The Biggs Museum of American Art is proud to open three provocative exhibitions on Friday, February 2, 2018. These three unique visions will open with a premier reception for the public from 5-7 p.m. on that day.
The leading exhibition in this powerful trio is the museum’s first one-woman show of the artist Aina Nergaard-Nammack. The exhibition, entitled My Countries, My Composers, explores the artist’s interpretation of musical scores of key classical music composers of the three countries where she has lived: first Spain, then Norway and now the United States. The artist creates large abstract paintings influenced by the sounds and rhythms of her musical selections. Some of the composers she channels within this body of work include: Aaron Copland, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Edward Grieg. This exhibition will be on view until March 25, 2018.
Adjacent to Aina’s show, the museum will present its first group exhibition of works created by African American artists of Greater Dover and Kent County. Entitled African American History Live, the exhibition is a focal point of the Dover Citywide Black History Celebration taking place in several locations throughout the city during the month of February. This celebration is hosted by the Delaware State News, with partners from throughout the county. The show will feature approximately two dozen artists in a wide variety of media including: painting, video, photography, fiber, sculpture and works on paper. The artists also represent a diversity of professional backgrounds ranging from Delaware State University faculty to students, and from craft artists to second-career painters. This exhibition will be on view until at least March 4, 2018.
The third exhibition will take place on the museum’s third floor from Feb 2 – April 22, 2018 and is entitled Performances: the Brandywine Photo Collective. The exhibit will showcase artist interpretations of the same photographic images. The iconic photographer Ansel Adams described that every photograph is a “performance” in which light exposure, composition, color and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. In Performances, nine artist members of the Brandywine Photo Collective (BPC) will interpret four photographic images through digital manipulation, post processing and creative printing. The exhibition then compares each artist’s evolution of the members’ source imagery.
“The Biggs Museum has a long tradition of cultivating the talents of individual artists and artist groups throughout the region,” says museum Curator Ryan Grover. “We partner with hundreds of artists a year to showcase the most talented and diverse perspectives of the region.”
Among the many educational public programs scheduled to accompany these exhibitions, one stands out. The Delaware Music School will play a concert within the museum of the classical music featured within the paintings created for Aina Nergaard-Nammack’s exhibition. “The Music of Painting: a Performance with The Music School of Delaware’s Amos Fayette and Jennifer Nicole Campbell” is a museum members-only event. This interdisciplinary performance will feature a violin and piano recital by Music School faculty members as well as a discussion of the historical and artistic significance of the musical selections.