Artist Conversation with Shanequa Gay

This event has now passed. Watch a recording of the talk below!

Join us for a conversation between artist Shanequa Gay and Lauren Turner, the Ackland’s assistant curator for the collection. They will discuss Gay’s commissioned installation holding space for nobility: a memorial for Breonna Taylor, which is now on view in the Ackland’s ART& gallery.

holding space for nobility: a memorial for Breonna Taylor is a site-specific installation that features monumental chimeric figures rendered in oil and acrylic. Gay merges Breonna Taylor’s likeness with deer and zebra features in a technique of juxtaposition that she employs throughout her artmaking practice. The resulting hybrid guardians incorporate multiple characteristics of the natural world to facilitate healing and empowerment. An altar-like display of vintage Tiara black glassware and salt water transforms the gallery into a space for collective mourning while the monochromatic installation starkly reminds viewers that Taylor’s death resulted from forces that shape the lives of countless Black Americans.

Shanequa Gay, an Atlanta native, has exhibited at the Zuckerman Museum (Kennesaw, GA), the Hammonds House Museum (Atlanta, GA), the Hayti Heritage Center (Durham, NC), the McColl Center for Art + Innovation (Charlotte, NC), and the Chattanooga African American Museum (Chattanooga, TN). For more information about her work, please go to www.shanequagay.com.

This installation and related programming have been made possible by the generous support of James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach.

Recording of our “Artist Conversation with Shanequa Gay” held Friday, Nov 13, 2020. Also available on the Ackland’s YouTube channel.