DANS L’ESPOIR D’UN AVENIR MEILLEUR (IN HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE) Exploring Haitian Transmigration Through the Female Lens, explores contemporary Haitian transmigration from the female perspective and offers a counter-narrative to the immigration story, bringing to light the universality of migration as a shared experience. Tracy Murrell’s intent for this project is to advance racial and cultural exchanges by providing a different perspective to audiences who may not otherwise connect to the issues surrounding immigration.

Murrell's on-site installation begins in Gallery A with moving encaustic rice paper that she hopes will transport the viewer to the Haiti that she experienced; to feel the lush landscape and vibrant water. She also created life-sized sculptural elements of the people she met, presented a video installation of the images she recorded, and created her signature silhouetted resin portraits of women who have transmigrated to the United States, on a large scale.

A National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Hammonds House Museum. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).

Additional support for this exhibition is provided by Fulton County Board of Commissioners through the Fulton County Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, Georgia Pacific and Hammonds House Museum Members and Donors.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Tracy Murrell is an Atlanta-based visual artist. She has shown in numerous group and juried exhibitions and her work has been featured in art publications including Create! Magazine, ArtVoices Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine Issue 29, 35, 38, 41 and New American Paintings Issue 142. Her painting “Walk Alone | We Will Follow” was selected for the cover of Witnessing Girlhood Toward An Intersectional Tradition of Life Writing by Fordham University Press. She has been awarded artist's residencies at The Hambidge Center for the Arts in Rabun Gap, Georgia, Atlanta Printmakers Studio in Atlanta, Georgia, and Green Olive Arts in Tetouan, Morocco. In October, Georgia Tech University unveiled two paintings by Murrell commissioned by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for the Dorothy M. Crosland Tower library. Murrell’s work is included in various private, corporate and municipal collections.

An exhibiting artist since 2009, Murrell has a deep love for Hammonds House Museum. "To see the museum's founder Dr. O.T. Hammonds' beautiful home repurposed as a place for artists of color to exhibit their creativity is an honor," says Murrell."

"For five years as our curator, Tracy exhibited exceptional artists here as she continued to develop her own artistic style. We are excited that her new work is being shown in our galleries beginning with an opening reception October 28, 2022, from 6 – 8:30 p.m. and will run through December 18th, 2022," states Donna Watts Nunn, Managing Director of Hammonds House Museum.

CURATOR

Arturo Lindsay is a Panamanian-born artist and professor of art and art history at Spelman College. His work specializes in ethnographic research on African spiritual and aesthetic retention in contemporary American cultures. He is a proud native of Colon, a seaport city on the Caribbean coast of the Republic of Panama; Lindsay migrated to the United States with his family at age 12 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Lindsay began his career as a theater artist, acting and directing in avant-garde street theater productions in New York City and New England. His Panamanian/American identity is reflected in his art, which focuses on African culture in America.

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