OUTSIDE IN

February 9, 2012 – April 21, 2012

Five Louisiana artists, each with a different artistic approach, transform the Masur Museum’s galleries by creating large murals directly on our gallery walls. The featured artists are Troy Malmstrom, Jason Byron Nelson, Vitus Shell, Joey Slaughter, and Allen Spurlock. Their work reflects the historic importance and power of murals as a statement of prevailing cultural attitudes or as a vehicle for societal change. In doing so, their work will bring to mind the art of Diego Rivera, Banksy, Thomas Hart Benton, David Siqueiros, Shepard Fairey, and more.  Murals are often taken for granted as pleasant tableaux or are forgotten by institutions that ought to maintain this form of expression but do not because it cannot be possessed as a valuable artifact or easily displayed as part of their programming. Even though the murals cannot be maintained permanently, OUTSIDE IN acknowledges the importance of murals as a relevant public art form by bringing them to the forefront of artistic and social dialogs in Northeast Louisiana.  By doing this, the Masur Museum embraces its role as a public venue for the exchange of ideas, even if it is not broadly public in the way most venues for murals are.