Spiritual Journeys: Homemade Art from the Becky & Wyatt Collins Collection

An encyclopedic survey of vernacular Southern art, this exhibition comes to the Hilliard from the Collins’ New Iberia home, where they have amassed over 2,000 objects. The exhibition is organized by Gus Kopriva, an independent curator and the owner of Redbud Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Spiritual Journeys will be accompanied by a new publication that features essays interpreting the Collins’ collection, including texts by Gus Kopriva, Hillard Museum staff, and collections expert Bradley Sumrall of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Among the many artists represented in this project are Mary T. Smith, Howard Finster, David Butler, Tom “Deacon Man” Steck, Minnie Black, B. F. Perkins, Sam Doyle, Theora Hamblett, Pat Juneau, James “Son” Ford Thomas, Helen LaFrance, Reverend Herman Hayes, Mr. Imagination, Clementine Hunter, Jimmy Sudduth, Rita Fontenot, Prophet Royal Robertson, Tim Lewis, Shawne Major, Burgess Dulaney, and others.

In his selections for the show, Kopriva carefully considers the very subjective and social constructions of cultural categories such as “self-taught,” “outsider,” “contemporary,” “folk” and “visionary” art forms. The diversity of materials and backgrounds represented in this exhibition forges a dynamic understanding of place. Spatially, it is organized as a trip through 20 states.