Christopher Nitsche: Liminal Ship II

December 15, 2018 – December 8, 2019

Christopher Nitsche creates sculptures, drawings and temporary installations that evoke the visual and metaphorical attributes of ships; a pursuit he started in 1995. This installation continues a series of site works exploring the ship as a carrier of memory objects. The hull-side is composed of re-purposed lumber, which has an extant history of previous use. Most of the wood comes from debris after Hurricanes Mathew and Irma.

Nitsche has had over 70 solo and group shows, throughout America, Montenegro and Japan.  The State Art Councils of New Hampshire and Colorado recognized his work with Fellowship Grants for Artistic Merit.  Recent solo exhibitions include the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, Florida and the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Georgia, the Spartanburg Art Museum, the Indigo Sky Community Gallery, and Waterworks Visual Arts Center Museum.  He participated as a Visiting Artist creating installations at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the University of Wyoming Art Museum, Bridgewater State University, and Texas Woman’s University. Nitsche is currently a Professor of Foundation Studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design teaching classes in design and sculpture.

Whether in an urban center, train yard, or an empty lot in a small town, the impulse for artists to make their mark on a community is universal; what is unique is the ways in which they do that. ‘Street art’ has grown in the last generation as a populist, colorful, ambitious and irreverent counter to the homogenous concrete environments of urban developments. Thanks to world famous graffiti artists and various documentaries, street art has become a globally recognized practice. However, there is no one kind of street art, just as there is no one kind of street.The historical city streets and dirt roads of the Deep South are a whole other kind of backdrop, inspiring art that is as eclectic as it is playful.

Urban Wild is an exhibition that looks for the diversity of art that is practiced throughout the streets, highways, and dirt roads of the South. Taking engagement with public space as the only cue–object making, visual art, collecting, public sculpture and installation abound.These artists draw from graffiti, tattoo, skate, and hip-hop culture, as well as comic book illustration, pop art, folk art, and even old-fashioned sign painting. The traditional dividing lines between high and low art forms are non-existent. This exhibition aims to capture the breadth and diversity of art that makes public place its forum, as the Southern Street becomes a stage and canvas all its own.

Curated by our newly appointed Director of Exhibitions, elizabet elliott, Alabama Contemporary Art Center has enlisted 24 artists from a number of disciplines who’s work reflects the social environment, culture, and sub-cultures of life in the South. Artists hail from all over the South, up to and including our own back yard. As part of the exhibition, three murals will be cited at the Mobile Museum of Art as a satellite location, and numbers programs and events will populate the exhibition schedule.

Visit alabamacontemporary.org for details, current gallery hours, and upcoming programming.

This exhibition of three site-specific murals are presented as a satellite installation of URBAN WILD: Folk and Street Art in the South, an exhibition at Alabama Contemporary Art Center, curated by Elizabet Elliott. That exhibition may be seen at ACAC located at 301 Conti Street in downtown Mobile.

This satellite, site-specific installation is coordinated for MMofA by Stan Hackney, Curator of Regional Contemporary Art at the Mobile Museum of Art.

MMofA site-specific artists:

Brandon Barnhart  |  Gabriel Smith  |  Jeremy Strength  |  Tanner Wilson

“This exhibition looks at the range of creativity that is practiced throughout the streets, highways, and dirt roads of the South. We went looking for the intersection between folk art and street art below the Mason-Dixon line, taking engagement with public space as the only cue. What we found were visionaries and vandals, taking old categories and remaking/unmaking them in a Southern dialect. These artists draw from graffiti, tattoo flash, skate culture, hip-hop culture, as well as comic book illustration, pop art, and even old-fashioned sign painting to make objects, images, and environments. The traditional dividing lines between high and low art forms no longer apply. In this exhibition, we have only a snapshot of the breadth and diversity in Southern art that makes public place its forum, where Southern streets become a stage and canvas all their own.”

elizabet elliott
director of programs and exhibitions
Alabama Contemporary Art Center

SOUTHERN MASTERS
Casey Downing Jr. | Bruce Larsen | Nall
with
April Hopkins | William Legg

Step into the creative process. Three larger than life artists from Alabama will be stepping outside the box by recreating their own studio or work space inside the museum. This will be a rare glimpse into three artists’ world, each with a distinct perspective and unique methodology. In addition to the large scale installations exploring the work and creative spaces of Downing, Larsen, and Nall, each has selected an emerging Alabama artist to represent the next generation. Get a back door look into the honed practices of three masters of their craft, as well as a sense of what legacy they may compel.