Reveal: Photographs by Jerry Siegel
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
Reveal: Photographs by Jerry Siegel, on view September 1–November 12, 2023, explores identity and gender fluidity within the drag and transgender community, as seen through the lens of Alabama artist Jerry Siegel. The intimate images contrast the individual to their stage character through portraiture and sequential imagery. Before any photographs are taken, Siegel learns the personal and professional history of the subjects, allowing him to visually record their emotional identity through classically-lit and framed compositions. The photographer fearlessly captures their personas. He doesn’t shy away from detailed depictions of bodies representing all shapes, sizes, genders, and colors, exemplifying the idea that there is not one standard definition of beauty—it can be found in everyone.
Jerry Siegal, Jaybella Banks, 2018. Archival print on metal. Courtesy of the artist.
Siegel was born and raised in Selma, Alabama, and graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta. Initially the team photographer for the Atlanta Hawks in the 1980s, he quickly established himself as one of the South’s leading artists. His first monograph, FACING SOUTH, Portraits of Southern Artists, was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2011. His second book, Black Belt Color, documents the unique, cultural landscape of the South, concentrating on the Black Belt region of Alabama. The series has gained national recognition by exposing the beauty and culture of an easily overlooked area of the deep South. His work is in numerous public, private, and corporate collections, including the Do Good Fund, the High Museum of Art, and the Georgia Museum of Art, all in Georgia, and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. Siegel has shown extensively in many major museums including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in Louisiana, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Telfair Museum, Jepson Center for the Arts, and the Morris Museum of Art, all in Georgia, and the Montgomery Museum of Art, the Jule Colins Smith Museum, and the Mobile Museum of Art, all in Alabama. A commissioned body of work was created for the Columbus Museum in Georgia for the 2009 solo exhibition, Now and Then, Snapshots of the South. Siegel was awarded the Grand Prize of the first Artadia Award in Atlanta in 2009.
Upcoming Lectures and Programs
LSU MOA Installation
Exhibition Lenders & Sponsors
Reveal: Photographs by Jerry Siegel is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts. This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
We would like to thank the generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund: The Imo N. Brown Memorial Fund in memory of Heidel Brown and Mary Ann Brown; The Alma Lee, H. N., and Cary Saurage Fund; Charles “Chuck” Edward Schwing; Robert and Linda Bowsher; and The Newton B. Thomas Family/Newtron Group Fund.
Past Events
Press
LSU Art Museum showcases new photography exhibition on beauty of drag by The Reveille at LSU. Click below to read this article.