- >> events
- >> arts
- >> visual arts
- >> High Museum Winter Exhibits (fridays)
High Museum Winter Exhibits (fridays)
CL RECOMMENDS
CRITIC’S PICK:
Fri., Oct. 10 - Sun., Feb. 8
Fashion Statements: Viktor & Rolf, High Museum — This duo of Dutch fashion designers brags that the likes of Cardi B, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Tilda Swinton wear their “sublime” clothing. The first major retrospective in the US of their work is organized by curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot and the Kunsthalle Munich in Germany. The show “demonstrates how wearable art is among the most provocative and inventive forms of contemporary design,” says the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. The works on display are enhanced by projected images specifically designed for the exhibition by Rodeo FX, the visual effects studio known for its work on ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Game of Thrones.’ “The singular and enchanted vision of Viktor and Rolf’s work offers a unique dialogue between art and fashion,” Loriot says. — Kevin C. Madigan
Fri., Nov. 14 – Sun., Apr. 19
Critic's Pick
The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans, High Museum — “They are just as strange to me as they are to anybody else,” the late folk artist Minnie Evans responded when asked about the meaning of her paintings. The title of her show at the High is derived from vivid dreams she had as a child which eventually inspired her to draw and paint. Evans was considered a surrealistic visionary who created “psychedelic” artworks based on her unusual visions. In 1975, a major exhibition of her work opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, followed by another show at St. John’s Museum, both in New York. The Whitney is set to host ‘The Lost World’ after its run at the High. - Kevin C. Madigan
Dec 12 through Sun., May 10
CRITIC’S PICK
The Family Album of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, High Museum: Ralph Eugene Meatyard “created some of the most original photographs of the mid-20th century, and the prints in this exhibition are exquisite examples of his innovation and creativity,” notes the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. Meatyard considered the 36 photographs shown here to be among his best work, and all are featured in his eponymous 1970 book published two years before his death. He liked to experiment with portraiture, abstraction, landscape, surrealism and gothic narrative. Gregory Harris, the museum’s curator of photography, says these works “offer plenty of surprises and an extraordinary window into Meatyard’s life and creative process.” — Kevin C. Madigan
From the venue:
Viktor&Rolf. Fashion Statements
For more than three decades, Dutch fashion artists Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have explored the boundaries between haute couture and art with breathtaking virtuosity. The self-confessed fashion world outsiders have garnered critical acclaim for their unconventional designs that reveal technical prowess and a deep knowledge of fashion and history, and their creations have been embraced by artists including Cardi B, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Tilda Swinton. This fall, the High will be the exclusive US venue to present this exhibition, the first major retrospective of their work, organized by curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot and the Kunsthalle Munich in Germany, where it debuted in February 2024. The exhibition will feature more than one hundred of Viktor&Rolf’s most daring and avant-garde works, designed for the runway and beyond, that reflect the duo’s passions, obsessions, and singular vision. Included are garments from more than thirty of their collections as well as selections of their “works-in-progress dolls,” inspired by antique porcelain dolls and dressed in miniature versions of the designers’ handmade creations. The works are accompanied by elaborate animated projections designed for the exhibition by the internationally acclaimed visual effects studio Rodeo FX.
The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans
Minnie Evans once said her drawings of harmoniously intertwined human, botanical, and animal forms came from visions of “the lost world,” or nations destroyed by the Great Flood as described in the Book of Genesis. After her grandmother died in 1934 and the visions she experienced in childhood became stronger, Evans produced a large body of work ranging from abstract to representational styles. Though she found fame beyond her community in Wilmington, North Carolina—she was among the first Black artists to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1975—she has not been the subject of a major exhibition since the 1990s.
When Evans turned fifty-six, she shifted from decades of employment as a domestic worker to collecting admissions at Airlie Gardens, one of the most beautifully landscaped gardens in the Southeastern United States. She made art during idle moments and hung it on and near the Gardens’ exquisite wrought-iron gate. Selling or giving away her drawings to Airlie’s visitors led to a reputation beyond Wilmington and eventually a 1966 exhibition at a New York church titled The Lost World of Minnie Evans.
The High’s presentation reprises that 1966 title, honoring Evans’s interest in biblical and ancient civilizations while foregrounding the spiritual and historical circumstances of her extraordinary life. More than one hundred of her artworks are presented in a range of contexts, from the extrasensory experiences of her visions to the double-edged realities of her life in the Jim Crow South. Her drawings, beautiful and complex, thus become portals into her “lost world.”
The Family Album of Ralph Eugene Meatyard
A largely self-taught photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard (American, 1925–1972) was a pioneering and inventive artist who created some of the most original images of the mid-twentieth century. His work defies easy categorization as he experimented across various genres and subjects, and throughout his career, he maintained the ethos of an amateur, approaching photography with a sense of affection, discovery, and surprise. He is best known for his staged scenes that suggest an absurd fantasy set in the dilapidated houses and banal suburban environs near his home in Lexington, Kentucky. These scenes, often featuring his family as actors and using props such as masks and dolls, reveal Meatyard’s search for inner truths amid the ordinary.
This exhibition, coinciding with the artist’s centenary, will feature the thirty-six prints that comprise the artist’s first monograph (Gnomon Press, 1970)—one of only two books he published in his lifetime—which Meatyard intended to stand as his definitive artistic statement. Through his idiosyncratic selection of images, this exhibition will explore how Meatyard’s singular approach and voracious curiosity expanded photography’s expressive and conceptual potential.
Event Program
High Museum Winter Exhibits
09:00 AM EST
CRITIC’S PICK:
Fri., Oct. 10 - Sun., Feb. 8
Fashion Statements: Viktor & Rolf, High Museum — This...
High Museum Winter Exhibits (fridays) | 01/16/2026 9:00 AM