AMERICA
Can we talk about Glenn Ligon for a moment? So much to say, but we’ll keep it in Texas.
The IAIR 98.1 Artpace alum’s first comprehensive, mid-career retrospective, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, opened at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on February 12. The exhibition surveys 25 years of Ligon’s work, from his student days until the present, and includes previously unexhibited early works, which shed light on his artistic origins. AMERICA is on view through June 3, 2012. (You can read more about the retrospective on Glasstire.)
On March 24, The Modern presents A Day of Films, featuring a special screening of Ligon’s video, The Death of Tom (2008), an abstractionist recreation of the final scene in Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 silent movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin, followed by two films selected by the artist: Paris is Burning (1990) and My Brother’s Wedding (1983), with an introduction and commentary by The Modern’s curator, Andrea Karnes. The museum will also host a panel discussion—Disidentification: Race, Sexuality, and Contemporary Art—on May 1, in conjunction with the retrospective.
That’s all in Fort Worth. Totally worth the drive, but still several hours away. In the meantime, a little closer to home…
On Thursday, March 15, here in San Antonio, the Linda Pace Foundation will host a special conversation with Ligon and Foundation Executive Director and Curator Steven Evans. Space for this event is limited; to request an invitation, email rsvp@pacefound.org. Ligon’s work is featured in TERRAIN, Selected Works from the Linda Pace Foundation Collection, on view (by appointment) at the Foundation through March 31, 2012.
Image credit: Glenn Ligon, Malcolm X (Version 1) #1, 2000
Wendi Kimura
Wendi Kimura is the Publications Coordinator at Artpace, editing and managing our written and printed matter, as well as our social media. She enjoys a proper pronoun-antecedent agreement and is an absolute serial comma devotee. Wendi hearts Hi-Chew candy, Texas Monthly magazine, The Rub on Brooklyn Radio, and internet cats (like these).