The ARTISTS & WORKS of ‘Free as They Want to Be’
works from thirty artists across three sites
Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art (“BRG”), Southern University, and The West Baton Rouge Museum co-hosted a special limited-run presentation of the exhibition, Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory (curated by Deborah Willis, Ph.D. and Cheryl Finley, Ph.D.)
This exhibition included artists working in photography, video, projection, sculpture and mixed media installation. The themes explored by these artists were as wide-ranging as their aesthetic practices were, while also being deeply informed by a fierce engagement with archival research. The exhibition created a framework in which to reimagine and reflect on historical events, as well as public and personal memory.
The curators also added works from local artists and from local collections specifically for the Baton Rouge adaptation of the exhibition. An additional work from Bisa Butler was generously loaned by The Gordon Parks Foundation for the exhibition.
The following three locations participated in this special exhibition:
Baton Rouge Gallery
1515 Dalrymple Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Southern University
8229 Elton C. Harrison Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70813
West Baton Rouge Museum
845 N Jefferson Avenue
Port Allen, LA 70767
FEATURED ARTISTS
TERRY ADKINS
ALANNA AIRITAM
JOHN ALLEYNE
RADCLIFFE BAILEY
JAMES PRESLEY BALL
SADIE BARNETTE
DAWOUD BEY
SHEILA PREE BRIGHT
JUSTIN TYLER BRYANT
BISA BUTLER
ELIZABETH CATLETT
OMAR VICTOR DIOP
NONA FAUSTINE
MALAIKA FAVORITE
ADAMA DELPHINE FAWUNDU
GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD
DAESHA DEVÓN HARRIS
RANDELL HENRY
DENISE STEPHANIE HEWITT
QIANA MESTRICH
MÓNICA DE MIRANDA
CATHERINE OPIE
YELAINE RODRIGUEZ
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
LAVA THOMAS
JOHN ISIAH WALTON
CARRIE MAE WEEMS
WENDEL WHITE
WILLIAM EARLE WILLIAMS
DEBORAH WILLIS
install documentation
courtesy of Heather McClelland Photography
In concert with the exhibition’s originating curators and in partnership across three local organizations situated on historically significant sites, the exhibition is being adapted for a first-of-its-kind, site-specific presentation in southern Louisiana. Led by Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art (“BRG”), this presentation will simultaneously acknowledge the local relevance of the themes addressed by the originating curators while supplementing them with works from respected artists based in southern Louisiana.
This partnership and the Baton Rouge presentation of Free as They Want to Be is made possible through the generous support of:
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory originated as a FotoFocus exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio on the occasion of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. The traveling exhibition is organized by Curatorial Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.