The latest Mint Museum show pairs old and new to showcase ‘Classic Black’ sculptures

During his first year as curator of decorative arts at The Mint Museum, Brian Gallagher stumbled upon a couple of items while searching the museum’s storage area – busts of Junius Brutus and Demosthenes by Josiah Wedgwood, an 18th century potter. The material: black basalt, which is igneous or volcanic rock.

The discovery launched Gallagher’s 10-year journey to curate an exhibition featuring basalt sculpture.

“I was just amazed that we had these two extraordinary library busts and this tall vase that hadn’t been reviewed before,” Gallagher said. “They were languishing in this unfortunate storeroom. When I realized how relatively rare they were, I thought, ‘Maybe we have the makings of an exhibition here.’”

“Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries” is on exhibit at Mint Museum Randolph through Aug. 30. It features more than 100 black basalt sculptures, including vases, busts and medallions created by Wedgwood and several other artists from the same time period.

The exhibition’s setting may surprise museum goers: A local artist’s murals adorn walls and columns throughout the space. The sunset hues of the murals complement the black basalt — pairing old and new to create a showroom with pieces arranged in three galleries.

A showroom motif

The showroom atmosphere mimics what Wedgwood and other working potters might have used to display their wares to potential buyers in the 1700s. In each of the rooms — sculpture hall, library, and drawing room — Mr. and Mrs. Clark, two imaginary caricatures drawn on display boards, add period-humor and context to the “shopping” experience.

“At the end of the day, this was a business for Wedgwood and his contemporaries,” Gallagher said. “They needed to sell these things. It wasn’t just about creating beautiful things for people to enjoy. They were creating things people wanted to buy.”

HannaH Crowell, the Mint’s exhibition designer, remembers her first discussions with Gallagher about the black basalt project. They talked about how an exhibit with only black objects with some variation brought on by the minerals in the rock itself could be brought to life with warm colors such as orange, pink, purple and yellow.

Crowell’s revelation for a showroom motif came to her when she was stuck in an airport for 24 hours. For this exhibit, she thought of herself as a visual merchandiser rather than an exhibit designer. She knew she needed to bring in the neoclassical style with something like arches, columns or molding.

But the answer came to her when she saw a local artist’s work at the Mint’s Battle Walls mural slam competition last summer. Although Crowell knew of the artist (known as Owl) and her partner Arko’s work from the Mint’s Constellation CLT in 2018, seeing it again helped her envision how the color, movement and lines could achieve what she wanted for “Classic Black” and further the exhibit’s neoclassical design.

“The work would be created by hand rather than a graphic detail,” Crowell said. “Bringing the artist hand into the space would help add a layer and a dimension of texture, but also (serve as) a reminder that these (sculptures) were designed by hand.”

A visual language

Owl is a multidisciplinary artist, working in various mediums in a visual language she’s dubbed “blobs.” She developed blob language – a repetition of lines – while working on her associate degree in fine arts at Central Piedmont Community College in 2013. Her art can be seen at the Common Market in South End, NoDa Yoga, Wooden Robot, and Yafo. Owl’s public art project resides on the side of the Axe Club of America building on South Boulevard.

“All the motifs you see throughout the gallery are a visual language I came up with,” Owl said. “They interpret energy, vibrations. Interpretations of what I see with my eyes and hear with my ears. I use blob as a very informal way of really giving the simplicity of the language, but it really carries a lot more than just the word blob.”

She used high flow acrylic markers, also known as graffiti markers for her mark-making in “Classic Black.” It took one month for her to complete three galleries. Each room started with a base color and Owl mapped out the negative space with tape. She added layers with black or white marker without a grid or chalking. She filled in with more lines, allowing the work to evolve organically, eventually fooling viewers into seeing three-dimensional forms.

“It really was a collaborative process of, ‘What can you do with this canvas we’ve created based on the story that we have built?’” Owl said. “That was really interesting to come into that equation where they’d already set the stage and my job was to decorate it and have it be an atmosphere where these objects can interact with the public.”

‘Classic Black’

What: ”Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries” features more than 100 black basalt sculptures on loan from across the U.S. and England. They’re set amid murals in sunset hues designed by a local artist.

When: Through Aug. 30

Where: The Mint Museum, 2730 Randolph Road

Cost: $15 adults; $6 children ages 5-17; $10 college students and seniors; free for members and Wednesdays 6-9 p.m.

Details: https://mintmuseum.org/classic-black/

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 2:42 PM.