The Parthenon is proud to participate as a venue in the first Tennessee Triennial. Artwork was created specifically for this exhibit by painter Lakesha Moore, sculptor Desmond Lewis, and photographer Houston Cofield. Each of these artists embody the Tennessee Triennial’s theme of Re-Pair in uniquely significant ways. While varied in their media, these three artists are united in their deep examination of our ability to heal, suture, and recompose fractured forms. As Nashville’s oldest museum, the Parthenon continues to embody the city’s ideal as a center of art and culture by participating in this important exhibition.
The vibrant paintings of Lakesha Moore chronicle the journey of healing and transition. Reflecting on the political unrest and collective turmoil of recent years, Moore draws on how many of us were rediscovered new ways of being; separately and together. Moore observed, “In seasons of pain or heightened frustration, at times our strongest reaction is to become hypervigilant and overcompensate. We have seen where that can take us. As individuals, it can be detrimental unless we stop and take a moment to go within, letting go of what is not working and leaning into the possible or what is.” Moore is focused on her journey of healing and renewal. She expresses a desire for us as individuals, communities, and groups to experience a renewal that helps to extend grace and understanding amid times of ignorance and uncertainty.
The sculptures by Desmond Lewis explore how the destructive appearance of fire does not always represent the unworthy or disrepair. Rather this charred appearance, at its core, can foster a new beginning for “good trouble.” His work clashes Tennessee’s rich history of Black Farming with the explosive nature of pyrotechnics both of which are symbolic in their deep roots of patriotism. Black farming and pyrotechnics are on fire in their respective quest for healing and literal need for a new vision within post Trump America. Lewis notes, “To re-pair within the context of being Black in America has meant walking through and existing within a valley of fire. This fire has been both physical in nature and metaphorical in the passionate drive for social equity and justice.”
Houston Cofield’s photographs for the Tennessee Triennial revolve around grief, death, and healing related to the loss of his father to a random act of violence in Memphis, Tennessee. In this series, Death Is A Door, Cofield considers grief, death, and healing. Not healing in the sense of being cured, resolved, or repaired, but learning how to live with the unthinkable. Photography as an artistic medium has historically positioned itself in a perpetual tension between the artist’s implicit role in the making of a photograph and the distance the artist must inevitably maintain while doing so. Cofield embraces the overlapping and intertwining within his work as an editorial photographer and an artist.
Tennessee Triennial Symposium:
Hear from artists Lakesha Moore, Desmond Lewis, and Houston Cofield about their work on display through May 7, 2023:
Participating Artists:
Lakesha Moore
Lakesha Moore developed an early interest and leaning toward painting and drawing while in the public school system in Nashville. After leaving Nashville, she earned her undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in Painting and Lipscomb University in Education. After beginning her academic career at Tennessee State University’s Art & Design Department, she now serves as Gallery Coordinator for Fisk University Galleries at Fisk University in Nashville. Lakesha believes strongly in mentorship, youth empowerment and telling one’s story. Her work has been shown at Vanderbilt’s Black Cultural Center, Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center, Centennial Arts Center and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, which was her home for three years. Learning in community and through experience is where she thrives best. “At the center of my work are ideas of identity, memory, and belonging. They are inseparable and undeniable in shaping who we are. We are often moved and motivated by our dreams yet confronted by our realities. Through figurative work and layered landscapes of color and form, we confront ourselves, what we perceive and what is unknown.”
Desmond Lewis
Desmond Lewis was born and raised in Nashville, TN and currently resides in New Haven, CT and Memphis, TN. He earned his BS from Tennessee State University, an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Memphis and an MBA from The University of Tennessee at Martin. Desmond has completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Vermont Carving and Sculpture Center, and Pittsburgh Glass Center. Desmond’s work can be found in several public and private collections around the US including: Penland School of Crafts, Carolina Bronze Sculpture Park, City of Hickory, NC, Vermont Carving and Sculpture Center, The University of Memphis, Soulsville USA, NexAir LLC, Skowhegan Parks and Recreation, Orange Mound Neighborhood and Veterans Association, and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Desmond is currently on the Board of Directors at the Metal Museum. He is currently a Lecturer in Sculpture and the Fabrication Shops Coordinator in the School of Art at Yale University.
Houston Cofield
Houston Cofield is an artist based in Memphis, Tennessee and works in the medium of photography. His work explores mythology, fiction, and folklore that embody the American South. He has a particular interest in creating his own fictional narratives by drawing on past southern cultural traditions and ideologies. He self-published his first monograph, The Ditch, that looks at the long- standing tradition of dirt racing culture in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky. He is currently working on his second monograph, Death Is Like A Door, that addresses grief, mourning, and loss in the wake of his father’s murder in the summer of 2019. His work has been exhibited in the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Artist’s Coalition, and Crosstown Arts in Memphis, Tennessee. He has held a year-long residency at Chicago Artist’s Coalition that culminated in a solo exhibition of work he made in Mississippi that explored his family’s history of photography and relationship to the writer William Faulkner. He does commissioned portraits for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Zeit Magazin (published in Germany), The National, VICE, Garden & Gun, and Travel + Leisure, among others. His work has been featured in Rocket Science magazine, Oxford American, Ain’t Bad Magazine, Booooooom, LocateArts, and the University of North Carolina’s quarterly publication, Southern Cultures. He received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Gallery Preview
Photos by Sam Angel @paperselfs