Thursday, May 26, 2011

Kevin Everson's Films at the Whitney

Kevin Jerome Everson (b. 1965) works in film, painting, sculpture, and photography. His filmic fables, the focus of this exhibition, articulate the profound within the ordinariness of everyday life. Everson, who was born in the working-class community of Mansfield, Ohio, depicts details in the lives of people living and working in similar American communities: a mechanic repairing an old car in a backyard, a black beauty queen in a segregated pageant, men boxing, snowplow operators in winter, young men walking into a courtroom, the aftermath of a murder.


 Some of Everson’s films are constructed from appropriated news and film footage, uncovering forgotten details of African-American life in the 1960s and 70s. In other films, the artist explores the waxing and waning of a community’s sense of itself and the migration of black people from the South to the North in order to find work. Everson, whose work was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, approaches race, sexuality, and economic circumstances with a poetic yet unflinching eye.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Eric Kniss at CUE Foundation


UNCG alum Eric Kniss (2010) will have his work featured in the Joan Mitchell Foundation 2010 MFA Grant Recipient exhibition at the CUE Art Foundation, 511 West 25th Street, New York City. The show runs June 9th - July 30th, and the opening is June 9, 6-8pm. Eric was one of just fifteen MFA students from a national pool of nominees to be awarded this very prestigious grant. If you're in Manhattan on the 9th, stop by and congratulate Eric and the other grantees.