Painting alumni represent ‘New South’ in exhibition
Lisa Johnston served as assistant curator for “Gen X: Post Boomers and the New South,” which features her paintings and work by seven fellow alumni.
Article By: Monique Bos
Published: April 28, 2008
Eight alumni of the Savannah College of Art and Design painting department are representing both their generation and contemporary art of the American South in a Mobile, Ala., exhibition.
“Gen X: Post Boomers and the New South” features work by Monica Cook, Maggie Evans, Julio Garcia, Alex Gingrow, Lisa Johnston, Patrick Muniz McGrath, Susan Murrell and Michael Scoggins, among other artists from throughout the region. The exhibition is on display at the through June 29.
According to press materials, SCAD and other regional institutions have helped trigger a renaissance in Southern art.
“The growing prominence of southern-based schools of art and design and the region's proliferation of galleries featuring contemporary art has led to a new generation of artists with southern heritage and/or training making itself felt nationally and internationally,” said the museum’s Web site. “A select group of these artists, some pursuing post-modern investigations of self and society and others putting a new spin on more traditional styles, will be featured in this fun and challenging exhibition.”
Johnston served as the assistant curator for the exhibition and was responsible for finding Savannah artists.
“The ‘Gen X’ exhibition is a good representation of what is going on in the contemporary art world with the post-boomers of the South,” she said. “My paintings may appear to be simply collage landscapes; however, they are personal, symbolic expressions of my ancestors, and specific places of which I have fond memories.”
