Explore the work of LeXander Bryant at The Frist Art Museum through May 1st, 2022.
Nashville-based artist LeXander Bryant’s debut solo museum exhibition Forget Me Nots addresses themes of perseverance amid adversity, family structures and bonds, economic inequality, community activism, and more. The centerpiece of this multimedia exhibition is a suspended cracked concrete slab out of which blue forget-me-not flowers bloom. The installation references the late rapper Tupac Shakur’s poem “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” and honors survival despite seemingly impossible circumstances.
Other components include a selection of Bryant’s studio photographs; a “memory wall” containing dozens of overlapping, community-based photos that collectively tell a story; wheatpaste murals similar to his work featured in the 2019 Frist exhibition Murals of North Nashville Now; and a new video created for this exhibition. Together, the works offer an opportunity to consider one’s present position by thinking critically about the past and envisioning one’s legacy.