Macon Magazine

LOCAL BUZZ Emerging Nationals XI Museum of Arts and Sciences exhibits the powerful work of local artists EMERGING NATIONAL XI is this year's installment of the Museum of Arts and Science's annual celebration of local artists who have the potential to shape the national art scene. According to Executive Director Susan Welsh, this annual exhibit fulfills an ongoing goal to "advance the careers of Georgia's most promising professional artists but also ... engage the community in powerful discussions about visual artistic expression." Four artists are included in this year's exhibit: Namwon Choi, Esteban Patino, Keaton Wynn, and Sandra Trujillo. The composite of these artists' works creates an exhibit rich with color, texture, and nuanced perspective. "Perspective" is a multifaceted word. On one hand, Patino represents the perspective of his heritage by applying Spanish art motifs. Choi embodies perspective in a more literal sense with pieces that feel similar to maps or atlases, yet are saturated with rich shades of blue and create a sensation of double vision. Trujillo's sculptures play with the colors and shapes we expect to see in the human form, drawing them into extremes that feel familiar though unsettling. Perhaps most striking in the collection, though, is Wynn's 1000 Hearts, an installation that reflects on personhood and mortality. The exhibition as a whole leaves its viewer questioning themself and what their perspective means. Visit the museum before May 27 to experience the artworks firsthand, and be sure to bring your whole family for the host of kid-friendly activities the museum has to offer. — SAVANNAH SMITH Alfred Conteh's 2 Fronts and the Lasting Impact of Emerging Nationals ALFRED CONTEH'S EXHIBIT, 2 Fronts, demonstrates the lasting impact of the Emerging National initiative. Conteh was chosen as an Emerging National Artist in 2016 and has since been hailed by Kavi Gupta Gallery as "a leader on the vanguard of American portraiture." His works have been curated by The Smithsonian Institute and galleries across the nation, from New York to California. The name 2 Fronts is shorthand for the struggle his portraits convey. Conteh's artist's notes describe the exhibit as "a visual exploration of how African diasporic societies in the South are fighting social, economic, educational, and psychological wars from within and without to survive. We are at war on two fronts." Within and without – that's also how viewers are asked to examine their perspectives when they encounter the works, which are at once hyperrealistic — modern hoodies, everyday settings in urban environments, scars, sweat, stray hairs — and transcendent, lit as if by ancient starlight, Black skin aglow with power, beauty, and long-held pain. The images ask us to look inside ourselves, then look out at the world, the figure's gaze doubling our own. Find this expanded solo exhibit of a former Emerging National, along with the works of the current Emerging Nationals, at The Museum of Arts and Sciences now through May 27. — SIERRA STARK STEVENS MUSEUM HOURS: Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. | For admission rates, visit masmacon.org/visit | 4182 Forsyth Rd., Macon, GA 31210 PHOTOGRAPHY BY KYRIE HUGDAHL 34 maconmagazine.com | APRIL/MAY 2023

• Cover