LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Hite Art Institute will host work by the artist collective For Freedoms March 2-April 7 at the Cressman Center for Visual Arts.
As part of the Cressman Center’s “New Monuments” series, the exhibition will display For Freedoms’ “Make America Great Again” billboard, which superimposes the slogan from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign over a famous image from the Selma, Alabama, “Bloody Sunday” civil rights protest. For Freedoms, an artist-run super PAC, installed numerous billboards across the U.S. during the last presidential election, including one in Lexington, as part of a larger campaign that investigates the relationship between art, politics and propaganda.
“New Monuments” brings one monumental work of contemporary art to the Cressman space and situates it in the context of art history and current politics. For this iteration, the Cressman Center will be reimagined as a campaign headquarters—a space where participants organize before heading out into the field to campaign. This is, in many respects, the way that For Freedoms has operated in the last few years—as a base camp for collaborating with artists and instigating political conversations.
For Freedoms was founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman and now includes a core team of five — Elizabeth Baribeau, Michelle Woo, Taylor Brock, Emma Nuzzo and Evan Blaise Walsh — and a network of more than 140 contributing artists and hundreds of institutions. It takes its name from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, in which the president articulated the “Four Freedoms” essential to American liberty: freedom of speech and worship and freedom from want and fear.
Check Hite’s website in March for a schedule of related programs, including panel discussions and an artist talk: Louisville.edu/art/exhibitions.
For more information, contact Gallery Director Chris Reitz at chris.reitz@louisville.edu.
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