Meadows Museum of Art sets artist visit, catalogue launch
SHREVEPORT, LA — The Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College welcomes multi-media artist Lavar Munroe to Shreveport Thursday, October 4 at 5:30 for a reception to celebrate the official release of a catalogue to accompany his painting series, DEVIL IN A WHITE CITY. The Meadows is currently showing three works from this series, two additional paintings, and a sculpture in its downstairs gallery and published the catalogue to document the entire DEVIL series.
During the catalogue release event, Munroe will sit down with acclaimed anthropologist Gia Hamilton to discuss his artwork, process, and the inspiration behind the series of paintings. Copies of the DEVIL IN A WHITE CITY catalogue will be available for purchase. The wine and cheese reception is free and open to the public.
In a statement on his website, Munroe explains that his “devils” function as both “portraits and disguises,” each with very distinct and different characteristics.
“Though the term ‘Devil’ is affiliated with evil, I present my subjects as mere representations of those deemed to be devils in current world affairs as opposed to actual perpetrators of evil,” writes Munroe. “Today, subjects of evil point to many authority figures such as police, politicians, clergymen, and terrorists, as some of the major culprits of much malevolent activity. The over-arching narrative is the destruction and mayhem in the world today, a world cloaked and tarnished by evil and deceit.”
Meadows Museum director Sean FitzGibbons is excited to see visitors’ reactions to not only the artwork, but also the entire experience that Munroe has created in the gallery.
“Lavar’s large-scale painting and sculpture uses a wide range of methods and media and creates a sense of nostalgia and storytelling,” explains FitzGibbons. “His paintings generate a lived narrative that is rich in symbolism and feels doctrinal, yet dreamlike. Each devil could be the insidious antagonist to an ancient, recently-unearthed text, or just as easily exist as ‘the bump-in-the-night’ hiding under a bed in a child’s storybook.”
DEVIL IN A WHITE CITY is one of three exhibits showing at the Meadows Museum through December 3. Aún Recordamos Aquel Hogar features the work of five South Texan LatinX artists who create visual narratives in which their story’s setting becomes a character. Lives Within an Odyssey: Portraits by Jean Despujols pulls works from the Meadows’ permanent collection to reexamine the relationship between the French Academic painter Despujols and his colonial subjects as the inaugural exhibit in the Permanent Collection Gallery. The museum is also preparing to unveil the second installment in its Meadows Outdoors sculpture series with the installation of Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir’s Borders. An artist walk with Þórarinsdóttir is scheduled for October 19.
More information on all exhibits is available at themeadowsmuseum.com.
The Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana is an educational unit of the College dedicated to engaging the community through innovative academic discourse of the arts and to presenting original, compelling, and diversified visual art programming. The Museum features a rotating contemporary art exhibition schedule showcasing international, national, and regional artists. Additionally, as a collecting museum, The Meadows is charged with the collection, preservation, and interpretation of visual artworks. The Permanent Collection was founded by the donation of the Indochina Collection of Jean Despujols by Algur H. Meadows, and the museum maintains the spirit of his donation by focusing its collection on artwork that demonstrates artistic theories from the French School of Art with an emphasis on collecting regional artists.
DEVIL IN A WHITE CITY catalogues can be purchased online at themeadowsmuseum.com.