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Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/642573
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 3.16 49 The second foor of the new North Building is dedicated to contemporary art, an evolution from expressionism to minimalism to conceptualism showcasing big formalist sculptures and paintings. "When they put a sculpture in a space, I circle around it 12 times, kind of like a cat," says curator Miranda Lash, who joined the Speed during construction in 2014 after working in New Orleans. "How is it feeling in the space? Is there enough room? (Artworks) really are like people in the sense that they have voices, they have presence, and you have to allow for that presence to have enough room." Lash says that her predecessors acquired 90 percent of the 3,000 works in the contemporary collection. "They worked to build this collection before we had the space for it, which is kind of incredible," she says. The colorful, 75-foot-wide canvas hanging from the ceiling, titled "Carousel Merge," by U of L graduate Sam Gilliam, is from around 1969. "The sentiment when you say 'contemporary' is that it's by an artist who could be alive today — the art of our time," Lash says. "Which means it's always a moving target — how are artists responding to our world now?" Speakers for a sound piece called "Banks of the Ohio," by Scottish artist Susan Philipsz, are installed on the second-foor terrace. "It's a great way to introduce our audience to the idea that sound, too, can be sculpture, because sound occupies space or can fll a space," Lash says.