JANS – Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA/the Museum) has several new acquisitions that deepen its collection’s holdings of photography, drawing, and regional crafts including quilting and basketry.
Betsy Bradley, MMA’s Laurie Hearin McRee Director, said, “We are thrilled to welcome these artists into our permanent collection, each of whom has ties to the region. Tommy Kha reveals aspects of his story as a first generation Asian American growing up in the South. Doy Gorton’s photographs provide a candid perspective on how economic and social changes affected the region during a pivotal year in history, while Stephany Brown’s Madea conveys an important story about forebears. And the meticulous layering of lines in Rob Carpenter’s work mesmerizes. We are deeply grateful to Betty Norrie for her gift of this striking selection of Choctaw baskets.”
Three photographs by Tommy Kha (b. 1988) taken between 2017 and 2019 depict recurring subjects in his work, including the artist’s mother and Southern landscapes that shaped his parents’ lives as Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants living in Memphis. Using paper cutouts and half-finished jigsaw puzzles to represent himself in these works, Kha grapples with the challenges of assimilating to a new cultural environment, and how dislocation affects personal identity. Kha earned an MFA in Photography from Yale University, where he currently teaches…