Group Fiber Exhibition The Threads We Follow Opens at SECCA November 16

Next Generation of Fiber Artists Brings New Perspectives to Traditional Forms

(Winston-Salem, NC) – The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is proud to present The Threads We Follow, a group exhibition of fiber-based works by leading global artists, on view November 16, 2023 through March 10, 2024 in SECCA’s Main Gallery. An opening reception with the artists and curator Maya Brooks will be held Thursday, November 16 from 5 to 8pm, with remarks at 6pm and an opportunity for visitors to meet the artists at 6:30pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

Over several centuries, artists and craftspeople have used fiber to challenge identity-based oppression throughout various global cultures. Many of these artists specifically contemplate the historic devaluation of textiles based upon their association with domestic labor and craft making, where women and communities of color have long interpreted social politics.

The Threads We Follow acknowledges the foundations of fiber arts rooted in explicit gender and cultural expression while demonstrating contemporary understandings of the malleability of identity. The artists throughout this show experiment with structure and form to translate their experiences to materials like thread, fabric, and even hair, creating nontraditional designs including busts, sculptures, and suspended pieces. Ultimately, each of these artists emphasizes the exploratory nature of fiber arts that has continuously allowed space for community-focused experimentation and reflection.

The Threads We Follow includes works by Aliyah Bonnette, Amalia Galdona Broche, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, April Bey, Basil Kincaid, Cynthia Alberto, Ebony G. Patterson, John Paul Morabito, Lakea Shepard, Lien Truong, and Pia Camil.

“When I think about fiber and its historic devaluation as a ‘fine art’ tool, I wanted to create an exhibition that showcased contemporary artists’ innovations of the medium,” said curator Maya Brooks. “Fiber is having a moment, where artists connect their personal histories with social commentaries. So, I see this exhibition as an expression of recognizing that moment, especially as I’ve carried this love with me for most of my life and now career.”

Learn more about the exhibition and upcoming programs at SECCA.org.

UPDATE: Read about the show in this article from The Local Reporter

La Eterna Injusticia

BASEMENT ART SPACE
605 Caswll Rd. Chapel Hill NC

Sep 09 to Sep 30 2023
Opening Reception: Sep 09, 6-8pm
With Artist Talk at 7pm

Open Saturdays and Sundays 2-5 pm

The department of art and art history is pleased to welcome Annette Lawrence as its new chair and the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Studio Art. Professor Lawrence comes to UNC-Chapel Hill from the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas (UNT), and brings with her a great deal of experience and many accomplishments as an artist, teacher, and administrator.

As an artist, Professor Lawrence creates complex, visually striking paintings, drawings, and installations that thoughtfully engage with her environment and events taking place around her. Her artistic practice and leadership share a commitment to, in her words, “rigorously consider what counts, how it is counted, and who is counting. This process of questioning and analyzing also informs my approach to leadership. I’m committed to facilitating the experience of making and unmaking, looking and waiting, and finding or recognizing what is in front of us by paying attention.” Over 24 years at UNT, Professor Lawrence became a trusted leader among her peers, culminating in serving as chair of the Department of Studio Art for four years. As a voice for the department within the college and the university, she successfully advocated for enhanced facilities and staffing, among other accomplishments.

In her teaching, Professor Lawrence is committed to facilitating students’ explorations of their own sensibilities and guiding them to develop the skills they need to achieve their visions. She earned her BFA in sculpture from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, and her MFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Professor Lawrence’s work has been widely exhibited, including in solo shows at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and group exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, as well as in the Whitney Biennial. She received a MacDowell Fellowship in 2018, and has been honored with residencies at Skowhegan, the Core Residency Program, and the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, among other honors.

Professor Lawrence’s arrival at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a homecoming of sorts, as she has deep familial connections with the state. Her maternal grandparents were from North Carolina, and moved to Queens, New York, during the Great Migration of the 1930s. Professor Lawrence was born there, and spent summers as a child visiting aunts, uncles, and cousins in Oxford, Mt. Olive, Dudley, and Raleigh, North Carolina—places where some of her relatives still live today. She looks forward to building new connections and community far beyond the department of art and art history and the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Art History Kathryn Desplanque, whose digital humanities project has received a UNC Data Science Seed Grant.

