Gabriel Lester

Gabriel Lester | June 12 – August 30, 2026

The KMA actively seeks to present responsive art installations across the city of Knoxville as a means of broadening the visibility of the work, as well as the potential audience. Locating work outside of the museum helps expand the impact and reach of our program and contribute to a more holistic cultural ecology in the city and region.

For this project, we are partnering with the newly restored Eugenia Williams House, which is located on a 24-acre campus overlooking the Tennessee River. In the first of a series of installations at the House, the KMA has invited Dutch artist Gabriel Lester to present a reimagined version of his 2011 installation Melancholia in Arcadia. This haunting work was first displayed in Istanbul as a dedication to Lester’s dear friend, Huseyin Bahri Alptekin, who passed away in 2007. The title of the work is identical to a series of photographs Huseyin shot in Odessa, showing curtains blowing softly within domestic spaces. These images inspired an installation of stiffened lace curtains, frozen in time and space, which refers to the gesture of opening the windows to set free the soul of the deceased, as well as the idea of a spirit occupying a room, mysteriously lifting the curtain to reveal its presence.