This summer, the Speed Art Museum invites visitors to rediscover one of Louisville’s most quietly influential artists with the exhibition G.C. Coxe: The Dean of Louisville Art. Opening June 7, the show marks the latest in a series of exhibitions curated by Dr. fari nzinga, focused on lifting up the legacies of historically significant Black artists connected to the region.
The Speed Art Museum is excited to unveil Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrored Room – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER. This installation marks the first time an “infinity room” has been presented in Kentucky and is on special loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario. The immersive exhibit envelops the visitor inside a large, mirrored space with stainless-steel spheres suspended from the ceiling and arranged on the floor providing reflections of the visitor uniquely in each. The reflective spheres recall Kusama’s installation Narcissus Garden, which was first shown at the 1966 Venice Biennale.
Director, Raphaela Platow address Speed Art Museum members and partners at the opening of India: South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art. Photo by Kevin Sivakumar
The Speed Art Museum stands as a testament to artistic exploration and cultural immersion. Founded in 1927, the Speed is not only the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky, but also boasts a vibrant and diverse collection that has been applauded by the deep appreciation for the arts in the community, fostering artistic dialogue and igniting imaginations for generations.
Audience publisher, G, Douglas Dreisbach, caught up with Director Raphaela Platow to hear more about her background, the importance of The Speed and the exciting new season of exhibits.
Listen to the full interview below:
Cutting sugar cane in Louisiana. (1909-1913) From the collection of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library.
The Speed Art Museum is excited to open a new exhibit to ring in the New year. The Bitter and the Sweet: Kentucky Sugar Chests, Enslavement, and the Transatlantic World 1790-1865 will run through April 7th and boldly reexamines the Kentucky sugar chest and related objects within the broader, intertwined contexts of the Atlantic economy, the vicious human toll of enslavement, and the complex transportation systems that brought sugar to Kentucky from the West Indies and sugar-growing regions of the Americas.
Skilled Kentucky cabinetmakers used local materials to create these highly specialized furniture pieces to store costly refined white and brown sugar that was grown and harvested by enslaved men, women and children. Taking a closer look, visitors learn that the backstory behind these beautiful pieces isn’t as gleaming as the polished silver or glimmering walnut and cherry items the museum has on display.
Speed Art Museum recently unveiled its highly anticipated exhibition featuring the artwork of Isabelle de Borchgrave, the Belgian artist whose life-like creations and elaborately adorned period clothing are entirely handmade with paper. The exhibition, entitled “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper,” features nearly 100 life-size, trompe l’oeil paper costumes and works that involve the manipulation of paper and paint to create fully formed sculptural costume pieces.
The costumes span nearly 500 years of fashion, replicating historical garments found in European masterworks and in collections around the country. (more…)
