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It’s happening!  It’s really, really happening!  This week, Crystal Bridges sent out an official press release announcing the culmination of the selection process for artists to be included in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.  We simultaneously let the artists themselves know that we had formally announced the exhibition, giving them free rein to announce their participation.  They can now post it to their blogs and Facebook pages, notify their regional media, and shout it from the rooftops, if they so choose. Already we’ve seen several news stories about artists in various regions, and we expect there will be many more over the coming weeks, as news outlets begin to spread the word.

(Here are links to the LA Times story and the NY Times ArtsBeat Blog post.)

Here at the Museum itself, the exhibition is getting real in another, much more physical way. This week, the first of the State of the Art artworks is being installed! Gabriel Dawe, an artist based in Dallas, TX, is here at Crystal Bridges installing his large-scale work, Plexus C8, in the stairwell that links the upper and lower North Temporary Exhibition Galleries. The stairs are temporarily blocked to allow the artist full access to the area during installation.

Gabriel Dawe creates vibrant, dimensional installations out of multi-colored thread. The process is a painstaking one that results in fascinating works whose color and shape take on different aspects as the viewer moves around them. Here at Crystal Bridges, guests will walk under Dawe’s installation as they move from one part of the gallery to another, and will also be able to view the work from the overlook in the upper gallery. We are very pleased to have Gabriel’s work as an “ambassador” for the SoTA exhibition, providing guests with a teaser taste of many good things to come.

Dawe’s string sculpture is only the first in a schedule of several works that will be installed at the Museum prior to the opening of the entire exhibition on September 13. Later this month, guests will be seeing the installation of another State of the Art work outdoors on the Museum’s South Lawn. (More about that later.)

Linda DeBerry is Crystal Bridges’ Copy Editor.

Category: Behind the Scenes, Exhibitions, State of the Art, Gabriel Dawe, installation