:
Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art
to open October 22

Women were the driving force behind the founding of The Mint Museum as North Carolina’s first art museum. Women, including current President & CEO Dr. Kathleen V. Jameson, have provided exemplary leadership to the Mint. And now, the museum is preparing to celebrate women artists with two exhibitions opening on the museum’s 80^th anniversary this October 22.

Weston M. Andress, PNC Regional President for Western Carolinas and chair of The Mint Museum Board of Trustees, has issued a proclamation declaring the fiscal year running July 2016 through June 2017 to be the “Year of the Woman,” and the museum has launched a new website portal, video, and slate of community events to invite the global community to celebrate alongside the museum. See full details, and an interactive timeline recounting the museum’s history, at mintmuseum.org/80th/.

“The Mint has planned a great year of exhibitions and events that showcase women’s contributions to the museum since its founding,” Andress said. “We hope the community will join us to help celebrate our 80th anniversary year.”

Added Dr. Jameson: “As the first woman to serve as President & CEO of The Mint Museum, and following in the steps of the many women who played instrumental roles over the years, I am pleased to be able to observe this historically significant event, and to help bring these two world-class exhibitions to the community.”

The Mint Museum’s building was originally the first branch of the U.S. Mint outside Philadelphia when it was constructed in 1836. It fell into disuse and was threatened with demolition by the 1930s, but a group of Charlotte residents led by Mary Myers Dwelle fought to preserve it and move it to its current location in Eastover, where it is now known as Mint Museum Randolph. It opened to the public on October 22, 1936. Mint Museum Uptown opened in 2010 as part of Levine Center for the Arts, the same year that Dr. Jameson became President & CEO.

Women of Abstract Expressionism on view Oct. 22, 2016-Jan. 22, 2017

This fall The Mint Museum is the only East Coast venue for this groundbreaking exhibition, the first major museum exhibition to focus on the innovative women artists affiliated with the Abstract Expressionist movement during its seminal years between 1945 and 1960.

The exhibition, which recently opened at the Denver Art Museum and remains on view there through September 25, has already garnered significant attention from press and critics across the country, with Time Magazine calling it an “indispensable show.” Along with shining a spotlight on the women who were key participants in the movement, the exhibition also emphasizes the role that artists working on the West Coast played in its development. It also reveals the broad range of styles and techniques that these artists employed, from pouring and staining to slashing and swirling brushwork.

Visitors to Mint Museum Uptown will be delighted and inspired by approximately 50 energetic, colorful, large-scale paintings created by 12 of these artists. While some of the women are well-known, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Grace Hartigan, the work of others, ranging from Judith Godwin, Perle Fine, and Deborah Remington to Jay DeFeo and Sonia Getchoff, will be a revelation.

Women of Abstract Expressionism will be accompanied by a variety of engaging lectures and events as well as a fully-illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press featuring contributions by its curator, Dr. Gwen Chanzit, and scholars Robert Hobbs, Ellen Landau, Susan Landauer, Joan Marter, and Irving Sandler. Following its run at the Mint, the exhibition will travel to Palm Springs Art Museum in February 2017.

This exhibition is presented to the community by Wells Fargo Private Bank. Additional generous support provided by Duke Energy, Electrolux, the Mint Museum Auxiliary, and Davidson College.

Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art
exclusively on view at the Mint Oct. 22, 2016-Feb. 26, 2017

Color and form create instinctual appeal in glass – the most versatile and seductive of materials. Fired Up, co-organized by the Toledo Museum of Art and exclusively on view at Mint Museum Uptown, is the first American art museum exhibition about contemporary women artists who work with glass.

At the beginning of the studio glass movement that originated at the Toledo Museum of Art in the 1960s, women were overshadowed by their male counterparts, rarely encouraged to explore glass techniques by their teachers, and discouraged from entering the field due to the financial commitment required to operate a glass studio, from equipment to the team of assistants necessary to the collaborative process of studio glass. Today, in the “post studio” era, the situation has changed; here and abroad, women are among the most innovative glass artists and their contributions to both the technical and content aspects of their art are exceptional.

