Memphis and the surrounding region contain a very vibrant art environment, according to University of Memphis Art Museum director Leslie Laird Luebbers.
The museum is hosting an exhibit entitled MAX: 03 to showcase some of this local talent.
The purpose of the show is to bring a curator from a more established metropolitan art community to Memphis. Once here, the curator combs the greater Memphis area for local talent.
"The idea was to bring a curator from someplace quite distant with the notion that it would bring national people face to face with local artists," Luebbers said.
"This would provide exposure for them outside this region," she said.
It is important for those not familiar with local art to be able to analyze it and see what we see in our local artist, Luebbers said.
"We are putting people into the public perception of what regional art consists of," she said. "Critical perceptions of regional art are important because it has incredible depth," Luebbers said.
And that regional art has been supported academically for at least 30 years.
Memphis and the surrounding region is home to Memphis College of Art, both undergraduate and graduate art programs at the U of M, as well as art programs in Oxford, Miss., and Jonesboro, Ark. This provides Memphis with a huge creative advantage.
"All of that creates great traffic of students and faculty," Luebbers said.
Beth Vinn, this year's chosen curator, has become very familiar with the artists to be featured. An independent curator, Vinn travels to different museums around the country experiencing and promoting art.
Hopefully having such an established curator will bring some exposure to the featured talent, Luebbers said.
"We hope it will result in a widened knowledge of their work," she said.
Vinn expressed similar thoughts about the purpose of the show and praised the MAX series for what it sets out to do.
"The purpose is to bring together a diverse group of artists and work that are held together loosely," Vinn said.
"It is taking the pulse of the visual art community in Memphis every two years," she said.
The artists Vinn chose for this year's show all exhibit some aspect of her loose theme, line and gesture. She said that this show includes many perceptual issues that "extend the idea of drawing beyond the typical."
One particular piece to be shown is a series of circular shapes suspended from the ceiling. When light is cast on the piece, shadows are cast against an adjacent wall.
Ideas of light and shadow and how light and shadow can create an image against a surface is one way to perceive drawing, Vinn said.
"Creatively drawing is another interest documented in the show," she said.
The show will run through September.
