About the Exhibition:
Slammed!! Sensationalism and Culture in the Squared Circle
Acadiana Center for the Arts
Main Gallery
February 12, 2021 – May 8, 2021

Slammed!! Sensationalism and Culture in the Squared Circle is a juried group exhibition showcasing contemporary artists working in Louisiana, the greater Gulf South region and throughout the United States. Visual Arts Director at Acadiana Center for the Art, Jaik Faulk will partner with Benjamin Hickey, Curator of Exhibitions at the Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to select works for an upcoming exhibition in the AcA’s 4,366 square foot Main Gallery.

This exhibition takes as it’s thesis, the culture and theatricality of the world of professional wrestling, past, present, and future. In the Gulf South , professional wrestling was massively popular in the 1970’s and 80’s, generations shared the experience of drama and exaggerated story lines embedded in one-on-one matches of super human strength and all-out brawls between heroes and villains. Since this time, the world of wrestling has changed and evolved from its naïve glory.  In a way, the world-at-large has as well ; it has a sense of fraught drama in the real. Social media , for example, offers countless moments of sensationalized performance at every turn and our current political climate is akin to a wild no-holds-barred cage match.

What can the world of wrestling, it’s sensationalism and theatricality, a blending of “real” and “fake”, tell us of our contemporary moment? What would that look like in a “work of art”? You tell us.