Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum Just Opened a Sprawling Show About the State of American Art Today. Here’s What It Looks Like
Over the weekend, the nation got a new contemporary art museum:
The Momentary in Bentonville,
Arkansas. Situated in a repurposed Kraft cheese factory, the new
space is the latest outpost of the nearby Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The
Momentary’s full-throated embrace of emerging art is intended to
augment that nine-year-old institution’s focus on art-historical
classics, which has made Bentonville, previously best known as the
home of Walmart—Alice Walton is the prime mover behind Crystal
Bridges—into a center for cultural tourism.
The Momentary debuts with “State of the Art,” the second
edition of a once-every-five-years exhibition of American art
spearheaded by Crystal Bridges and focusing on sampling
contemporary art practice beyond New York and Los Angeles. Curated
by Lauren Haynes, Alejo Benedetti, and Allison Glenn, the result is
a 61-artist survey, shared between the cheese-factory chic of the
Momentary’s new galleries and the bucolic luxury of Crystal
Bridges, where curators have staged interventions into the
permanent collection and even the museum’s Frank Lloyd
Wright-designed Bachman-Wilson House.
There’s plenty to say, both about “State of the Art” and about
the new space. While I’m figuring out what exactly that is, here is
an overview of what it all looks like.
The Momentary
The Momentary, Bentonville’s newest
museum. Image: Ben Davis.
The first gallery of “State of the Art”
at the Momentary. Image: Ben Davis.
Works by Alex Chitty. Image: Ben
Davis.
Jena Thomas’s Beautiful Dirty
and In Search of Fun. Image: Ben Davis.
Visitors watch Chele Isaac’s video
Facilities Fully Functional. Image: Ben Davis.
Enrico Riley’s Untitled: Resistance,
Carrier of Music (2019) and Untitled: Midnight Our Dreams
Move Forward (2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Diego Rodriguez-Warner, The
Fountain (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Work by Paul Stephen Benjamin. Image:
Ben Davis.
A guide shows guests how to interact
with Jill Downen, Three Dimensional Sketchbook
(2013-present). Image: Ben Davis.
Visitors interact with Kellie Romany,
In an Effort to Be Held (2016-2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Jody Kuehner, DITCH
(2019-2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Eddie R. Aparicio, De Colon a
Dolor (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Peter Everett, Vermillion
Screen (2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Kris Pierce, Free Food (2018).
Image: Ben Davis.
Karen Seapker, Tent Mama
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Works by Anthony Sonnenberg. Image: Ben
Davis.
Anthony Romero, Matthew Joynt, and Josh
Rios, Not Peaceable and Quiet (Piñata Sound System)
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Hong Hong, Composition for Gravity
in the Void (2015-present). Image: Ben Davis.
Suchirta Mattai, Exodus (2019).
Image: Ben Davis.
Didier William, Ou ap tonbe, men m
ap kanbe ou (2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Jordan Seaberry, Blueberry (The
Right to Self) (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Frances Bagley, Shangri-La
(2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Edra Soto, Open 24 Hours
(2017). Image: Ben Davis.
Nicolas Lobo, Silhouette of a
Friend (2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Alex Pixley Young, Geist, Lighthouse
and Transmissions (2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Joanna Keane Lopez, A dance of us
(un baile de nosotros) (2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Crystal Bridges Museum of
Art
Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Image:
Ben Davis.
Mari Hernandez, Colonizer
(2017) inserted into the main collection of Crystal Bridges. Image:
Ben Davis.
David Harper, She Drank the Water
that was Meant for the Orchids (2019), inserted into the
Crystal Bridges collection. Image: Ben Davis.
George Sanchez-Calderon’s
Americana, as viewed from inside Crystal Bridges. Image:
Ben Davis.
JooYoung Choi, Time for You and Joy
to Get Acquainted (2017). Image: Ben Davis.
Carla Edwards, Bonfire (2017).
Image: Ben Davis.
Damien Stamer, Horry County 6
(2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Joha Moon, Yellowave (2019).
Image: Ben Davis.
Tim Portlock, Escape (2017).
Image: Ben Davis.
Janelle Esparza, Dancer In An
Unconscious Rhythm I (2018) and multiple works by Kate Marie
Budd. Image: Ben Davis.
Works by Kate Marie Budd. Image: Ben
Davis.
Mae Arthur, The Guardeners
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Rick Silva, Western Fronts
(2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Cory Imig, Linear Spaces
(2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Joey Fauerso, Devotion Story
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Sama Alshaibi, The Cessation
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Stacy Lynn Wadell, Untitled (Two
Girls and Love) (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Stacy Lynn Waddell, Untitled (Dot
and Leon 1972) (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Elisa Harkins, Wampum (2019).
Image: Ben Davis.
Marcela Pardo Ariza, Linda Lee and
Dorsey Louis (1988, 2018) (2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Hannah McBloom, Woodpile
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Photos by L. Kasimu Harris. Image: Ben
Davis.
Photos by Frank Blazquez. Image: Ben
Davis.
Ronald Jackson, In a Day She Became
The Master of Her House (2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Cristina Molina, Matrilineal
Portrait: From the Matriarchs Series (2016-2017). Image: Ben
Davis.
Mari Hernandez, Los Hermanos
(2018). Image: Ben Davis.
Alex Bradley Cohen, Keon and
Kamau. Image: Ben Davis.
Scott Hocking, Arkansas
Traveler (2019-2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Installation view of one of the
galleries of “State of the Art” at Crystal Bridges.
Jova Lynne, Beautiful Sun, Sea,
Beaches, Flowers and Hotels from Visions of Paradise (2018).
Image: Ben Davis.
Su Su, Darwin (2018). Image:
Ben Davis.
Lori Kella, Slip into the Fog and
Vanish (Painter Turtle) (2019) and Euclid’s Mirror
(2019). Image: Ben Davis.
Francisco Souto, Long Food Line
(2016). Image: Ben Davis.
Art Miller, AT&T Cellular Tower
First Church of the Nazarene Springdale, Arkansas (2019).
Image: Ben Davis.
Amy Casey, Highground (2019).
Image: Ben Davis.
Various works by Letitia Huckaby (all
2017). Image: Ben Davis.
Larry Walker, Tweet, Tweet… Look
Who’s Here… or Aliens, Wall Spirits and Other Manifestations
(2017). Image: Ben Davis.
The terminal for Tabitha Nikolai’s
videogame Ineffable Glossolalia (2017). Image: Ben
Davis.
Paul Stephen Benjamin, Daily
Meditations (2020). Image: Ben Davis.
Domingo Castillo, Tropical Malaise:
Prologue (2016), as installed in Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Bachman-Wilson House at Crystal Bridges. Image: Ben Davis.
The post Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum Just Opened a
Sprawling Show About the State of American Art Today. Here’s What
It Looks Like appeared first on artnet News.
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