Carrie Mae Weems has a new installation up at the ACA Gallery @ SCAD, via the National Black Arts Festival, and here’s the press release:

Contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems explores the human rights movement in the United States and abroad in an upcoming multimedia installation titled, “Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment.” The exhibition, commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design and the National Black Arts Festival, will be on display July 1 – Aug. 31 at the ACA Gallery of SCAD, 1280 Peachtree St. The artist’s reception will be held July 15, 6-8 p.m.

In a Feb. 29 New York Times review, art critic Roberta Smith wrote of Weems, “No American photographer of the last quarter-century … has turned out a more probing, varied and moving body of work. None has made more adventurous use of the photographic medium, adding performance, film and installation to the serial print format.”

In Winter 2008, Weems taught an innovative special topics course at SCAD-Atlanta as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member. She and her students conceptualized, planned and created the commissioned “Constructing History” film and a related series of photographs. The human rights-focused project was inspired by the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Drawing on archival films and media, Weems worked with SCAD students, the National Black Arts Festival and other volunteers to reenact significant historical moments. Participants created props and costumes, designed sets, coordinated production, and acted in vignettes, which were captured on film and serve as the basis for the installation.

Weems said, “Through the act of performance, with our own bodies, we are allowed to experience and to connect the historical past to the present—to the now, to the moment. By inhabiting the moment, we live the experience; we stand in the shoes of others and come to know first-hand what is often only imagined, lost, forgotten.”

The civil rights movement in the United States helped spawn global concern for human rights. Race and gender issues continue to resonate in the American political arena as, for the first time, a woman and a black man vie for the Democratic nomination for president. The international spotlight on their campaigns, as well as ongoing human rights violations throughout the world, makes Weems’ installation particularly timely.

Weems, who received the 2008 Skowhegan Medal for photography, earned a Bachelor of Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego. She studied folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, with the late Alan Dundes, and has been an artist in residence at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Fabric Workshop and the Rhode Island School of Design. Weems’ work is included in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Modern Art and the Williams College Museum of Art. She lives and works in New York.

The “Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment” commission was made possible by the Savannah College of Art and Design with the National Black Arts Festival.

Sam Mahone, who worked with SNCC in ‘63 on voter registration drives in Georgia, will be doing a gallery talk for the “Road to Freedom” exhibit this Thursday, July 3rd.

Pamela Pecchio who participated in the ACP 9 Portfolio Review, has a solo show called “Habitations” at Daniel Cooney Fine Art (in NYC) that opens on Thursday, June 26th. On the full-circle front, Daniel Cooney is one of our reviewers for the ACP 10 Portfolio Review this October!

ACP swung by Opal Gallery on Friday for the opening of Carl Martin’s show “1986-2007″. Fortunately, our friends at Art Relish brought a video camera and interviewed Mr. Martin.

Carl Martin: 1986-2007 from Art Relish on Vimeo.

Lumiere Gallery has an exhibition called “Southern Exposures” this summer featuring four Southern photographers; Thomas Neff, Tim Barnwell, Lucinda Bunnen, and Mark Maio. The opening is on Thursday, June 26th, from 6:30-8:30. And there will be an artist’s talk from Thomas Neff on June 28th, at 10am, and lectures from the other three, as well, in mid-summer.

Next weekend, June 28th & 29th, the High Museum will have two more complimentary programs to their “Road to Freedom” exhibit. Here are the details:

PANEL DISCUSSION: Memories from the Movement
Saturday, June 28, 2 p.m., Rich Theatre
Join Civil Rights heroes including Congressman John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young, activist Dorothy Cotton, introduced by High Curator Julian Cox for an afternoon of remembrances and dialogue around the contributions of the courageous champions of justice who struggled to make equality a reality for all. The panelists will reflect on their experiences in the Civil Rights movement in light of the High’s current exhibition “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968.”  The discussion will be moderated by Alexis Scott, journalist and publisher of the “Atlanta Daily World,” the city’s first black-owned daily newspaper. This program is free and seating is limited. Tickets are available through the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404-733-5000 and online at www.high.org. Tickets to the Museum are sold separately.

 
FILM AND DISCUSSION: “Voices of Freedom”
Sunday, June 29, 3 p.m., Hill Auditorium
America’s civil rights movement found its strength in the people who took to the streets to support it.  “Voices of Freedom” re-visits several key events and places shaped by America’s great nonviolent revolution. This 20 minute video was filmed, edited, and produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Neal Broffman, son of the late Morton Broffman whose photographs are included in the exhibition “Road to Freedom.” The film will be followed by a discussion with Julian Cox, curator of “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956 – 1968,” and a Q&A. Free with Museum admission and free to Members.

Creative Loafing’s David Lee Simmons discusses Sheila Pree Bright’s “Young Americans” exhibition, which is currently on view at the High Museum. Have a listen!

In Coan Park, in Edgewood, Matt Haffner gave a great talk yesterday about his latest piece, which is part of the “A (new) Genre Landscape” public art exhibition in Atlanta-area parks this summer.

Carl Martin, an Athens-based photographer, will be presenting work from the last 20 years at Opal Gallery this Friday night. The exhibition will run through August 2nd, and there will be an artist talk on Friday evening, as well.

Check out the “Men of Georgia” project on Carl’s site.

This Friday marks the opening of Lori Waselchuk’s “Grace Before Dying” at Kiang Gallery, and Ms. Waselchuk will be giving an Artist Talk this Saturday, June 14th, at noon. The project “explore(s) the last days of terminally ill prisoners and the remarkably humane care given by prison volunteers”, and was completed at Angola State Prison, in Louisiana.

Opening Friday, June 13, 6:30 –8:30pm
Artist talk Saturday, June 14, noon