Harn Museum opens international art exhibit

Loss, refugees, veterans and current real-world tragedies are on display at a new Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art exhibit.

“Aftermath: The Fallout of War — America and the Middle East,” which will be on display until Dec. 31, is a collection of visuals, including photos and videos, from 12 international artists.

The collection offers a closer look at armed conflict over the past decades and how the conflict affects the environment, said Tami Wroath, the director of marketing and public relations at the Harn.

Countries shown in the photographs include Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya, the U.S. and Iraq.

“In this exhibition, you get a perspective from Westerners and people living there in the Middle East taking pictures, and you get such a great sense of not only the people being photographed but also the photographers in the area,” said Casey Wooster, a 24-year-old UF museum studies masters student.

Carol McCusker, the Harn’s curator of photography, spent the past few years organizing it.

The collection includes works from well-known photographers such as Stephen Dupont, Jennifer Karady and Rania Matar, Wroath said. About 90 photos taken depict the events happening overseas.

“It’s showing the human aspect of war and not an us/them, good/bad situation,” she said. “We’re all human, and we’re all being affected by it.”