BENTONVILLE -- In less than a week, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will debut its largest and most ambitious temporary exhibition to date, State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now. The collection of 227 contemporary works by 102 artists was carefully chosen during a 100,000-mile cross-country trek by museum President Don Bacigalupi and curator Chad Alligood.
The pair dubbed it "the ultimate road trip."
The year-long journey and the exhibition it produced were the brainchild of Bacigalupi, a museum management veteran who makes no bones about his love for contemporary art. He and Alligood traveled to big cities and small towns around the nation, looking for previously undiscovered artists and those whose work has not been fully recognized. From a list of more than 10,000 suggested artists, they made studio visits to nearly 1,000 of them.
"Contemporary art has too often been dismissed as 'something a child could do,' or -- worse -- irrelevant," Bacigalupi said. "But contemporary artists live and work among us, in the here and now, and they have a great deal to communicate with us."
The exhibit opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 19. Admission to the museum and the exhibition is free. Museum members can get a sneak peak at the exhibition from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. Friday.
Artwork in the exhibition includes photography and video, works on paper and canvas, and ceramics and sculptures, along with large installations and performance art. Materials include a wide range of recycled objects, such as outdated plastic televisions, secondhand romance novels and Mylar, which is used to line a pulsating room.
The exhibit also includes 11 action or interactive works, including one by Terence Hammonds, You Gotta Get Up To Get Down. Hammonds' interactive work uses wallpaper, printed dance floors, a hi-fi set and about two dozen Motown records. The wallpaper features images of 1970s soul artists, and the dance floors are printed with images from the civil-rights conflicts of the 1960s.
Some works are so large that there was no way to conceal them from public view before the exhibit opens.
One of those is an abstract blue, yellow and red inflatable structure on the museum's lower pond. Cleveland-based artist Jimmy Kuehnle's work titled Amphibious Inflatable Suit (AIS) In Captivity (2014) is about 60 feet long and 20 feet tall when fully inflated. Kuehnle designed it so it undergoes a cycle of inflating above the water and sinking below the pond's surface.
"I expect every guest to find works of art that thrill and engage them," Bacigalupi said. "State of the Art represents an enormously broad spectrum of mediums, themes and artistic approaches by 102 artists with very different perspectives and backgrounds.
"From 24-year-old Wilmer Wilson's provocative performances about race to 87-year-old Mary Ann Currier's exquisite still life drawings, our audiences will find art that speaks to them personally," Bacigalupi said.
About half of the artists will be going to Crystal Bridges over the next few months for lectures, workshops, performances and the like.
One event is the museumwide Art Night Out: actionINTERaction on Oct. 11, at which State of the Art performance artists, such as Autumn Knight, Wilson and Angela Ellsworth, will perform. At the end of the evening, Kuehnle will don his Amphibious Inflatable Suit to interact with the audience.
Metro on 09/08/2014