Caroline Burton: The Back of the Moon

In Conversation
The Back of the Moon, Caroline Burton, view 2, on view at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in the Christine DeVitt Exhibition Hall in Lubbock, TX, photo courtesy of Taylor Ernst

What does it take to move an exhibition from one institution to another, and how does it change along the way? Caroline Burton’s The Back of the Moon began at The Clara M. Eagle Gallery at Murray State University, where curator T. Michael Martin first organized the presentation. Recognizing both the impact of Burton’s large-scale works and the practicality of transporting them rolled in tubes, Martin developed opportunities for the exhibition to travel. This led to a partnership with the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) in Lubbock, Texas, where curator Taylor Ernst re-envisioned the show for the Christine DeVitt Exhibition Hall. With each venue offering its own curatorial approach and installation design, The Back of the Moon continues to evolve as it moves between sites. In the following conversation, curators T. Michael Martin and Taylor Ernst discuss the process of shaping this traveling exhibition.

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Private View from Home to Home

In Dialogue with Naomi Lev, Rebecca Pristoop, and Sarah Crown

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Left to right, Noa Charuvi, Aimee Burg, Gabriela Salazar, installation view at Naomi Lev’s home (also in the picture: Dov Talpaz, Yahm, and Naomi Lev, as part of Lev’s personal collection).

The Exhibition Private View is a bit like an artist’s game of telephone. Three curators: Sarah Crown, Naomi Lev, Rebecca Pristoop, coordinated the movement of works by seven artists (Aimée Burg, Noa Charuvi, Tamar Ettun, Julia Goldman, KB Jones, Dana Levy, Gabriela Salazar) from home to home of each of the artists. In each new space the works were rehung, re-organized, and displayed in a new environment, often with the addition of the host’s collection of art. I interviewed the curators to find out how they planned and executed this show and how it was recorded and disseminated. In a way this exhibition reversed the traditional structure of personal and private: instead of the public being able to see artworks in a whitebox gallery or museum, which has been made impossible because of the pandemic, we became spectators on an artists private space—we couldn’t be there in person, but via Instagram we were shown more than we usually get to see. These notions of intimacy, personal expression, and a safe space in times of turmoil were central to the exhibition Private View.

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