Rebirth of A Nation: Travis Somerville’s 1963 is a tightly focused exhibition that showcases the Crocker Art Museum’s newly acquired, mixed-media installation 1963, along with four large-scale paintings and a site-specific wall drawing. A threedimensional construction measuring 7 feet high and 12 feet wide, 1963 examines a volatile and pivotal year in American history through sculpture, video, painting, and collage. Somerville, who regards himself as a history painter, has created a rich tapestry of social documents, political detail, and popular culture artifacts. Wallpapered with randomly culled sheets of period newspapers, Somerville's structure is meant to be entered and viewed from within and out. It serves simultaneously as a collage, time capsule, and provocation. Somerville's critique of the visual artifacts of racism in the United States is personal. Born in 1963, he was raised in Georgia by activist parents who participated in the Civil Rights movement. He aims with 1963 to make visceral the conflict and violence that confronted the fight for equal treatment under the law in that decade.
Rebirth of a Nation: Travis Somerville’s 1963 will be accompanied by a 20-page catalogue with full-color reproductions written by Diana L. Daniels, the exhibition’s curator. For more information, visit http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/