Black and White Photograph

Lorna Simpson: Artist and Pioneer of Conceptual Photography

A pioneer of conceptual photography, Lorna Simpson is best known for her large-scale works combining images and text. Simpson’s photography often questions and challenges conventional views on gender, sexuality, race, identity, and culture in the United States. Many of her pieces created between 1985 and 1995 incorporate text to complicate the meaning of the image and provide commentary on a variety of issues. Explore Simpson’s works from the Rollins Museum of Art collection

3 black and white images of a woman and girl at a kitchen table in different sitting and standing positions

American Photographer Carrie Mae Weems

Gain insights into the works of American Photographer Carrie Mae Weems that are featured in the permanent collection at The Rollins Museum of Art.

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1963) Untitled (Woman with Daughter), From the Kitchen Table Series, 1990 Silver prints, triptych 28 1/4 x 28 1/4 inches each. The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art. Gift of Barbara ’68 and Theodore ’68 Alfond, 2014.1.26. © Carrie Mae Weems. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shaiman Gallery, New York.

Green square painting with white horizontal diamond by Carmen Herrera

Carmen Herrera’s quest for formal simplicity

Carmen Herrera has been described as a “quiet warrior of her art” in her uncompromising commitment to abstraction over decades of scant recognition.(1) Born in Havana in 1915, she later moved to New York and then, in 1948, to Paris,

Work of the Week: Gertrude Käsebier, “The Red Man”

Gertrude Käsebier was an early supporter of the Pictorialism movement, which sought to reverse the idea that photography could not be painterly. Joining the likes of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen in the Photo Secession group, she adopted several older, labor-intensive printing styles, used alternative chemicals that yielded more nuanced tonal ranges, and reworked her plates with paintbrushes and other methods before printing. In the pictorialists’ hands, photography was art and being a photographer was a professionalized artistic craft.

Work of the Week: Faith Ringgold, “Tar Beach”

As an artist and activist, Ringgold’s career has been dedicated to exploring themes of race and gender equality. She grew up in the creatively fertile Harlem Renaissance, a time and place where perceptions of black culture and identity were redefined. Her work incorporates the narrative traditions of quiltmaking and African American history with great resonance, serving as platform to share her story and that of those before her.

Work of the Week: Juan Travieso, “Lonesome George”

Travieso’s work is ripe with environmental concerns and a call for action. The jarring effect ofhis spliced paintings serves as commentary regarding the negative impact of humaninterference in natural ecosystems, frequently referencing species’ endangerment andextinction. These themes reflect a compassion for the vulnerable and under resourced, alikely byproduct of growing up in communist Cuba. He also credits his use of bright andexpansive color palettes to the lack of art materials available to him on the island at the startof his artistic career. Lonesome George raises important questions regarding the ties between man and nature, asking for careful consideration as we inch closer to the pointwhere humans become victims of their own circumstances and reflecting on the ripple effectsof even the smallest actions.

Work of the Week: Danh Vo, “We The People”

Danh Vo’s We The People sheds light on the fragility and malleability of the concepts of freedom and democracy. Created as a series of 250 pieces, it recreates a full-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, originally constructed by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. Vo intentionally broke up the replica, its many pieces entering the permanent collections of museums worldwide. The fragments’ diasporic trajectory recall the multiplicity of individual journeys that made their way at the foot of Lady Liberty as they reached Ellis Island. Inherently woven into its many segments is the lingering symbolism of the immigrant dream. But the stakes of that dream have changed, revealing the intricate power systems controlling the arm of democracy.

Work of the Week: Marcus Jansen, “Plot #2”

Marcus Jansen (American, b. 1968) Plot #2, 2018, oil, enamels, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 in. Given by Barbara and Theodore Alfond in honor of Anca Giurescu, Ena Giurescu Heller, and Eliane Heller – three generations of courageous