Behind the Scenes with Arlene Shechet

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Experiment Station

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Arlene Shechet with her installation Once Removed (1998). These works are mde from abacá paper and Hydrocal. Photos: Rhiannon Newman

Check out these behind-the-scenes photos of Arlene Shechet installing her Intersections project, From Here On Now. Shechet is a New York-based sculptor known for glazed ceramic sculptures that are off-kilter yet hang in a balance between stable and unstable, teetering between the restraint of intellect and the insistence of instinct.

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Shechet in the staircaise of the original Phillips house with Deputy Director for Curatorial and Academic Affairs Klaus Ottmann. Photo: Rhiannon Newman

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Deciding on positioning for Shechet’s Best Behavior (2014). Photo: Rhiannon Newman

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Shechet and Ottmann with the artist’s Best Behavior (2014). Photo: Rhiannon Newman

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In an adjacent gallery to the one pictured above, portraits from the museum’s permanent collection are hung salon style. Photo: Rhiannon Newman

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In addition to her works on view in the second floor of the original Phillips house, Shechet’s ceramics are on view in a first floor gallery of the more recent addition. Shechet and Ottmann are pictured here with For the Forest (2016). Photo: Rhiannon Newman

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Arlene Shechet installing Once Removed (1998). Photo: Rhiannon Newman

Tiffany Jones’s Panel 61

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Experiment Station

The story of migration is ongoing. In the final, 60th panel of The Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence leaves us with the words “And the migrants keep coming.” The Phillips has invited contemporary artists to continue Jacob Lawrence’s work. Check the recently launched Jacob Lawrence website for additional works to be unveiled in this dynamic curated selection, or contribute your own #Panel61.

Tiffany Jones, Migration by a New Generation (from unFaded), 2016. Mixed media on wood panel, 16 x 20 in.

Tiffany Jones, Migration by a New Generation (from unFaded)

JIM CROW: 1877–1960’s

GREAT MIGRATION: 1910–1970

Barbershops began defining their Black Space during the turn of the 20th century. The industry shifted from a service to whites into a foundation for the beginning of a black cultural movement. The number of black barbershops increased as a new generation considered the organization and safety of black communities.

Betye Saar’s Panel 61

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Experiment Station

(left) Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, 2006. Mixed media assemblage, 14 x 12 x 6 1/2 in. Courtesy of Betye Saar and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA. Photograph by Tim Lanterman for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (right) Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, 2006. Mixed media assemblage, 14 x 12 x 6 1/2 in. Courtesy of Betye Saar and Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA. Photograph by Tim Lanterman for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Betye Saar, Migration: Africa to America I, and Migration: Africa to America II 2006

In 17 mixed media collages and assemblages, Betye Saar (b. 1926) narrates 17 distinctive journeys. By layering carefully selected clues—a gold button, an African mask, a slave ship diagram, a weathered photograph, a pressed leaf, a tattered American flag—she constructs fictional biographies of nameless characters that represent the historical passages of millions. Haunted by memories of Africa or the trauma of the Middle Passage, Saar’s journeys remind us that history is not simply the recording of past events—it is a living, breathing entity, filling the space of our present and shaping contemporary identities.