Overview:
Uncover the immersive exhibition 'Whitfield Lovell: Passages' at Cincinnati Art Museum - featuring over 80 thought-provoking works and two powerful installations. Free for all visitors. Mark your calendar for related events!
By Darcy Strauss
Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum presents Whitfield Lovell: Passages, the most comprehensive exhibition of the contemporary artist to date. It features more than 80 works, including evocative multisensory installations, conté crayon drawings and other thought-provoking assemblages. It will be on view through May 26.
Lovell is a conceptual artist originally from Bronx, New York. He is most recognized for his drawings, many on weathered wood panels, inspired by his collection of vintage photographs of unidentified African Americans taken between the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the Civil Rights Movement (1954—1968). Lovell pairs his drawings with found objects, creating three-dimensional storytelling that brings American history to life.
For the first time, this exhibition brings together two of Lovell’s experiential, immersive installations, Deep River (2013) and Visitation: The Richmond Project (2001). As Lovell explains, “[These] installations are about memory and heritage and the markings that the past has made — and continues to make — on who we are.”
The monumental Deep River documents the perilous journey freedom seekers took by crossing the Tennessee River during the Civil War. Visitation: The Richmond Project is a profound homage to one of the country’s first major Black entrepreneurial communities in Jackson Ward, Richmond, Virginia. The artist pays tributes to the lives, names and faces of the people of this historic neighborhood.
The exhibition will be free for members and nonmembers every Thursday evening from 5—8 p.m. and on Friday, March 29 and Friday, April 26 from 5—9 p.m. during Art After Dark. Photography is permitted, but no flash. On social media, use the hashtag #WhitfieldLovell.
Upcoming, related events:
Gallery Talk Plus—Whitfield Lovell: Passages: 1—3 p.m., Saturday, April 13: Gain a deeper insight through this unique gallery experience for adult audiences. Reservations are required and are available via the exhibition webpage. The program is $10 for members, and $20 for the general public.
Create Plus: 1—4 p.m., Saturday, May 11: Try your hand at a new art technique in this studio-based program designed for adult audiences. Reservations are required and are available via the exhibition webpage. The program is $20 for members, and $30 for the general public.