It’s actually been a very productive year. After my spring show was postponed, I had a few freak-out days of wondering what the hell is going on before getting my head together and realizing the unique opportunity to just make work with limited distractions. I didn’t want to look back on this strange period of time as a lost year. Consequently, I was able to finish several paintings [and] produce two more wood sculptures that we were able to include in my current David Lusk Gallery installation here in Nashville.
Nashville-based painter Ashley Doggett paints figurative portraits that engage with themes of religion, race, and dissociation from historical narratives of white supremacy. Her paintings are grounded in Old Master portraiture while drawing on the influences of contemporary artists including Margaret Bowland, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley. Her vividly colorful works recontextualize racial stereotypes and imagery of American slavery as a means of reclaiming and reconsidering historical narratives.
David Lusk Gallery opens Heed this weekend. This is another group show that reflects on both vast inquiries and pressing issues. Maysey Craddock’s gouache paintings on found paper bags ask big questions about the cyclical duality of the natural world. Craddock’s stylized representations of trees, rivers, roots and vines blend together into an examination of massive natural systems over vast time periods marked by growth, decay, death and rebirth. Ashley Doggett’s historical narratives about slavery and white supremacy are right on time in our current social climate, and the artist’s varied multimedia approach finds her continually refashioning fresh conversations for these times. Leslie Holt’s painted surfaces reflect a deep interest in topics like psychology and mental illness. Holt combines abstracted color fields with embroidered brain scans that reveal illnesses like schizophrenia, PTSD and depression. Rob Matthews’ latest work finds the artist bringing his technical hand to explorations of crises we associate with America’s decades-long wars in the Middle East: forced migration and terrorist assassinations. Matthews uses graphite, paint and collage techniques to create stylized lines and frantic cross-hatching, as well as detailed depictions of apocalyptic imagery from music history and the Bible.
Huger Foote, photographe américain né à Memphis, est maintenant installé à New York. Connu à l'international pour avoir exposé dans de nombreuses galeries, il a également collaboré avec de nombreux titres de presse tels que le New York Times, Interview, i-D et différentes éditions du magazine Vogue, entre autres. Deux monographies de son œuvre sont parues, My friend from Memphis en 2000 et Now Here Then en 2015.
