I Broke The House

We are pleased to present Beverly Buchanan: I Broke the House at the Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery on view from September 25, 2024 to March 1, 2025. This exhibition originated at ETH Zurich and offers a comprehensive exploration of Beverly Buchanan's (1940–2015) diverse body of work. It features sculpture, painting, writing, and printed material.

I Broke the House brings together a wide range of contemporary voices, artworks, and historical contexts. It critically engages with Buchanan's exploration of the built environment, addressing themes of race, memory, and resistance. The exhibition emphasizes Buchanan’s ability to challenge traditional exhibition practices by reimagining the spaces that hold her work. Through her focus on eroded surfaces, vernacular dwellings, and marginalized histories, Buchanan provides a poignant commentary on the sociopolitical landscape of her time.

Curated in collaboration with GTA exhibitions at ETH Zurich, the Engine for Art, Democracy, and Justice (EADJ), and Fisk University, this exhibition project builds on the earlier presentation at ETH Zurich in the spring of 2024. That iteration of I Broke the House involved contributions from a range of artists and scholars, including Elena Bally, Jennifer Burris, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Aria Dean, Fredi Fischli, Jack Halberstam, Harvard University GSD students, Alicia Henry, Anna Gritz, Tonja Khabir, Parity Group, Prudence Lopp, Park McArthur, Devin T. Mays, Ana Mendieta, Siddhartha Mitter, Kazuko Miyamoto, Senga Nengudi, Niels Olsen, Sarah Richter, Cameron Rowland, Jamaal Sheats, Adam Szymczyk, and the Tubman African American Museum in Macon.

This collaborative project is an exploratory exercise, as Siddhartha Mitter describes it, in "thinking with" Beverly Buchanan's practice and legacy. The presentation at Fisk includes objects from the permanent collection and archive. As part of this ongoing project, Haus am Waldsee in Berlin will also host a future exhibition inspired by Buchanan’s work, continuing the dialogue around her impact on contemporary art, particularly her connection to the American South.

2024 Spring Arts Festival Student Exhibition

Hear Us: Inner Echoes of the Human Experience is about the experiences of Fisk Students as we navigate entering adulthood at an HBCU. The exhibit reflects the various perspectives and experiences we go through as young adults. We felt that our show should represent the inner echos of burgeoning adulthood. We hope our show can invite conversation about difficult topics while celebrating the artistry of Fisk students.

Rod McGaha’s “Regeneration”

Within all communities you will find a fabric of multiple sections that tell their story. This fabric represents the people, places, and belongings, while embracing the spirit and thought process within. During the past few years this cloth has been tested for its strength and durability. Although the pandemic as well as other societal ills have stained and torn apart certain sections, we are now beginning to see a mending alongside a regeneration that is taking place. The cloth is changing to accommodate the new experiences, patch by patch. A new quilt is being created to tell the story of a people who have loved, laughed, cried, and most of all endured. 

McGaha's series Regeneration explores the power of art to heal and transform. The series is a visual and auditory journey that tells the story of black resilience and strength. McGaha's work is a must-see for anyone who is interested in exploring how black art is used as part of the healing process.

Rod McGaha 

Helina Metaferia

   b. Washington, DC  

    Lives and works in New York, New York  

                  Headdress 62, 2023  

                 Mixed-media collage  

                 Courtesy of the artist  

Collage subject: Lakesha Calvin, Gallery Coordinator, Fisk University Galleries  

         Photography: LeXander Bryant

The material in Calvin’s crown is sourced from the special collections at Fisk and the Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library; it is related to the Nashville Student Movement led by Diane Nash. By Way of Revolution honors the history, labor, and impact of women at the forefront of activism past and present.

Two other works from the By Way of Revolution series have been installed as vinyl murals on Talley-Brady Hall. Another original work of art is featured in Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville.   

Reference: Selections from the Collection

Featuring work in collage from such pioneers as David Driskell and Romare Bearden. The work of Sam Middleton, Frances E. Thompson, and contemporary artist and activist, Dread Scott.

Romare Bearden, “The Train”. 1974. Lithograph 16/20 AP.