Mississippi Museum of Art expands permanent collection
JANS – Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA/the Museum) has several new acquisitions that deepen its collection’s holdings of photography, drawing, and regional crafts including quilting and basketry.
Betsy Bradley, MMA’s Laurie Hearin McRee Director, said, “We are thrilled to welcome these artists into our permanent collection, each of whom has ties to the region. Tommy Kha reveals aspects of his story as a first generation Asian American growing up in the South. Doy Gorton’s photographs provide a candid perspective on how economic and social changes affected the region during a pivotal year in history, while Stephany Brown’s Madea conveys an important story about forebears. And the meticulous layering of lines in Rob Carpenter’s work mesmerizes. We are deeply grateful to Betty Norrie for her gift of this striking selection of Choctaw baskets.”
Three photographs by Tommy Kha (b. 1988) taken between 2017 and 2019 depict recurring subjects in his work, including the artist’s mother and Southern landscapes that shaped his parents’ lives as Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants living in Memphis. Using paper cutouts and half-finished jigsaw puzzles to represent himself in these works, Kha grapples with the challenges of assimilating to a new cultural environment, and how dislocation affects personal identity. Kha earned an MFA in Photography from Yale University, where he currently teaches.
Eighteen photographs from Doy Gorton’s (b. 1942) White South series were taken between 1969 and 1970, during a period of profound cultural and social upheaval in the US. The series offers a stark portrait of Southern society in the final years of legalized white supremacy. Gorton worked as the Chief Photographer for The Philadelphia Inquirer and later became the White House photographer for The New York Times, covering the Carter and Reagan administrations.
Stephany Brown (b. 1951) is a Heritage Quilter, teaching and practicing the artform she learned from her husband’s grandmother. According to the artist, Madea is inspired by the women “on whose shoulders she stands” – cooks, domestics, nannies, and laundry workers who cared for both their own families and others despite being marginalized and overlooked. Madea subverts the demeaning stereotype of the “black mammy” by honoring these women as central figures in American history and culture.
In Paths of Moving Points, Rob Carpenter (b. 1949) layers lines to create intricate, hand-drawn works. Through a deliberate and repetitive process, he draws countless lines until they merge into a unified surface. After completing each painstaking layer, he reassesses the composition, adjusting line weight, color relationships, and directional movement to shape texture and depth. A Mississippi native, Carpenter earned a BS in History from Mississippi State University and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University.
Through the generosity of Betty Norrie, MMA acquired 33 mid 20th-century Choctaw baskets from her extensive collection. Norrie purchased the baskets at the Neshoba County Fair and the Choctaw Indian Fair from members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians while growing up in Mississippi. This gift meaningfully enriches the Museum’s collection of Indigenous basketry.
These important new additions to MMA’s collection will be included in upcoming rotations of new works exhibited in the Museum’s Grand Hall.
Located at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson, the Mississippi Museum of Art and its programs are sponsored in part by the City of Jackson and Visit Jackson. Support is also provided in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information, visit www.msmuseumart.org.
