On July 9, 2021, a new exhibition titled Myths and Tales: The Art and Imagination of Tyler Staten opens at the Tubman Museum. The exhibition features 33 works on paper by Staten, a young artist who uses his art as means of confronting issues of race and gender through the guise of mythology, theatre and the magic of children’s stories.
Originally from Macon, Georgia, Tyler Staten’s illustrations are inspired by theatre, literature, and films, beginning with the animated films of Walt Disney, and evolving into his own stories. Staten’s description of these stories “captures the beauty of blackness, inserting figures into fantastical settings, or rendering them in multiple layers of pastel, watercolor and acrylic.”
Staten earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Young Harris College in 2020. That same year he was an intern in the Education Department of the Tubman. He was selected to be Artist-in-Residence at the Tubman at the end of his internship, but that residency was suspended due to the Covid – 19 Pandemic. Myths and Tales will remain on view at the Tubman Museum through August 4, 2021.
