Overview

October 3 – December 20, 2015

Curated by Mark Sloan, Director, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston

This exhibition features recent work by Renée Stout, who is best known for her exploration of vestigial retentions of African cultural traditions in contemporary America. Through an array of works in various media, the artist has used the alter ego Fatima Mayfield, a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller, as a vehicle to role-play and confront issues such as romantic relationships, social ills, and financial woes. Tales of the Conjure Woman continues this open, creative, and often humorous body of work, tapping into what Stout calls “the continuing need for self-discovery and the need to understand and make sense of human motives and the way we relate and respond to each other.”

Tales of the Conjure Woman is a collaborative project between the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts in Atlanta, and the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art. The exhibition catalogue features texts by several contributors, including award-winning essayist Kevin Young.