In June 2023, the UNC School of Data Science and Society announced the award recipients of its first round of seed grants designed to jump-start collaborations around interdisciplinary research in data science. All proposals submitted were required to have researchers from different departments, schools, or centers and institutes and were reviewed by the school’s Research Advisory Council (RAC).

“Data science is everywhere on campus. We’re excited to fund six strong proposals, which are both bringing forth beneficial applications and examining data science’s consequences on society,” said Dean Stan Ahalt. “We’re also seeing our university’s research community’s strength in many areas of scholarship which use data science.”

In this first request for proposals, the school received over 40 proposals submitted from 27 departments, eight schools, and two centers and institutes. During the next academic year, awardees will contribute to the broader Carolina community by offering new shared resources — for example, workshops, teaching modules, research-ready datasets, or models of interest — and could potentially shape a larger-scale project designed to attract extramural funding or lead to commercial translation.

Kathryn’s project:

“Art image analysis (ArtIA): Bringing new tools and expanded ontologies to the curation, analysis, and sharing of images in the digital humanities,” Kathryn Desplanque, department of art and art history with co-PIs Chris Bizon, RENCI; Amanda Henley, University Libraries; and Corbin Jones, department of biology and School of Medicine, department of genetics

Using a large corpus of curated images of political cartoons from 1750-1850 France, the team will illustrate effective data sharing, in the digital humanities, using findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR) principles, with a public database.

Read about the art interventions made by Hong-An Truong’s ARTS 490: Art as Social Action course in Chapelboro’s article “Low-Hanging Fruit: UNC students bring awareness to sexual violence on campus.” Truong and MFA candidate Molly English were interviewed for the piece.

Image: Still from Aquadisia (2022) by Stephanie Rothenberg

Artist and former Faculty Member Kimowan Metchewais continues to inspire other artists long after his untimely passing in 2011. Fellow artist Wendy Red Star speaks movingly about how she first encountered his work and what it means to her in this column in the New York Times: Seeing Myself in the Work of an Artist I Never Met

Newest faculty member Martin Wannam is one of the artists chosen for the XXIII Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala.

From their website:

“Fundación Paiz is very excited about the twenty-third edition of the Bienal de Arte Paiz, which will take place from July 13 to 30, 2023, with an outstanding curatorial team made up of Francine Birbragher (USA) and Juan Canela (ESP).

The curatorial team focused on creating an inclusive platform to open dialogue in the region because they noticed that spaces where ideas and thoughts are shared are important to nurture art.

In 2022, a public call was held to select national and international artists. Thanks to this, a very diverse exhibition was built. We are looking for new ways to present art so that it reaches more people!

In addition to the exhibitions, we will have different activities such as conservatories, workshops, and meetings that promote spaces for collective learning. Having your participation is the most important thing!”

You can see the full list of participating artists in the Bienal press release.

Emeritus Professor Mary Sturgeon’s new book The Gymnasium Area: Sculpture (Corinth XXIII.1) was published in December of 2022 and is now available for purchase.

Volume XXIII in the Corinth series is dedicated to the finds from the Gymnasium Area, excavated between 1965 and 1972 by James R. Wiseman and the University of Texas at Austin. Fascicle XXIII.1 presents the marble sculpture, 126 pieces dating between the 6th century B.C. and 5th century A.D. and found in or near a variety of built features, including the ornately decorated Bath-Fountain complex. Among the sculptural finds are portraits of athletes and civic officials and depictions of Dionysos, Hermes, and Aphrodite and the nymphs. Herms and statue bases also form part of the assemblage. This corpus grants us insight into the sculptural practices after the founding of the Roman colony at Corinth, and critical knowledge concerning display context, reuse, and the deposition of sculpture at a gymnasium in a large regional center of the eastern Mediterranean.

Studio Art faculty member Sabine Gruffat will be giving a talk at Duke University on November 1. “Moving and Being Moved: a Conversation with Sabine Gruffat” is at 6 pm at Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center in the Film Theater.