Fired Up presents outstanding glass sculptures from Toledo’s renowned Glass Pavilion as well as recent acquisitions to their collection, on view for the first time in this exhibition, selected by co-curators Jutta-Annette Page, Senior Curator of Glass and Decorative Arts at Toledo, and Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion at the Mint. The Mint’s exceptional collection of contemporary glass is internationally praised, with works such as Danny Lane’s Threshold and Bertil Vallien’s King’s Voyage, but it contains few works by women (although the masterwork Relations, by Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, is a husband-and-wife collaboration). Only a handful of glass works created by female artists are in the permanent collection. Presenting Fired Up will fill a gap in glass education and hopefully inspire the collecting of works by women.

International in scope, over forty sculptures are included in the exhibition, including works by Emily Brock, Lee Bul, Lisa Lou, Karen Lamonte, Silvia Levenson, Maya Lin, Laura de Santillana, Sibylle Peretti, Sylvie Vandenhoucke, and April Surgent. Ranging in scale from the tiny to the monumental, the sculptures are organized into five thematic groups: abstraction, vessels, the human form, nature, and the built environment.

Both the Toledo Museum of Art and The Mint Museum have a strong commitment to developing new interpretative strategies for glass, and this exhibition provides an opportunity for additional collaboration in experimental approaches to visual literacy. The exhibition is presented with generous support from Novant Health and UTC Aerospace Systems.

Anniversary weekend festivities, October 21-23

The two new exhibitions open to the public amid the Mint’s celebration of its 80^th anniversary. The museum will toast the exhibition openings with a by-invitation VIP celebration on Friday, October 21 at Mint Museum Uptown – watch for the Duke Energy tower to be lit in the Mint’s signature teal color on that evening. And the community is invited to a FREE day-long celebration at both museum locations on Saturday, October 22 – at Mint Museum Uptown, visitors will enjoy free access to both exhibitions along with lectures from curators of both exhibitions; and at Mint Museum Randolph, look for lots of family-friendly activities in celebration of the historic property and its surroundings. And on Sunday, October 23, the public is invited to another day of free admission at both locations, plus a free concert by accomplished pianist Dorothy “Dot” Lewis-Griffith, daughter-in-law of E.C. Griffith (1889-1973), who donated the three-acre tract of Eastover land on which the museum now sits. Her concert will feature music composed in the 1930s around the time of the Mint’s opening.

Further events throughout the “Year of the Woman” will invite the public to interact with the museum and its exhibitions. Watch mintmuseum.org/happenings for updates and details. The Mint is grateful for support from five of its previous female board chairs for its 80^th anniversary activities: Mary Lou Babb, Beverly S. Hance, Patty Norman, Jo Ann Peer, and Pat Rodgers. As the museum’s video announcing the year-long celebration has noted: “The Great Lady is turning 80 – and she’s just getting warmed up.”

Here & Now marks the first survey exhibition of photography drawn solely from the Mint’s permanent collection and comprises approximately 215 of the Mint’s most stunning and provocative photographs. Including recent acquisitions and many never-before-seen treasures alongside signature works, Here & Now offers a fresh perspective on an exciting, diverse, and burgeoning area of strength within the Mint’s collection.

While relatively modest in scale, the Mint’s collection boasts exceptional photographs taken at the turn of the 20th century by such noted masters as Berenice Abbott , Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange , and W. Eugene Smith as well as those taken in the last few years by dynamic contemporary photographers. Global in scope, the Mint’s collection as well as theHere & Now exhibition also feature works by artists with local and regional roots as well, including William Eggleston , Sonia Handelman Meyer , and Kristina Rogers .

Here & Now: 80 Years of Photography at the Mint is generously presented by The Mint Museum of Art Board of Directors with additional support from K&L Gates. Exhibition organized by The Mint Museum.

Click here for more information about this exhibition.