FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2016,
Contacts: Vicki Scharfberg
Director of Marketing and PR
912.790.8890
[email protected]
Llana Samuel
Public Relations Coordinator
912.790.8837
[email protected]
Telfair Museums presents Nick Cave, an exploration of art and identity
The exhibition is the largest Nick Cave display ever in Georgia
Savannah, Ga. – As part of Telfair Museums’ growing contemporary art program, the museum
will showcase the largest exhibition of work by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave ever presented
in Georgia, including work shown in the Southeast for the first time. Nick Cave is on view at the
Jepson Center from January 27 through April 23, 2017.
Nick Cave (American, b. 1959) is an internationally-renowned artist, educator, and foremost a
messenger. Cave works between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of
mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound, and performance. Cave is well known
for his soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, which he states are “full
body suits contracted of materials that rattle with movement…like a coat of armor, they
embellish the body while protecting the wearer from outside culture.”
The soundsuits are made of collected, found and repurposed materials such as yarn, children’s
toys, human hair, baskets, sequins, and buttons.
As sculpture, the soundsuits are often extravagantly embellished and beautiful in their
painstaking attention to detailed craftsmanship, but their meaning is much deeper. As an African
American man, Cave created his first soundsuit in response to the Rodney King beating in LA in
1992. Creating a second skin that conceals race, gender, and class, soundsuits camouflage
one’s body, forcing viewers to look without bias or judgment. While Cave’s iconic soundsuits are
intentionally meant to defy immediate categorization, they also speak to cultural traditions such
as costuming and masquerading, particularly in the construction of African American identity.
“Nick Cave’s artistic vision presents a unique message in the world today, encouraging nuanced
discussions of personal and cultural identity, particularly with regard to race in America,” said
Rachel Reese, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “The soundsuits are
vessels of transformation that project physical power, and they’re also simply breathtaking as art
objects.”
The exhibition at the Jepson Center features a selection of soundsuits made within the last
decade, including the installation of a seven-part soundsuit titled Speaker Louder (2011), as well
as two tondos—large circular works evoking the night sky and the cosmos. Two videos showing
soundsuits worn in performance will give viewers a sense of the synthesis of sound and dance
that is integral to Cave’s artistic practice.
The exhibition is accompanied by a newly-commissioned essay by scholar Dr. Regina Bradley,
Assistant Professor of African American Literature at Armstrong State University in
Savannah. Dr. Bradley writes about post-Civil Rights African American literature, the
contemporary Black American South, pop culture, race and sound, and Hip Hop.
About the artist
Nick Cave recently opened a massive immersive installation Until at MASS MoCA curated by
Denise Markonish. His solo exhibition Here Hear was on view at the Cranbrook Art Museum
(2015). Other solo exhibitions include St. Louis Art Museum (2014-2015), the Institute of
Contemporary Art/Boston (2014) and the Denver Art Museum (2013).
Public collections include the Brooklyn Museum; Crystal Bridges; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the
High Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Norton Museum of Art; the
Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Birmingham Museum of Art; the De Young Museum; the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Orlando Museum of Art;
the Smithsonian Institution; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
Cave has received several prestigious awards including: the Americans for the Arts 2014 Public
Art Network Year in Review Award (2014) in recognition of his Grand Central Terminal
performance Heard - NY, Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2008), Artadia Award (2006), the
Joyce Award (2006), Creative Capital Grants (2002, 2004 and 2005), and the Louis Comfort
Tiffany Foundation Award (2001). Cave is the newly-appointed Stephanie and Bill Sick
Professor of Fashion, Body, and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
-more-
Funding is provided by the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Programs are also
supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts. GCA also receives support from its partner
agency—the National Endowment for the Arts.
Photo credit (L-R):
Soundsuit, 2015;mixed media including vintage toys and globes, wire, fabric, rug, metal and mannequin;
Soundsuit: 117 (H) x 50" (W); Rug: 85" diameter; ©Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Speak Louder, 2011; mixed media including black mother of pearl buttons, embroidery floss, upholstery,
metal armature, and mannequins; Installed: 93 1/2 x 199 x 123 inches; Individual suits: 84 x 32 x 15
inches;83 1/2 x 33 x 14 inches;84 1/2 x 33 x 18 inches;93 1/2 x 33 x 12 inches;70 x 32 x 18 inches;84 1/2
x 32 1/2 x 20 inches;84 1/2 x 33 x 22 inches; ©Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy
of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Soundsuit, 2011; mixed media including hooked rugs, fabric, metal, and mannequin; 107 x 29 x 17
inches; ©Nick Cave. Photo by James Prinz Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman
Gallery, New York.
About Telfair Museums:
Opened in 1886, Telfair Museums is the oldest public art museum in the South and features a
world-class art collection in the heart of Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District. The
museum encompasses three sites: the Jepson Center for the Arts, the Owens-Thomas House,
and the Telfair Academy. For more information, call 912-790-8800 or visit www.telfair.org.
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