Updated: 9/9/14, 7:33 pm
In an unusual PR strategy, the names of artists selected for the upcoming “State of the Art” survey at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, opening September 13 in Bentonville, Arkansas, have begun to trickle out from various outlets, including the artists themselves. According to a Crystal Bridges spokesperson: “Many of the artists in the exhibition have not had work exhibited on a national scale before so in order to respect their preferences for publicity, we’re working with them to share their involvement in the formats with which they are most comfortable.”
The Crystal Bridges strategy so far has been successful in drumming up interest, mostly through numerous stories in local and national media about the curators’ trek to 1,000 artists’ studios around the country. Museum president Don Bacigalupi (whose blog updates can be seen on the Huffington Post) and curator Chad Alligood have selected 102 under-recognized artists to feature in “State of the Art,” which promises to be the museum’s most successful exhibition to date. (Look for our feature with Alligood in the upcoming print edition BURNAWAY #2: EXCHANGE in September!)
The selected artists range in age from 24 to 87; 54 are men and 48 are women; and the geographic spread is fairly equitable: 26 are from the West and Southwest; 27 from the Midwest; 25 from Texas and the South; and 24 from the East Coast.
We do know that Atlanta’s Pam Longobardi, Fahamu Pecou and the duo of Marni Shindelman and Nate Larson are in! Longobardi, the 2013 Hudgens Prize winner and Georgia State University professor, sent out an announcement yesterday with the news, but even she didn’t know who else was included.
Here are the other participants we’ve been able to glean so far. If you’re in or you know of others, let us know and we’ll add to the list!
Texas and the South:
Hiromi Moneyhun (Jacksonville, FL)
Kedgar Volta (Jacksonville, FL)
John Douglas Powers (Knoxville)
Guy Bell (Little Rock)
John Salvest (Arkansas)
Delita Martin (Arkansas)
Linda Lopez (Arkansas)
Jeff Whetsone (Durham, NC)
Bob Trotman (Casar, NC)
Peter Glenn Oakley (North Carolina)
Celestia Morgan (Alabama)
Peggy Levinson Nolan (Florida)
Gina Phillips (New Orleans)
Dave Greber (New Orleans)
Carl Joe Williams (New Orleans)
Chris Sauter (San Antonio)
Vincent Valdez (San Antonio)
Michael Menchaca (San Antonio)
Autumn Knight (Houston)
Dornith Doherty (Denton, TX)
Gabriel Dawe (Dallas)
Kim Cadmus Owens (Dallas)
Midwest:
Jawshing Arthur Liou (Bloomington, IN)
Eyakem Gulilat (Oklahoma City)
Andy Ducett (Minnesota)
Terence Hammonds (Cincinnatti)
Jimmy Baker (Cincinnatti)
Jimmy Kuehnle (Cleveland)
Jamie Adams (St. Louis)
Miki Baird (Kansas City, MO)
Julie Blackmon (Springfield, MO)
Calder Kamin (Kansas City, MO)
Mary Kay (Lindsborg, KS)
Tim Liddy (St. Louis)
Randy Regier (Wichita)
Watie White (Omaha)
Alberto Aguilar (Chicago)
Alison Ruttan (Chicago)
Angela Drakeford (Omaha)
Aspen Mays (Columbus, OH)
Hamilton Poe (Detroit)
Jason Vaughn (Madison, WI)
Mary Kay (Lindsborg, KS)
Angela Drakeford (Omaha, NE)
East Coast:
Meg Hitchcock (New York, NY)
Jeila Gueramian (Brooklyn)
Ghost of a Dream (Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom), Brooklyn
Nathalie Miebach (Boston)
Elizabeth Alexander (Massachusetts)
Mequitta Ahuja (Baltimore)
Nate Larson (Baltimore)
Wilmer Wilson IV (Philadelphia)
Lenka Clayton (Pittsburgh)
Vanessa German (Pittsburgh)
Michael Menchaca (Rhode Island)
Zoe Charlton (Washington, D.C.)
Cobi Moules (Boston)
Sheila Gallagher (Boston)
West and Southwest:
Susie J. Lee (Seattle)
Dan Webb (Seattle)
Flora Mace (Seattle)
James Lavadour (Umatilla reservation, Oregon)
Kirk Crippens (Emeryville, CA)
Justin Favela (Las Vegas)
Angela Ellsworth (Phoenix)
Danial Nord (San Pedro, CA)
Monica Aissa Martinez (Phoenix)
Adonna Khare (Santa Monica)
Kim Dickey (Boulder)
Joel S. Allen (Colorado)
Luke Butler (San Francisco)
Elisheva Biernoff (San Francisco)
Lauren Gallaspy (Salt Lake City)
Catlaina Delgado-Trunk (New Mexico)
Laurel Roth Hope (San Francisco)
David Adey (San Diego)
Isabella Kirkland (Sausalito, CA)
Teri Greeves (Santa Fe)
