Jeanette McCune is a contemporary art curator currently serving as Director of the non-profit arts organization Cleo the Project Space in Savannah, GA.  We caught up with her in celebration of our new collaboration with the gallery, an installation by Marsha Mack on view at Marmalade Savannah through the end of September.

How would you describe your personal style? 

My personal style is pretty minimal with lots of black and denim and always a few key pieces on rotation. I would say 90% is thrifted, paired with a Camper shoe + small hoop earrings and the ultimate goal in mind to channel Julia Roberts in Stepmom.    

Do you have any favorite designers at Marmalade?

I love a Canadian tuxedo like the one pictured here, the top is from Citizens of Humanity and the jeans are from Still Here.

When did you fall in love with art? 

I’ve been in love with contemporary art since I was a teenager. I went to a charter arts high school in Oklahoma City which gave me this lovely community to grow with outside of the conservative majority of the city itself. It was the start of me really shaping my opinions on beauty within the work I love and challenging the critical thought around the artists making it. My first great love was Felix Gonzales Torres. I held onto my heart the first time I saw one of his candy sculptures in person and still have the wrappers of the few I took.

What brought you to Savannah to start your Gallery? 

There were a lot of external factors that brought me to Savannah to start Cleo. I was living in Italy in 2019 a few years after working across galleries and studios in New York, Melbourne and Montreal. There is a post grad program attached to the Fondazione De Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin that is super selective and I was floating around a few jobs in Florence and trying to learn Italian as fast as possible to apply. I made it through the first round of essays but the interview was tough and after not getting accepted I traveled back to the US and chose Savannah on a whim, a small city to regroup before applying to grad school. Covid happened and the world shut down. I thought the world ending was as good a time as any to start a small project space, a persistent dream of mine since I was a teenager. Here we are, 5 years later measured in 22 exhibitions featuring more than 50 artists over 3 location changes.    

Give us a bit of background on the current show at Cleo 

Memorized is a two person show featuring the work of Marsha Mack and Jenny Lee. This exhibition is a reflection on memory, action, and motivation carried through generations, cultures and the female body. Marsha Mack’s installations, which feature an extensive visual language through the vehicles of ceramics, glass, and found material, is an ode to the formation of identity through the lens of retrospection. The retention of trips to the Asian supermarkets that Mack frequented with her Vietnamese mother growing up in California is a central character in this work. Inspired by the decor of the shops and multitude of radiating designs on the packaging of her favorite snack foods, Mack sifts through the cultural implications of their marketing on her understanding of self. As a woman these implications are combined with coded soft signs, textures and colors to even further complicate her explorations. What is produced is an incredibly layered vision of femininity across heritage and community and a reconciliation of complex relationships with both. Jenny Lee’s work culls from experience with maternal influence as well. Lee’s exhibited videos and photography feature a consistent discourse with her mother as they navigate domestic space. The alignment of their bodies in layered interactions prove that rituals of understanding identity, through generational divide, can be fleeting. This longing left for realignment is apparent as the two individuals split their time between the U.S. and Korea, incurring a further nuanced influence of cultural impact on ideals of femininity passed between them. The stage sets for the reflection of that nuance, spotlighting a respect of balancing both women’s rituals and the relationship built between them amongst the chaos of the everyday. 

It is a show all three of us have been working on for over a year and I was so excited to have Marsha in Savannah for the opening night. Memorized is on view through September 26th with open hours on Saturday 12-5pm or by appointment.  

We admire the community you have built around Cleo through showings and artist collaborations. Is there anything on the horizon this fall that we should be excited about?

Our next exhibition will open on October 18th and feature Alex Adkinson (Chicago, IL) and Camille Wong (Los Angeles, CA). Their work is a result of a previous research trip to Savannah in May 2025 where Camille conducted interviews in our downtown squares with historians, public servants, and lifelong residents about the structure of the city with critical scrutiny. Alex investigated the U.S. Sugar Refinery with its impact on global commerce and tragic recent history through visiting the site and collecting data. We will have both artists present for a talk on opening night Saturday, October 18th, 6-9pm, which will be free and open to the public.  

What is your favorite spot to get a drink in Savannah? Dinner? 

Lately I have been loving Joe and Vera’s!

Tell us more about how Cleo works to support Artists...

My top priority at the gallery is and always will be getting my emerging artists paid for their labor. At Cleo we provide them with W.A.G.E. advised honorariums plus shipping and travel reimbursements for out of town makers. It is very rare in the art world to receive that kind of financial support from a gallery of our size and in turn it has become increasingly tough to sustain, now more than ever under this administration and its commitment to end the National Endowment for the Arts grant program. If there was ever a time to donate to your favorite local non profit, now is the time! We just started doing a Risograph subscription service as a fun way for people to give back this year called Cleo Editions. Basically you sign up and receive 5 prints in total with designs from the artists we are exhibiting in 2025. Each print is released on the occasion of that artist's opening at Cleo and in your mailbox that week. It is a super fun way to get involved with affordable artwork for your home that supports our mission, go grab one today!

Tune in to the video below by Alex Lacey for a window into the installation process behind Marsha Mack's piece currently on view at Marmalade Savannah.