“Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art” Lecture, May 11, 2011

New College of Florida will host a lecture, “Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art,” on May 11 with Matthew McLendon, associate curator of modern and contemporary art for the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. This free community lecture is from 7-8:30 pm in Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road. McLendon will preview the museum’s “Beyond Bling” exhibition, which opens May 21 and runs through August 14.

The exhibition includes a diverse mix of African American, Latino/a, Japanese American, British, Caucasian, gay, male and female artists. It is the first exhibition to take a focused look at the work of 10 artists at various stages of career development who all operate within and are informed by hip-hop culture.

The artists exhibited are Michael Anderson, iona rozeal brown, Vince Fraser, Gajin Fujita, Luis Gispert, Sofia Maldonado, Nadine Robinson, Mickalene Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas and Kehinde Wiley.

McClendon developed the exhibition and narrative in hopes of expanding ideas of what it means to speak with a historically urban voice in this age of advanced globalization. The exhibition brings together artists who, in the first decade of the 21st century, have provocatively incorporated signifiers of hip-hop/street culture into their work.

Prior to his January 2010 curatorial appointment at the Ringling Museum, McLendon was the first curator of academic initiatives at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, in Winter Park, Fla. McLendon received his master’s and doctorate degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and served as interim curator of adult learning at Tate Britain.