| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
March Issue 2006
McColl Center for Visual Art, in Charlotte, NC, Offers Exhibition Which Confronts Clichés
Stereotypes: Confronting Clichés will be on view from Mar. 24 through May 20, 2006, at McColl Center for Visual Art, in uptown Charlotte, NC.
Curated by June Lambla, the exhibition features more than twenty-five contemporary works by nine internationally and nationally known artists. The art in this exhibition addresses issues of race, political and religious affiliation, ethnicity, gender, beauty, and societal roles.
When used intentionally, the subject of stereotypes in art can create both a feeling of familiarity and tension. Stereotypes: Confronting Clichés features work by artists who are not afraid to address social stereotypes. Curator Lambla elaborates on the dilemma stereotypes pose, adding, "One definition of stereotype is 'commonness,' but, sadly stereotypes are seldom used to find common ground. Instead, it is used to stigmatize, serving the interest of one group at the expense of another." This show posits, however, that art can help prevent or draw attention to this phenomenon. "Investigating stereotypes in the arts," says Lambla, "can increase self-awareness and can stimulate tolerance and awareness in the viewer."
The artists in this exhibit work in media ranging from photography to painting to video installation. They hail from across the world, including the United States, Iran and Kuwait.
Two artists influenced by Japanese culture are featured in Stereotypes. Roger Shimomura is a Japanese-American who was born in Seattle, WA. His works compare contemporary America with traditional Japan, referencing personal history, art history, pop culture and current events. Iona Rozeal Brown produces paintings that challenge stereotypical views of African Americans and Japanese Americans via imagery associated with traditional Japanese art and Hip Hop culture.
Also taking up issues of race, internationally renowned conceptual artist Lorna Simpson creates photo-based works that address growing up black in America. More specifically, Simpson's imagery often relates to gender, social roles and beauty.
Loretta Lux
Trained as a painter in Munich and influenced by old masters such as seventeenth-century, Spanish artist Vel·squez, Loretta Lux constructs digitally manipulated photographs of children that challenge accepted ideas about both high art and presumed innocence of children. According to Lambla, the "eerie portraits of children make us question both our stereotypes of childhood and of portraiture."
Tarek Al-Ghoussein addresses the visualization of his Palestinian heritage in a series of self portraits. According to Al-Ghoussein, the images in his self portrait series are a "commentary on contemporary Western media's representations of the Palestinian as terrorist."
Iranian-born, New Yorker Shirin Neshat has used Islam as her inspiration for years. Neshat strives to lift the veil on the middle-Eastern ideologies that often arouse a mix of interest, anger and fear in the West.
Anne Kesler Shields, who lives and works in North Carolina, is inspired by the events of 9/11, including New York City's signature skyline and the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Stereotypes: Confronting Clichés was curated exclusively for McColl Center for Visual Art by Guest Curator June Lambla and is sponsored, in part, by SPX Corporation.
The Center's goal is to advance creativity through artist residencies, exhibitions and other educational programs about contemporary art. McColl Center for Visual Art is supported by the Annual Fund Drive of the Arts & Science Council; the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts and the generosity of other public, private and individual contributors.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at
704/332-5535, e-mail at (r.moses@mccollcenter.org) or at
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2006 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2006 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.