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Past ExhibitionS

Alabama Artists Gallery

The Alabama State Council on the Arts is proud to showcase the work of 

Alabama artists in its Montgomery gallery in the RSA Tower. 

Hours are Monday - Friday 8 a.m - 5 p.m.

1,000 lbs. of Clay

May 9, 2008 - June 20, 2008

click here to view PDF of exhibition

2008 Visual Arts Achievement Program

April 7, 2008 - April 25, 2008

In recognition of outstanding achievement in visual arts, 112 middle and senior high school students from across Alabama will be honored at the Alabama State Council on the Arts’ Visual Arts Achievement Program Awards Ceremony on Friday, April 25.

            The ceremony honoring these young artists will be held in the auditorium of the State Capitol on Friday, April 25, from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m., with a reception immediately following at the Alabama State Council on the Arts’ Alabama Artists Gallery, at 201 Monroe Street.

            This Visual Arts Achievement program, which is in its twenty-second year, provides an opportunity for talented middle and high school students in Alabama to receive local and state recognition for their achievements in visual arts.  It is designed to showcase the quality art being created by Alabama’s students enrolled in both public and private school systems.

            During the awards ceremony, students, their parents, guests, and teachers will have an opportunity to hear Bruce Larsen, a found objects artist from Fairhope, Alabama.

For the Visual Arts Achievement Awards, the state is divided into six districts. The participating art teachers within the districts selected the most creative and technically executed work done in their classrooms.  These pieces were submitted for the district competition. Works selected at the district level are currently displayed for the month of April at the Alabama Artists Gallery, located in the lobby of the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Selected professionals juried all district winners in order to select a group of state winners.  Medallions and gift certificates will be presented to students whose works are designated the “Best of Show,” and “Best” in each category, and “Best of each District”.  Additionally, an award will be given to the art teacher and the school system with the highest number of works in the state exhibition.  All district winners will also receive certificates.

            Additionally, the State Arts Council’s Visual Arts Achievement Awards provide an opportunity for twelfth grade students who have excelled in visual arts to receive financial assistance in the form of scholarships.  These students being awarded financial assistance, have not only demonstrated their artistic abilities, but have also planned to continue their education in the art field. This portion of the program is a partnership between the State Arts Council and several colleges and universities. In order to be considered for scholarships, students submit portfolios of their work to be judged by a panel of professionals. The top five participants are selected and receive a $500 scholarship.  If the student elects to attend one of the institutions agreeing to match the Council’s scholarship of $500, the scholarship is then increased to $1,000. This matching commitment makes for a possible five scholarships at $1,000 each.

The Alabama State Council on the Arts is proud to showcase the work of Alabama artists in its gallery in the RSA Tower in downtown Montgomery.  Hours are Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. This exhibition is the second in a series titled ALABAMA ORIGINALS, honoring living Alabama artists for the YEAR OF ALABAMA ARTS. Others to follow during 2007 will include such themes as Contemporary Craft, A Sense of Place, and Expanding Perspectives.

The artists in this exhibition use traditional techniques in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing as means of personal expression. They include college professors, a high school teacher, professional artists who do primarily commissioned work and artists who present their work in art festivals and markets throughout the country. Several have been recognized by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel as Art Ambassadors or Artists of the Month for the Year of Alabama Art.  

This exhibition is the first in a series titled ALABAMA ORIGINALS, honoring living Alabama artists for the YEAR OF ALABAMA ARTS. Others to follow during 
2007 will include such themes as Classical Approaches, Contemporary Craft, A Sense of Place, and Expanding Perspectives. 

The artists in this exhibition are among the most well-known and collected artists of Alabama. They are self-taught, working outside the classic tradition of academic training and the mainstream art world. The art on exhibit here has often also been labeled outsider, primitive, visionary, vernacular or contemporary folk art.

These individuals have much to say both visually and spiritually. They generally do so with materials at hand and with techniques and forms they devise. Some of the pieces seem aligned with traditional forms such as quilting, yet there is invention, spontaneity and freedom not present in those community traditions. Other pieces present aesthetic statements with a clear connection to the best contemporary art forms. The work is unfiltered by any rules of what art should be and how it must work. 

The Alabama State Council on the Arts is proud to showcase the work of Alabama artists in its Montgomery gallery in the RSA Tower.   

In 2006, Alabama activities brought attention to two Alabama women.  Montgomery celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Bus Boycott inspired by Rosa Parks, and the State of Alabama began the process of replacing one of its two statues honoring significant Alabamians in Statuary Hall at the Nation’s Capitol with a new sculpture of Helen Keller.

To accompany increased awareness of these two leaders, the Alabama State Council on the Arts organized two exhibitions giving artists the opportunity to create work honoring the lifetimes, the “Courageous Journeys”, of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller. The exhibitions tour to four locations: The Tennessee Valley Art Center in Tuscumbia; the Alabama Artists Gallery in Montgomery; the Mary G. Hardin Cultural Arts Center in Gadsden; and Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Hall in Talladega.

Twenty-three artists participated in this exhibition honoring Helen Keller (1880-1968).   The major concept is based on the themes of her life, especially serving as a tribute to her inner strength as she transformed the challenges of her human condition. She said, “Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.”

Contemporary artists created works after studying not only the life and writings of Helen Keller but also ways of communicating, including sign and Braille. Images of hands and eyes have been incorporated into several of the works. Other pieces, such as Nancy Goodman’s quilt, Rain and Hope, are made to visualize “the notion that no matter how grim things get, the human spirit has a way of shining though. [Keller] must have had a lot of the kind of light within her to overcome her obstacles.”

