MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES ARTISTS FEATURED IN 2025 MISSISSIPPI INVITATIONAL

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) announced the 12 artists participating in the 2025 Mississippi Invitational exhibition, the 14th biennial survey featuring recent works created by contemporary visual artists living and working in the state.

On view June 28 through September 7, 2025, the exhibition will feature works in a variety of media, including new commissions, by the following artists:
Rylee Brabham, Hattiesburg
Allen Chen, Hattiesburg
*Sue Carrie Drummond, Jackson
Connor Frew, Jackson
Ashley Gates, Jackson
Jason Kimes, Laurel
Emma Lorenz, Jackson
*Christina McField, Jackson
*Alexis McGrigg, Jackson
*Jerrod Partridge, Ocean Springs
*Betty Press, Hattiesburg
Kaleena Stasiak, Oxford

Organized by guest curator and award-winning writer and historian, TK Smith, the theme of this year’s Invitational—“Call Home”— reflects on the complex feelings associated with home, ranging from feelings of nostalgia to dread. Smith and MMA Associate Curator of Exhibitions Kaegan Sparks reviewed over 100 applications to the open call. The final 12—five of whom have participated in previous editions—were selected following 37 studio visits across Mississippi. Each will present artworks created across the span of their individual practices to evoke the passage of time and reveal aspects of their investigations of ideas, experiments with materiality, and manifestations of biography.

“The unifying theme echoes the voices and experiences of the Mississippi artists participating in the Invitational,” stated Smith. “‘Call Home’ communicates the subtle desire, yearning, and urgency for people to connect, be it across time, space, or differences. The phrase exists in the gray area of possibility: ‘call me, there is something I have to say,’ or perhaps, ‘call me back, I need to hear your voice.’ Regardless of the many ways we might define home—a place, a person, an afterlife—the call incites connection back to a place where we may find solace in being known.”

Invitational artists are eligible to apply for The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship—a grant of up to $20,000 awarded to one artist. The recipient will be announced during opening weekend.

Betsy Bradley, Laurie Hearin McRee Director, at MMA said, “We are honored to have TK Smith curate this year’s Invitational. His expertise as a cultural historian, enthusiasm for working with artists, and breadth of knowledge made him an ideal partner. The Invitational is always highly anticipated, and we are confident that this edition will be a must-see, must-experience event for our community and beyond.”

The curatorial team is developing an online catalogue at msmuseumart.org featuring writings and additional information about the artists. It will launch with the opening of the exhibition. Public programs will be listed on the site closer to the opening.

The Mississippi Invitational and its biennial exhibition are made possible with support from the Community Foundation for Mississippi/Jane Crater Hiatt Fund.

About TK Smith
TK Smith is an Atlanta-based curator, writer, and cultural historian. He is Curator of the Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. His recent curatorial projects include Hand to Mouth at Stove Works in Chattanooga (2024), Kelly Taylor Mitchell & Sergio Suárez: Material Memory at Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta (2024), and Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams at the Woodmere Museum of Art in Philadelphia (2021). From 2022 to 2024, he served as Assistant Curator, Art of the African Diaspora, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Smith’s writing has been published in Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where he is a contributing editor. In 2022, he was a recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant for short form writing, and in 2024 he was awarded a Leo and Dorothea Rabkin Prize for critical art writing. As a public scholar, Smith has lectured at several institutions, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Saint Louis University, and Cornell University. Currently, Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware.

About the Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship
The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship was created in 2005 by Jane Crater Hiatt and her late husband Wood (1930–2010) in response to the need to nurture and invigorate the arts within the state of Mississippi. The Fellowship provides support to an individual artist in the development and creation of art over a two-year period. The funds may be used to purchase supplies and equipment, travel, conduct research,or study with an individual artist or in a studio, workshop, or residency setting. Following the conclusion of the grant period, the artist is required to donate one original work of art, chosen from at least five works created during the grant period, to the Mississippi Museum of Art. Only artists whose work is selected for inclusion in the Mississippi Invitational exhibition are eligible to apply for the Fellowship in the year that their work is chosen. The recipient’s works should demonstrate the potential for significant artistic and cultural impact, as well as act as a catalyst for the development and realization of adventurous and imaginative ideas. The Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellowship is made possible by the Community Foundation for Mississippi/Jane Crater Hiatt Fund.

About the Mississippi Museum of Art
Established in 1911, the Mississippi Museum of Art is dedicated to connecting Mississippi to the world and the power of art to the power of community. The Museum’s permanent collection includes paintings, photography, multimedia works, and sculpture by Mississippi, American, and international artists. The largest art museum in the state, the Mississippi Museum of Art offers a vibrant roster of exhibitions, public programs, artistic and community partnerships, educational initiatives, and opportunities for exchange year-round. Programming is developed with community involvement to ensure that a multiplicity of voices and perspectives are represented. Signature programs include the Center for Art and Public Exchange, a community-driven effort to ensure local relevance to offerings; the Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition, a bi-annual nationally recognized traveling exhibition program; and the Mississippi Invitational and Jane Hiatt Fellowship, promoting the careers of working artists in the state. Located at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson, the Mississippi Museum of Art and its programs are sponsored in part by the City of Jackson and Visit Jackson. Support is also provided in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

For more information, visit www.msmuseumart.org