Art Is Everywhere

This past year was full of wonderful art at our museum. From “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun,” which dug into experimental and traditional photographic techniques to examine the legacy of nuclear weaponry and find a kind of healing, to “Mind the Gap: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” which let us pull things from our holdings to take a look at different themes, our exhibitions were varied and inspiring. We added two Sol LeWitt wall drawings to our lobby in a project that built community through collective art-making, and we did a speedy refresh of our temporary exhibition galleries over the summer. We reinstalled our Samuel H. Kress Gallery with exciting results and a great new look. We worked with University of Georgia students and faculty on many projects, allowing for hands-on learning through studying real works of art. And we played around with adding contemporary works of art to our historical permanent collection galleries, creating dialogue between past and present.

But our galleries weren’t the only place our staff found inspiration. Art is everywhere, whether in other museums or out in the world, and it takes many forms, including music, writing and performance. Here are a few artistic highlights from 2024 that our staff experienced and wanted to share.

Michael Lachowski, public relations

Carl Martin(opens in new tab) is a photographer living in Athens, and a friend. I’ve loved nearly every photo project he’s produced, including a current series in progress, “Opportunities in Space (Exterior),” pictured here. To photograph “gothic decay” or odd architecture isn’t anything new, and his mastery of the subjects’ form, texture, color and light of day are all exemplary. But the photos really excel in the arrangement of the image space — every interval, alignment, direction and pairing is jaw-droppingly perfect and thrilling to me.

Tricia Miller, deputy director of collections and exhibitions and head registrar

Visited the Peggy Guggenheim Museum(opens in new tab) in Venice, Italy, this year. Amazing!

Parris Baker-Coley, deputy director of business operations

My submission is Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album, “GNX.”(opens in new tab) After a year of dominating the music scene, Kendrick closes it out with this remarkable release. The album masterfully blends energetic West Coast vibes with lush, heartfelt slow jams, highlighted by the sultry vocals of SZA, one of R&B’s brightest stars. Lamar also explores his evolving spirituality on tracks like “Re-incarnated,” which offers profound lessons that build to a dramatic twist. In a year filled with inspiring moments, “GNX” stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Sarina Rousso, assistant registrar

As a registrar here, I have had the privilege to work on the Daura photo project (2-D portion) with local photographer Jason Thrasher and have gathered inspiration from this prolific collection including a vast variety of images and mediums by Pierre Daura, especially those that I haven’t seen until this project! His works on paper and paintings express a range of emotions and glorious colors which inspired me to focus on certain yellows and blues that I hope to include in my own work. The feelings of inspiration were contagious while working with Jason. During the 23 photo sessions, he continued to express his daily interest while viewing Daura’s works. He often made comparisons after photographing a drawing months before, then getting thoroughly excited when seeing something in a painting with similar colors and themes. During the end of this project, I learned about Jason’s “Potluck” exhibition(opens in new tab) at the UGA Special Collections Library. It was indeed another great inspiration, full of nostalgia and beauty. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by these artists and wonderful works of art, and grateful for the people I work with who continue to inspire me as well.

Hillary Brown, director of communications

I keep a running list all year long of every other museum I visit, and I always find things to inspire me, whether those things are art or operational (label design! logistics!). I expected that my choice for this blog post might be at one of those places, like the Jacob Lawrence paintings on the top floor of the National Museum of African American History and Culture(opens in new tab), which I visited for the first time this year, or Marx Reichlich’s painting “Last Judgement,”(opens in new tab) at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Both of those were highlights, but what stayed with me the most from my 2024 art experiences was UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art professor Martijn van Wagtendonk’s “Cupola: A Collaboration,”(opens in new tab) which was on view at Athens’ Lyndon House Arts Center over the summer. I’d seen it installed at the art school previously and been wowed by its eccentricity, collaborative spirit and mechanical genius, and I thought that seeing it again, in a revised form, might have less impact. Fortunately, the work holds up, bringing not only those aspects above, but also a real sense of joy and delight, something that’s often missing in contemporary art. I hope to see it again at some point!