In Reconstruction, at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Adam Cvijanovic presented a site-specific painting installation that transformed the SCAD Museum of Art’s atrium into a richly immersive environment. Commissioned by the museum, the work reflected Cvijanovic’s deep engagement with Savannah’s history and landscape, drawn from his time as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the painting department at SCAD Savannah in 2009 and his numerous visits to the region. 

The installation depicted a surreal, extruded vision of an “old Savannah” house—a fractured structure containing glimpses of three partial landscapes: a cotton field, railroad tracks, and the night sky. Together, these elements formed what Cvijanovic called a “memory house,” a layered space where the architectural and emotional fabric of the city converged. 

The title, Reconstruction, invoked both a physical reassembly and the historical period following the Civil War. Cvijanovic’s work unearthed the darker legacies of the South while holding space for what he described as “Savannah at this moment—a wistful, romantically melancholy present.” Covering the atrium’s walls and ceiling, the installation invited viewers into a dreamlike space where past and present were visually and emotionally entwined.