Several of the artists in this presentation have also transformed challenges in their own lives. Barbara Gallagher, Montgomery, suffered a severe stroke and could no longer paint with her right hand. As soon as possible, she tried with her left hand—and continued her successful painting career. One of the pieces in this exhibition was painted right-handed, and the other left-handed.

As a young woman, Lila Graves, Alexander City, was given only a few months to live after several efforts to cure malignant melanoma. She believes she was healed with a “beautiful, merciful miracle” in Mexico, where she gave up “all of the old angers and fears in my life” and made and wore a pair of white angel wings, constructed with palm leaves and a feather boa. She says, “Instead of dying with cancer, cancer helped me figure out how to live.”

Five artists who participate in programs for adults with autism and Asperger’s syndrome at Studio By the Tracks in Irondale are included in this exhibition. The Studio seeks “to redirect anger and frustration toward constructive expression and creativity”, believing that “our student’s creative process, and the resulting artwork, represents a profound shift in focus from personal limitation to possibility.” Just as teacher Annie Sullivan helped open Keller’s world by dedicated teaching, the faculty at Studio By the Tracks serve as a modern example of opening the world through the arts.

ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION

Pinky Bass, Fairhope

Gary Chapman, Birmingham

Linda Cooper, Studio by the Tracks, Birmingham

Carole Fay Esk’ridge, Huntsville

Frank Fleming, Birmingham

Wendy Flowers, Birmingham

Barbara Gallagher, Montgomery

Nancy Goodman, Mobile

Lila Graves, Alexander City

Michael Hall, Studio by the Tracks, Irondale

Art Horton, Studio by the Tracks, Irondale

Lillie Mack, Black Belt Designs, York

John Miller, Studio by the Tracks, Irondale

Tommy Moorehead, Talladega

Nall, Fairhope

Amanda Napper, Mobile

Judith Taylor Rogers, Birmingham

Carolyn Sherer, Birmingham

Jeanie Thompson, Montgomery

Julie Watters, Birmingham

Yvonne Wells, Tuscaloosa

Monika Woody, Studio by the Tracks, Irondale

Rachel Wright, Mobile 

Misty Bennett, Montevallo, holds her Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia. She is on the art faculty at the University of Montevallo. In her statement she says, “I began this new body of work after reading about something commonly known to physicists—that time does not always pass at the same rate. Of course, you would have to be traveling very fast to physically sense the acceleration of time, but the idea that something I had always believed to be fixed was in fact variable at first astounded me. If this is true, then perhaps there are other aspects of life, both miniscule and monumental, that are completely misunderstood. I find this idea to be very encouraging. I am drawn to scientific diagrams for their sincere attempt to simplify a complex idea into a clear and concise image. It is comforting to know that this is possible. Life’s big unanswered questions continue to confront me, and these paintings represent my endeavor to discover the answers through painting. My methods are more sensual than scientific, and allow me to explore the mysteries without the limitation of definition.”

Zdenko Krtic, Auburn, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. A native of Croatia, he is Associate Professor of Art at Auburn University. The installation on exhibit is composed of thirty-two square panels of polyptych and encaustic on wood. In his statement about the work he says, “Each panel developed from an appropriated image, often technical and scientific in its origin. I have been experimenting with laser cutting/engraving machines as a means of incising such (mainly linear) forms into a bed of beeswax. The coherent laser beam light is used as a mapping device—the latest technological tool “drawing” over the ancient painting medium of encaustic—giving often forgotten forms new life and materiality. For me, this unlikely but potent marriage of process and material serves as a junction where innovation and tradition intersect.”

Connecting Alabama brings six artists from various areas of the state, making geographic connections but also showing more subtle relationships. Coleman Mills, a contemporary painter in Fairhope, found inspiration for his works in the quilts of Gee’s Bend, making links between contemporary and traditional expressions. Melissa Tubbs, Montgomery, presents elegant pen and ink drawings of architectural forms, which also celebrate (and connect with) the artists who created the forms. Paula Frances Peek, Waverly, presents images that document a section of Highway 280, but also show ways people are connected through specific, common experiences.

Elaine Augustine, Florence, has an extensive national exhibition record working in pastels. She has been designated a Master Pastellist by the Pastel Society of American; Signature Member of the Degas and Alabama Pastel Societies; and Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society. She is “inspired by images with contract and value—interesting shapes, textures and lights and darks. I don’t really care what the subject is.”  Works in the exhibition range from landscapes to abstracts to florals.  

Coleman Mills, Fairhope, prefers the title  “painter” over that of artist and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Auburn, Cornell and Harvard. He studied and trained under AIA Gold Medalists Samuel Mockbee and Michael Graves. The paintings in this series are entitled Defiant Humility:  Paintings Inspired By The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. He says they ”are an investigation of the infinite layers of surface, the transparency of the well-worn patina and the subtle, self-effacing complexity of composition of the quilts themselves.”    

Jim Morris, Tuscaloosa, frequently travels back roads searching for images capturing the uniqueness and beauty of the South, considering it an additional personal challenge to preserve photographically those scenes that are continuously changing or disappearing from our landscape. He finds humor in the form of hand-painted signs and “road-side attractions.” His technique also includes adding “selective” colored accents or highlights to the black and white photographs.

Paula Frances Peek, Waverly, is Assistant Professor of Interior Design at Auburn University. She says that her “creative research has consistently focused on memory, both collective and individual.” Roads of Alabama Series - Highway 280, “incorporates ideas associated with movement and freedom, or documenting the lack thereof. Highway 280, being integral to the heart of my community is a lifeline to and context for many of my life experiences.” The pieces show segments of rural Alabama, but also show a universal connection through many cultures, regions and people.  

Melissa