Media contact: Savannah Koplon
Sonya Yong James, "ONE HUNDRED BLOSSOMS AND THE SWEETEST SCENT," 2018 (detail). Hand dyed cotton bedsheets, cotton, wool felt, silk flowers, pigment, and mixed media. 16 feet width x 18 feet length. Courtesy of the artist.In early 2022, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts will present three new free exhibitions to the public, touching on topics of gender roles, vulnerability, human experience and emotional healing.
All three exhibitions will run from Jan. 14 through March 19. An opening reception will be held Friday, Jan. 14, with a public lecture from featured artist Lily Reeves at 6 p.m.
Timed tickets are required for visiting AEIVA and tickets can be reserved here.
Between Futures, Lily Reeves
“Between Futures,” created by artist Lily Reeves, uses light, space, sculpture, immersive installation and performance to create spiritual chasms in contemporary culture while encouraging emotional and physical well-being through a holistic lens of personal, societal and emotional healing.
Reeves received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Alfred University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University. Apart from her solo exhibition in Birmingham in 2019, she has held solo and two-person exhibitions in Brooklyn, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona.
William Downs, “Until we meet again ...” 2021. Ink, Spray paint, framed drawing, framed animation on canvas. 11ft x 11ft. Photo: Fedrik Brauer.
The Eye of a Needle, Sonya Yong James
Using thread and cloth as a medium, Sonya Yong James’ exhibition The Eye of a Needle examines the intersection of shared cultural mythologies and female domesticity plus the roles that sexuality, memory and death play in the development of our personal relationships.
A lecture with James — Inside the Arts — will be Thursday, Feb. 17, from 6-7 p.m. at AEIVA.
James received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Georgia State University. Recently, she completed Stove Works Residency in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in Oct. 2021. She is the recipient of the Idea Capital Antinori grant, 2021, and Artadia Award Atlanta, 2019-2020.
Rumbling and Stumbling, William Downs
Artist William Downs uses the image of the human figure to explore ideas and themes of vulnerability, compassion and the human experience. Downs’ figures are often androgynous, floating in space to create movement, depth and cultural empathy.
Downs, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, recently held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia in Atlanta and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in Missouri. His work was featured in the 2021 Atlanta Biennial at Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Albany Museum in Albany, Georgia, and The African American Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of the MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant (2019) and Artadia Award (2018). He has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and Parsons in New York City and has been a 2021 visiting lecturer at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. Downs just had his first solo exhibition with Derek Eller Gallery in New York in 2021.
Additionally, works by UAB students — chosen by artist and guest juror Downs — will be featured in the 46th Annual Juried Student Exhibition at the AEIVA from Jan. 3 through March 19.
Presented by the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History, the Juried Student Exhibition is an experiential learning opportunity for the students to display work completed in the past two years of curriculum.
Supplemental student works will also be displayed and open for view in another exhibition, The Salon, in the Art Lab, Humanities Building 100 during a reception Monday, Jan. 3, at 5 p.m. Inspired by the Salon des Refusés of 19th-century France, this UAB student exhibition features many of the excellent artworks that were submitted to — but not chosen for — the 46th Annual Juried Student Exhibition.