Alberni uses her new exhibition ‘Fragments’ to illustrate the narrative of fragmented lives and irreversible damage both visually and physically. In contrast to the hopeless narrative of destruction, Alberni seeks to use her artwork to create a positive, hopeful spirit for the future. Alberni assembles objects and layers in her work in a brightly colored, harmonious fashion, which invites the viewer in for a deeper contemplation of each composition.

Central Piedmont’s Dove Gallery will host a new exhibition by esteemed Vietnamese artist, Kenny Nguyen. Born in Vietnam, and with a background in fashion design, Nguyen exhibits his work across the US and internationally.

As a Vietnamese immigrant now living and working as an artist in the United States, much of Nguyen’s work explores ideas related to cultural identity, displacement, reconciling with the past and the artistic fusion of Vietnamese and American cultures.

Nguyen uses silk, in tribute to his Vietnamese culture, deconstructs it into strips, and then dips it in paint. Thousands of these strips creates sculptural works of art that Nguyen calls “deconstructed paintings.” The action of deconstruction and reconstruction, and transformation of the fine silk into a sculptural painting echoes Nguyen’s journey forging his own identity while continuously incorporating all of the unique elements that make Nguyen who he is today.

Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams' life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.

In 1934, the Regionalist artist Grant Wood made an agreement with Associated American Artists (AAA) in New York to create a series of lithographs. Wood, the creator of Reynolda’s iconic 1936 painting “Spring Turning,” ultimately produced 19 lithographs, about a quarter of his mature work. His consummate drafting skills made him a natural for the medium. The AAA produced the lithographs in editions of 250 and sold them for $5 to $10 each. The opportunity to create affordable art during the Great Depression appealed to the artist. This small exhibition will focus on Wood’s narrative lithographs (“Sultry Night,” “Honorary Degree,” “Shrine Quartet,” “The Midnight Alarm”) and still lifes. The colored still life lithographs of fruits, vegetables and flowers represent the fecundity of Iowa’s farmland.

In Stay in the Light, South Carolina artist Charles Edward Williams draws inspiration from historical photography of the Civil Rights movement, offering a contemporary response to social and political issues of the past and present. His paintings and installation works incorporate a strong use of color and gesture, inviting a focus on human emotion and our connectedness and commonality. Stay in the Light includes new work created for this exhibition, as well as work from Williams’ Sun and Light series. Born in Georgetown, SC, he currently lives in Durham, NC. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Charles Edward Williams is a supported recipient of the Andy Warhol Visual Arts Grant. He teaches at North Carolina Central University where he is the SunTrust Endowed Faculty Chair and Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting.

For the first time, the North Carolina Museum of Art (in Raleigh) and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem (formerly SECCA), present a shared exhibition on both campuses, bringing awareness of global artists to audiences across our state. Examining place and theology from North Carolina to eastern Texas, From Alpha to Creation: Religion in the Deep South explores the ideological relationships among various belief systems, highlighting the blending of spiritual practices throughout our daily lives. The exhibition distinguishes itself from antiquated or heavily stereotyped studies of Southern culture that often disregard our complexities. It instead focuses on the spiritual innovations that allow many of us to maintain a dedicated relationship with our religious heritages, from Abrahamic denominations to composite belief systems like Hoodoo. For many artists throughout the exhibition—who originated or worked extensively in the region—the South represents a unique context for religious expression reflected by our racial, political, and economic structures. Opening Reception: Thursday, February 15, 2024 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Potter Gallery

Born and raised in Iceland, Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson (b. 1963) has spent the last 30 years developing a unique practice that melds the disciplines of painting, weaving, and drawing, creating an innovative and labor-intensive body of work that blurs the boundaries between abstraction and representation, and fine art and craft. Based on the captivating landscape and skies of Iceland, her work is deeply rooted in environmental subjects and concerns while also contributing to art historical discourses on landscape painting and postwar abstraction. Organized by the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, this exhibition will feature large-scale paintings created on a loom and more intimate watercolors and drawings.

This exhibition features work by nearly twenty artists from the museum's collection that explore diverse approaches to depicting landscapes. Artists like Isabel Quintanilla, Markus Raetz, and Italo Valenti portray idyllic scenes; in contrast, Paul Harcharik explores the grim impact of industrialization. Other artists including Nicolas de Staël, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and Zao Wou-Ki push the boundaries of traditional landscapes with wholly abstract compositions. With works spanning over fifty years, On the Horizon: Landscapes from the Collection delves into artists' varied engagements with the natural world and evolving environments.

The anchor work of The Work of Their Hands: American Quiltmaking is a tulip quilt made 170 years ago by an now unknown, enslaved woman in North Carolina. Through her masterful stitchwork and time-honored design, this unknown artist sewed a story of strength and perseverance.   Spinning forward from this quilt and its practice, The Work of Their Hands:  American Quiltmaking explores the continuing legacy of quilt-making and the evolution of textile art, starting with traditional quilts made for bed coverings to contemporary fabric artworks by artists including Brittney Boyd Bullock, Celeste Butler, Robin Cowley, Michael Cummings, Gee’s Bend quilters, Michael James, Precious Lovell, Katie Pasquini Masopust, Carolyn Mazloomi, Mary Pal, Hattie Schmidt, Beverly Smith, The Advocacy Project, and others.