Fw: The Bearden Project is now open!

Click to view this email in a browser    Left: Leonardo Drew, Untitled, 2011. Courtesy the artist. Right: Njideka Aunyili, Efulefu: The Lost One, 2011. Courtesy the artist The Bearden Project In honor of the centennial celebration of Romare Bearden's birth, the Studio Museum is inviting one hundred artists to create new works of art inspired, influenced, or informed by the life, work, and legacy of one of the most important artists of the twentieth Century. The Museum will share these works with the public through The Bearden Project, a dynamic exhibition initiative that will grow and change throughout the centennial year. Featured artists include Edgar Arceneaux, Mark Bradford, Sanford Biggers, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Dominique Moody, Faith Ringgold, Alison Saar, Shinique Smith, and many more. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum has launched thebeardenproject.studiomuseum.org an ever-changing, interactive exhibition site spotlighting a rotating roster of participating artists as well as information about and a map of tri-state area museums displaying Bearden works in celebration of the centennial. Each week the site will feature ten artists, sharing their story of inspiration and a high-resolution image of their artwork. Fall/Winter 2011–12 Exhibitions are now open!   Kira Lynn Harris and assistant installing The Block | Bellona, 2011. Photo: Seger Bonnebakker The Block | Bellona Kira Lynn Harris reimagines The Block (1971), Romare Bearden's iconic, six-panel, eighteen-foot-long collage depicting life in Harlem. Bearden's "block" is occupied by a church, a grocery store, a barbershop, apartment buildings and the people of Harlem who inhabit those spaces. With The Block as a touchstone, Harris, whose interdisciplinary practice mixes video, photography, drawing, painting and site-specific installation, creates a scene of a contemporary, alternate, Harlem inspired by Bellona, the imagined setting of Samuel R. Delany's classic 1975 science fiction novel Dhalgren. Rodney McMillian, Untitled (futon) (video still), 2009. Courtesy the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects VideoStudio: Rodney McMillian / Robin Rhode VideoStudio is an ongoing series of video and film installations inaugurated in fall 2008. Organized by Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate Thomas J. Lax, this fifth iteration of the program takes an in-depth look at individual works by Rodney McMillian and Robin Rhode. Rodney McMillian's Untitled (futon) (2009) will be on view November 10–January 16 and Robin Rhode's Parabolic Bike (2009–10) will be on view January 19–March 11. Betye Saar, Window of Ancient Sirens, 1979, Gift of Wynn and Sally Kramarsky, New York  82.6.1 Collected. Ritual Collected. Ritual explores the performative and process-oriented aspects of making art and examines ritual as an act of special and sometimes mythical significance. The works in this exhibition were chosen for the innovative ways in which the artists engaged with ritual—including through studio art-making and artistic practices that use symbolic actions. This exhibition, organized by Assistant Curator Naima J. Keith, explores the relationship and nexus between art and ritual through twenty-five works of art from the permanent collection spanning the last thirty years. Barkley L. Hendricks, Lawdy Mama, 1969. Gift of Stuart Liebman, in memory of Joseph B. Liebman Who, What, Wear: Selections from the Permanent Collection Who, What, Wear: Selections from the Permanent Collection looks at evolutions in style—self-expression, fashion, artistic technique and societal ideals of beauty—as seen through the Studio Museum's permanent collection. While artists including James VanDerZee (1886–1983) and Dawoud Bey (b. 1953) evoke the Harlem community as an influential and iconic arbiter of style, this exhibition is national and international in scope, surveying artists and subjects from places as varied as West Africa, the Caribbean and the American South. Including both posed portraits and candid scenes, the works on view emphasize how individuals choose to present themselves, rather than how others have represented them historically. Mark Your Calendars Target Free Sunday, November 20, 2011 1-6 PM Artist-in-Residence Open Studios (L-R) Meleko Mokgosi, Pax Afrikaner: Satisfaction of Sensation (part 2), 2011. Courtesy the artist; Njideka Akunyili, Ife Nyado: The Thing Around Her Neck, 2011. Courtesy the artist; Xaviera Simmons, Composition One For Score A, 2010. Courtesy the artist Join us to welcome artists Njideka Akunyili, Meleko Mokgosi and Xaviera Simmons as they begin their year-long tenure at the Museum and be among the first to preview their new work. Conceived at the formation of the Museum over 40 years ago, the Artist-in-Residence Program remains central to The Studio Museum in Harlem's mission. The Artists-in-Residence Open Studios is free. Join the conversation!   Become a Studio Museum member, support us by making a donation online, follow us on Twitter or "Like" us on Facebook!  The Studio Museum in Harlem 144 West 125th Street New York, NY 10027 US Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.