Dear Artist

Nakeya Brown, Self-portrait in Shower Cap, 2015; color photo; 20 x 16in. Courtesy the artist and collector Whitney Hardy. All rights reserved.

For immediate release: 2/14/2019

Exhibition title: Dear Artist

Panel discussion event date / time: March 9, 2pm-3pm
Opening reception event date / time: March 9, 3pm-6pm

Location:
Art Museum of the University of Memphis
3750 Norriswood Dr.
142 Communication & Fine Art Building
Memphis, TN 38152

Parking: Free in Central Avenue lot on Saturday, paid garage parking in Fogelman Drive garage

Contact: artmuseum@memphis.edu / 901.678.2224

Website: memphis.edu/amum / Social Media: #dearartist

Dear Artist,

I have always collected art because I feel artists have a way to explain the unexplainable, to describe feelings that are best expressed without words. Your piece found me at a time when there was so much uncertainty and concern surrounding our future....

The Art Museum of the University of Memphis and Young Arts Patrons are pleased to announce, Dear Artist, an exhibition that highlights the social and economic importance of celebrating and supporting artists throughout their careers. Dear Artist will feature works by emerging and internationally known artists on loan from new and established local collectors as well as select museum collections.

Collecting is often a personal and emotional experience. Dear Artist will examine the collector's motivation and process in depth through intimate, hypothetical letters written by the collectors to their chosen artists.

Artists will include: Lisa Alonso, Jarvis Boyland, Nakeya Brown, Burton Callicott, Carroll Cloar, Ronald and Jessie Cooper, Jennifer Crescuillo, LaAndrea Deloyce, William Eggleston, Howard Finster, Edwin Jeffrey, Jr., Titus Kaphar, Karen Lamassone, Joseph "Doughjoe" Love III, Terry Lynn, John Carl Marshall, Lawrence Matthews, Lester Merriweather, Carl Moore, Greely Myatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andres Serrano, Jared Small, Kiki Smith, Katie Benjamin Steed, and Cathy Worthy.

The exhibition opens on Saturday March 9th and runs through June 1st at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis.

There will be a panel discussion about collecting moderated by Whitney Hardy of Young Arts Patrons in conversation with Pitt Hyde, Jasmin McKenzie, and Elliot Perry at 2pm on March 9th followed by a reception from 3-6pm at the museum.