Old Corner, New Chapter
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From New York to Water Valley, artist Zoran Crnkovic joins building owner Meagan Backes in breathing new life into the Lamar Block through art and restoration.
Exhibit Opens In Lamar Block As Owners Plan Boutique Hotel, Storefronts
WATER VALLEY – The corner of Railroad Avenue and Wood Street has seen nearly 150 years of Water Valley history — from dentists and grocers to printers, furniture dealers, and car salesmen. On October 4, the old Lamar Block opened its doors to something new: art, color, and community.
Inside the tall walls of what is believed to be one of Water Valley’s oldest surviving commercial building, artist Zoran Crnkovic has filled the space with more than 200 of his works spanning two decades, creating one of the largest art exhibits the town has ever seen. His show, titled “A Metaphysical Journey of Color and Light,” opened during the Art Crawl afterparty on October 4 and marks both Crnkovic’s Mississippi debut and the public unveiling of a landmark being carefully reimagined for its next life.
Meagan Backes and her mother, Mary Lu Vaughn, bought the former Magnolia Furniture building a year ago.
The Lamar Block, named for its appearance on early city maps, dates back to at least 1875, when advertisements in the Water Valley Progress listed a dentist’s office upstairs and a “fancy grocery” below. Later it became home to the newspaper, a cobbler, and tenement rooms for railroad workers, followed by a long stretch as a furniture store. In the 1950s, it became a car dealership, and the wraparound second-story balcony was removed— one of many changes that altered the building’s profile but not its enduring character.
Last October, Meagan Backes and her mother, Mary Lu Vaughn, purchased the property with plans to restore it to its earlier footprint — possibly five storefronts on the ground level and hotel rooms upstairs. “We’re still finalizing the design work,” Backes said. “We’re working closely with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the National Park Service to make sure we qualify for historic tax credits.”
Plans for the Lamar Block include a public courtyard at this spot, where owner Meagan Backes envisions a welcoming space.
Those plans extend beyond the building itself. Standing in front of the building during an interview, Backes pointed to the street and sidewalk, describing a vision that includes parallel parking, street trees, a courtyard connection featuring a sidewalk along the south side of the building. “We want this to feel like a real downtown corner again,” she said.
For now, the building has found new life through art. Backes and her husband, Jayson, moved to Water Valley in August — the same month Crnkovic arrived from New York. The timing couldn’t have been better as Karen Person connected Backes and Crnkovic.
Working with Karen Person, Mary Lu Vaughn, Sylvia Lowe, and a handful of friends, Backes and Crnkovic spent weeks transforming the once-dusty furniture showroom into a gallery. They stripped plaster to expose interior brick walls, reused old display platforms, added borrowed pews and decorated with quilts, rugs, and candelabras from Sylvia Lowe’s home. Crnkovic handled the lighting himself, replacing harsh fluorescents with soft, indirect fixtures that warmed the brick and brought the art to life.
The show moves through five major collections and several decades of Crnkovic’s life. His Cityscapes series reflects the rhythm and vulnerability of New York, shaped by his firsthand experience of September 11, 2001. Textured Bravado explores the written word as a symbol of human striving — some paintings use ancient alphabets such as Glagolitic script, a medieval Croatian writing system. “I was born in Croatia,” he said. “I take old letters and turn them into paintings. Each symbol carries history — stories that became civilization itself.”
From there, the show deepens into Meditations, with geometric abstractions inspired by Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic philosophy, where number, color, and consciousness merge into form. His Labyrinths series draws on medieval pilgrimage routes and the symbolic “journey toward clarity.” “Life is a road,” he explained. “We’re all walking somewhere. The labyrinth reminds us that meaning isn’t at the destination — it’s in the journey itself.”
In the final gallery, Flags, Crnkovic uses color fields and line to reimagine familiar emblems, transforming the American flag and other national symbols into visual meditations on identity and belonging. “These are not political statements,” he said. “They’re questions — about what we share, and how symbols shape us.”
Throughout the exhibit, Crnkovic aimed to give Water Valley something on par with what exhibits he once created in New York. “
“I wanted to make a show here that if I wanted to make it in New York, even the New Yorkers would say, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’” Crnkovic explained. “I wanted Water Valley to have that same experience because if this was transplanted over there, in any part of New York City, people would say, ‘This is great.’ So I wanted to approach Water Valley with the same effort. It doesn’t matter where it is — it has to be that same effort.”
The Art Crawl afterparty on opening night drew a crowd from Oxford, Batesville, and beyond. Visitors lingered into the night beneath soft lighting and music. Backes said the response was “epic” and that “for years it was quiet, and suddenly it was alive again.”
The family plans to keep the space open for pop-ups and creative events while architectural work continues. Upstairs, the boutique hotel will feature five rooms accessed by a restored stairway and possibly a small lift in the courtyard that will be constructed on the south side of the building. A golf simulator business is planned for the back portion and Crnkovic and Person are developing artist talks, workshops, and Tai Chi mornings in the park.
The exhibit remains open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., with earlier hours on Saturdays for Main Street visitors. On Thursday, Oct. 16, the gallery will open before and after the Thacker Mountain Radio performance, and during the City-Wide Yard Sale on Oct. 18, visitors can stop by from 9 a.m. until evening.
The show will continue through early December, with a closing date still to be announced.
