Mississippi Art Invitational

Art Critic Peter Plagens interviews finalist Chris Luhar-Trice

Over 100 Mississippi artists submitted their work to become part of the annual invitational art show. And a famous New York Art Critic will decide who makes the final cut. MPB’s Ron Brown tells us about a different kind of March Madness.

Jean Seymour spent her professional career researching the law as a paralegal. Now that she’s retired, she is free to allow her imagination to rule. Her paintings are abstract images with dramatic splashes of color. And it’s more than just a hobby.

“I started painting 16 years ago when I retired from the paralegal profession and I decided then it was now or never. I’ve always been drawing but I wanted to paint. So, I jumped in. Doing it ever since and love it.”

A lot of people have admired Seymour’s paintings over the years. But for all of her success, she’s never had one hang in a museum. For a painter of Seymour’s talent, that would be a crowning achievement.

“Yes, that would be perfect. A dream come true.”

It was a warm, sunny afternoon in Jackson when opportunity came knocking at Jean Seymour’s front door. The guests were Dan Piersol with the Mississippi Museum of Art and Peter Plagens, an art critic. They were there because The Mississippi Museum of Art sponsors an annual invitational show at the museum. Over one hundred artists from across the state submitted their work for consideration. The best will be included as part of a four-month exhibit. Seymour is one of the finalists.

Peter Plagens is the man who narrowed the list from over 100 down to 15. And he will decide which of the remaining artists are invited to exhibit their work at the museum. Besides talent, he’s looking for work that shows diversity, and scope.

“The spirit of the show, the invitational, is that it exhibits Mississippi’s best artists or up and coming artists or most important artists so I want a little bit of trajectory from the artists.”

For several days in March Piersol drove the New York based Plagens all over Mississippi to visit artists in their studios.
Before making his final decision, Plagens needed to see the artists and the artwork up close and personal. They were welcomed everywhere they went, but Piersol says it had to be a little nerve rattling for the artists, because Plagens is more than just the exhibit curator. He’s an art critic known the world over.

Dan Piersol: “Peter Plagens you’d have to say is an internationally known curator, art critic, art historian, painter himself. I think if you talk about the most important art critics or commentators in the contemporary art scene, you’d have to throw Peter Plagens in. Everyone knows him and everyone respects him.”

Plagens has written several influential books on art criticism but most people in the art world are familiar with the name because of his work with a national news publication.

“I was the staff art critic for Newsweek for 15 years and I kind of had to cover the waterfront, a cultural journalist as my old colleague Jack Kroll the theater critic used to put it.”

His cultural journalism also brought him to Millsaps College in Jackson where Art teacher Brent Fogt is another finalist.
Fogt uses black ink to draw delicate and intricate designs using a series of small circles. Some of his art work is ten feet wide.

Brent Fogt: “It was really interesting, he asked me great questions…. It felt like being back in grad school again.”

Artists who are chosen will exhibit at the Musuem from August first through the end of November. And in addition to the prestige that comes with having an exhibition at the Mississippi Musuem of Art, one of the artists selected will receive a grant of up to $15,000 to develop their art.

Not everyone Plagens meets in March will be selected to exhibit at the museum. But Fogt says being considered by Peter Plagens is a reward in itself.

“Just having had this opportunity to talk with him is a great thing and if it doesn’t go any farther than that, I feel good about it.”

The Mississippi Museum of Art will announce who is included in the invitational April third. For MPB news, I’m Ron Brown.