The Summer Art Garden: A Flash of Sun

Memphis-based artist and designer Khara Woods presents A Flash of Sun, an installation of sun-drenched shades, dazzling patterns, and geometric sculptures. Woods incorporates her signature tile-like shapes and hypnotic motifs, reminiscent of houndstooth and other textile patterns, with swirling rays. Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, Summer in the South (1903), with its vivid, lyrical descriptions – “Then a flash of sun on a waiting hill / The sky smiles down...”– the installation captures summer’s vibrancy and joy.

Two modular wooden sculptures crowned with translucent cast acrylic honor Wheeler Williams’s Spring and Summer (1961), which once stood on the plaza’s pedestals. As the sun moves, light filters through the acrylic, casting colors across the museum’s facade. Woods’s interest in poetry and the sound of jazz, which is often played in her studio, instills the designs with a spirited rhythm. This Summer Art Garden warmly invites visitors to relax and soak in the sun.