Christenberry and Colleagues at the Mobile Museum of Art

Legendary Southern photographer William Christenberry (see image directly above) is the subject of a major career retrospective exhibition, opening this weekend and up through June 4th, 2017, at the Mobile Museum of Art, in Mobile, Alabama. 

Entitled CHRISTENBERRY: In Alabama, this show, in the words of the curators, "honors the artist William Christenberry’s exploration of themes related to his native state: Alabama’s landscape, structures, traditions, and people.

They go on: "This exhibition’s premise is threefold:  honoring the artist’s intimate, lifelong exploration of his native state; recognizing the wealth of Christenberry work collected in Alabama’s art museums; and presenting the Christenberry family’s creative lineage and legacy over four generations."

The exhibition includes over 90 Christenberry works including paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs, drawn from university collections at Auburn and Tuscaloosa and in Alabama’s major city museums in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Montgomery.  

Also on display at the MMofA is a companion show called Contemporary Alabama Photography which brings together work by eleven Alabama photographers whose work, in the words of the MMofA curators, shows "an instinctive rapport" with Christenberry's own photography. 

Taken together, both shows explore "how our understanding of Alabama identity, culture, and history have been interpreted and formed through the photographic arts today."

Photographers featured in the Contemporary Alabama Photography show include April Dobbins, Jenny Fine, Zachary McCauley, Jerry Siegel, Chuck Hemard, Patrick Owens, Michael Meads, Marion “Pinky” Bass, Devin Lunsford, Celestia Morgan, and Jared Ragland.

This show is up at the MMofA until August 27th, 2017. 

Both shows are definitely worth a look when you are in Mobile.