Location: Nashville, Tennessee Project Type: Exhibition Status: Completed 2022 Scale: 2,200 ft² Collaborators: Perrin M. Lathrop, PhD Client: Fisk University Galleries Photography: Jerry Atnip
For the inaugural installation of African Modernism in America at Fisk University Galleries, our design employs color to enunciate each of the exhibition's four discreet chapters: Art from Africa of Our Time, Modernism Between Africa and America, Modernism within Africa, and Archiving African Modernism. The show culminates in a collage installation of images and objects by the artist Ndidi Dike.
Casework and pedestals, painted to match section headings, serve as saturated wayfinding devices, in deliberate contrast to the envelope of the historic Carl Van Vechten gallery. A timeline designed to wrap the staircase connecting the two gallery floors situates the work of these important artists alongside critical milestones in the civil rights movement. Typefaces incorporated into the signage and infographics include Famba and Tuckshop, both designed by the Zimbabwean designer Tapiwanashe S Garikayi.
