We have family in Nashville and visit two or three times a year. We often go to the Frist Art Museum, in an old Art Deco post office. It’s a beautiful container for interesting work.
I’ve never seen it generate quite the interest I saw last week.
LeXander Bryant is a Nashville-based artist. His exhibition shares the same space that recently held everyone from Picasso to Kahlo. But I’ve never seen so many people take photos underneath a sign to show they had been a part of it. People were resonating with what Bryant is doing.
What is he doing? I’m not sure how to describe it all.
It is photography, posters, videos and more–all of it arranged in a way that made it clear the presentation itself is a curated art experience.
The photo that especially grabbed me was a father surfing on his phone, sitting on a bus with his kid asleep in his arms. That’s real life.
I have no background in critical analysis of art. I can only tell you that it seemed like the entire thing is one big love letter to his community. He had curated–documented–his experience in a small town in the South.
I suppose we could spend lots of time here talking about poverty, prejudice, etc. But that isn’t where his art focuses. It is on the beauty in his community.
Bryant went beyond documenting to also challenge the viewer. Several posters and cuts on his video throw a challenge or question our way.
“Who are you and why are you here?”
I see Bryant answering his own question by sharing his heritage with us–and by making use of what that heritage and his situation has given him.
Example: The man has incorporated a QR code into his art–it shows up in the exhibition’s video, too. And where does that QR code lead? To his Instagram account, of course.
He’s using his chance at the Frist to grow his followers. Which is a great example of taking advantage of the hand you are dealt and playing it!
Maybe I’m making too much of that. And I don’t think art needs to have a moral.
But I do think it needs to give us a perspective on truth. At its best, it needs to be in some sense good and beautiful, too.
So here are two takeaways I see in this successful artist’s work:
First: Don’t be a victim. Embrace what you’ve been given. Make use of it. All of it. Every opportunity.
Second: Fathers and father figures are important. Somebody is looking up to you. Don’t squander that.
I didn’t just get that from the picture of a dad holding his kid.
The sculpture at the beginning, under the sign? It’s a concrete installation. Bryant’s dad worked in concrete and modeled hard work for him from a young age.
Beauty can grow anywhere, if you focus on it and help make it happen. Good luck today.
LeXander Bryant: forget me nots will be at the Frist Art Museum through May 1.