What’s up this week in Charlotte’s visual arts?
Each week, Grace Cote, Lia Newman, and Kati Stegall offer Observer readers a to-do list on immersing yourself in visual arts around town. Newman is director/curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, Cote is senior coordinator at Jerald Melberg Gallery, Stegall is Art-in-Transit program administrator at the Charlotte Area Transit System, and they collaborate on the blog HappeningsCLT (happeningsCLT.com).
For a seasonlong visual arts calendar, go to: www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article100517602.html.
Where to go
Leo Twiggs is a legend in the art world of South Carolina, and has for decades been a record keeper of the African American experience through his art. His “Requiem for Mother Emanuel,” a response to the 2015 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, is on view at the Mint Museum Randolph – and on Feb. 8 (6:30-8:30 p.m.), local artists, musicians and performers will respond in turn to it. Titled “Carolina Artists Respond,” the event will begin with Malcolm Graham, a former Charlotte City Council member and state senator whose sister died in the tragedy, sharing his own response to Twiggs’ series of batiks. Guests will have an opportunity to interact with artists and view the work.
What to see
The Bechtler Museum has just opened a new exhibition titled “Summing it Up at the End: Alberto Giacometti’s ’45 Drawings’ Portfolio.” This portfolio, printed in 1963 using the photogravure process, contains a prints of Giacometti drawings, chosen by Giacometti: You could call it a “greatest hits” of the artist’s work. This exhibition is the confirmation we didn’t need that Giacometti is particularly important to 20th century art history, and that Charlotte is fortunate to have access to his work. The prints were made near the end of Giacometti’s life, just after he had surgery for stomach cancer. According to exhibition curator Jennifer Sudul Edwards: “In this portfolio, we see an artist reckoning with his mortality, his life’s work, and the inevitable process of letting go, a beautiful and poignant love letter to the creative process.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2017 at 12:43 PM with the headline "What’s up this week in Charlotte’s visual arts?."