Artists are a rare breed; seemingly the perfect mix of dreamer, thinker and doer. Nick Cave is by no means a stranger to those actions, but for this project, he's dreaming, thinking and doing BIG.
Cave, described by the New York Times as the "most joyful, and critical, artist in America," is perhaps best known for his Soundsuits, which mix colorful, fur-clad outfits with otherworldly performance art for the viewer to analyze critically, without bias to the wearer.
Cave came to make Soundsuits in the wake of the Rodney King beatings, seeking an "alien second skin" to serve as a safe space for Black expression. But now, Cave has moved this theme on to a grander scale with "Nick Cave: Until," taking up more than 24,000 feet of gallery space at the Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's satellite space in downtown Bentonville.
This week on Arts Scene we hear Cave himself preview the exhibition, on display at the Momentary until Jan. 3. He's joined by Lauren Haynes, curator of visual arts at the Momentary, and Denise Markonish, senior curator at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., where the work had its debut.
