The Indianapolis Contemporary has named a new executive director – just ahead of a celebration of a new space, Re:Public, opening in February as a collaboration with Hoy Polloy.
Leading Indianapolis Contemporary into its new era is Braydee Euliss, who joined the organization last April as director of development, leading the deployment of the I/C
Friends recurring donor program, as well as cultivating sponsorships and organizational support.
The Muncie native spent the previous five years with the Muncie Arts & Culture Council, most recently as its executive director.
Re:Public will be launched with a reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 2301 E. 10th St., with an exhibit titled Justin Brown: Intelligence Countered. The exhibit will be composed of Brown’s work from a complete series of surveilled American citizens from 1898 to contemporary times.
Brown, a multi-disciplinary artist from Indianapolis, is the founder and executive director of Hoy Polloy art gallery on the Near Eastside. Brown will also serve as curator and director of Re:Public.
For Intelligence Countered, Brown deals with the fact that – in an age of identity theft, election meddling, cyberbullying, and the propagandizing of social media – it is easy to forget that information (or as the show’s title suggests, intelligence), while benign in its resting state, has been wielded as a weapon of control and oppression for decades in our post-networked societies.
Primarily working as a painter for the work included in Intelligence Countered, Brown employs a mixed media approach, incorporating elements of collage, graffiti, and installation, to create an immediacy and tactileness to his work. It is not a memorial or tribute, but an op to end all psy-ops, a de-/re-coded language to counter the alphabet soup of government organizations, a propaganda to delegitimize propaganda.
The naming of Euliss as Indianapolis Contemporary’s executive director culminates an “organizational refresh” led by outgoing Consulting Director Michael Kaufmann, who was brought in by the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board in late 2018 to reimagine the organization, clarify purpose, and guide it through its rebrand to
Indianapolis Contemporary (I/C) which launched in May 2019.
Kaufmann described Euliss as “a committed and diligent advocate for arts and culture” who will be “an enthusiastic representative of I/C for the staff, board, and community.”
Said Euliss, “Having lived in Indy for a few years now, I’ve been getting to know the arts community, and there’s a real energy for what we’re doing. I’m eager to jump in full-time to build upon that foundation and advocate for the future of contemporary art in Indianapolis.”
IMAGE ABOVE: A photograph from the Civil Rights era is part of the Justin Brown: Intelligence Countered exhibit.
