Where does discarded technology go when it leaves your desk? 🖥️➿🗑️⁠
⁠
In works like "Tightrope: Behind the Processor #2," Elias Sime repurposes electronic waste shipped from Western countries and gathered in Addis Ababa’s Merkato (open-air market) to consider its global impact in an accelerated consumer culture.⁠
⁠
The artist has said that the work`s title “refers to the precarious balance a city must maintain to survive and thrive,” and many of his works look like bird’s-eye views of massive, sprawling cities or compositions that suggest topography. Such aerial positionality allows viewers to zoom out from the minutiae of the materials themselves to see something more.⁠
⁠
Sime repurposes woven electrical wire and circuit boards to weave a narrative of everyday objects that speak louder than words about, as Sime puts it, the “troubled relationship between countries that create tremendous e-waste and those that process it.” Looking past the emotional weighting of new versus old, he instead emphasizes the way that objects and ideas can connect in new ways.⁠
⁠
👉 "Tightrope" is on view in "Afropolitan: Contemporary African Arts at NOMA," a presentation of works from the museum`s permanent collection by some of the continent`s most pioneering artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Click the link in our bio to learn more about the exhibition.⁠
—⁠
🎨: Elias Sime, "Tightrope: Behind the Processor #2," 2022. Wall piece made from woven electrical wires, circuit boards, and other components on panel. Incoming Museum Purchase, E-2023-6.⁠
📍: Second floor, The Helis Foundation Gallery ...

“What you see is what you see.” —Frank Stella, 1936–2024⁠
⁠
Frank Stella was one of the most important figures of modern painting and sculpture in the United States, ushering in a generation of American art marked by formalism.⁠
⁠
Produced across decades, Stella’s work shows an endless exploration of color, shape, and geometry—from his earliest paintings to later large-scale public sculptures. The famed quote above sums up Stella’s desire to create art beyond the limits of representation—where color and form do not necessarily signify a person, place, object, or meaning.⁠
⁠
We share our condolences with Stella’s family and loved ones following the artist’s passing last week.⁠
—⁠
🎨: Frank Stella, "Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values, Descending Spectrum," 1978. Acrylic on canvas. Gift of Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen, in honor of Susan M. Taylor, 2023.53.⁠
📸: Frank Stella and Sydney Besthoff in front of the artist’s "Alu Truss Star," 2016, in NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 2019.⁠
📸: Frank Stella in conversation with director Susan M. Taylor at the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2013.⁠
📸: Installation view of Frank Stella’s "Alu Truss Star," 2016, in NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Photo by Richard Sexton. ...

Congratulations to Carol Lee Fritz for being named NOMA`s volunteer of the year! 🏆⁠
⁠
Fritz joined NOMA`s volunteer program in 2015 and quickly became a very active and important part of our volunteer team. In 2023 alone, she dedicated 490 hours in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden!⁠
⁠
Last week, we celebrated the entire superstar team of museum volunteers at an annual appreciation luncheon.⁠
⁠
Thank you to all the volunteers and docents who have led tours, welcomed school visits, and inspired lifelong learning in all of our visitors young and old.⁠
—⁠
📸: @leecfritz ...