Whitfield Lovell: Passages

Experience the most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary artist Whitfield Lovell’s work to date with Passages. This traveling exhibition makes its final stop at the McNay Art Museum, featuring two immersive installations and approximately 30 additional works.

The show features Lovell’s hyperrealist Conté drawings based on found photos of unknown African Americans, in addition to expansive and emotionally stirring installations that will permit museumgoers to immerse into lesser-discussed aspects of Black history, raise questions about the necessity of identity and memory, and meditate on the enduring tenuousness of American heritage.

Featured Series 

Kin (2008-2011): Explore works from Lovell’s past series, Kin, showcasing powerful and evocative pieces.

The Reds (2021-2022): Discover Lovell’s newest series, The Reds, featuring works on deep crimson paper that evoke warmth, passion, and vitality. The series is presented alongside two operational telephones that play the stirring hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” when the receiver is lifted.

Immersive Installations

Deep River (2013)
This installation documents the perilous journey of freedom-seekers crossing the Tennessee River to “Camp Contraband” during the American Civil War. With projections, the sound of lapping water, and a soil mound covered with vintage objects and surrounded by 56 circular wooden foundry molds bearing hand-drawn depictions on an unidentified African American individual, viewers are invited to contemplate the larger human quest for equality and a better life.

Visitation: The Richmond Project (2001)
Step into an intimate domestic interior with wood-paneled walls and immerse yourself in a 19th-century tableau. This installation allows visitors to experience the impact of the first major African American entrepreneurial community in Jackson Ward, Richmond, VA.

Accompanied by a catalog

Credit: Overview from museum website