The University of Mississippi Museum is currently hosting local artist Earl Dismuke’s first solo museum exhibition “Gathering: Works by Earl Dismuke.” The exhibition is on display now until April 8 and features many of his sculptures.
“My work is all found-object-based, and it’s very much abstract,” Dismuke said. “You are going to be able to see some elements of human figure or some sort of animal, but it is still very abstract.”
Dismuke said his process begins by finding one object, and thinking of how that will relate to another found object. He builds from there, thinking about the composition more so than meaning.
“As I’m building it, and living in that process, that’s when the ideas for titles or things like that come into play,” Dismuke said. “It’s really a freeing way to create.”
Dismuke is a well-known Oxford artist and alumnus of the University of Mississippi’s Department of Art and Art History. He said he has always had a passion for art, but had to let it go as he started a family. He emerged back into the world of art in 2014 when he helped start the Yokna Sculpture Trail around Oxford.
“I learned a lot from artists around town,” Dismuke said. “I decided at that point that I wanted to jump back into it as much as I could.”
“Earl Dismuke’s passion for public art is a wonderful asset to the arts community in North Mississippi,” Meghan Gallagher, Outreach and Education Coordinator at Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, said. “Dismuke’s ability to build partnerships and represent North Mississippi artists throughout the region highlights how creative residents are and how important the arts are to the local economy.”
In order to decide which pieces to include in the exhibit, Dismuke worked closely with Melanie Antonelli, curator of exhibitions and collections manager at the museum. Antonelli said that Dismuke makes his work one at a time, without the intention of a series or an exhibit as his end goal, so there is a great deal of experimentation with form, scale, and color in his art practice.
“At first look, the works he offered didn’t initially seem to have a cohesion,” Antonelli said. “However, my job was to find the best way to celebrate the diversity of his work while also finding the cohesion and elevating his artistic voice. There is also always an element of selecting works I find resonate with me or are artistically stronger, so that is a fun part of the curator-artist relationship.”
Antonelli said that Dismuke’s work not only allows us to celebrate the success of an alumnus, but also offers students and visitors an exposure to a type of fine arts not well represented in the museum’s permanent collections.
“We hope that his artwork will inspire new artists and broaden the understanding and appreciation of different art mediums for all our visitors,” Antonelli said.
