Birmingham artist and University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Art and Art History alumna Celestia Morgan will have two photographic works in “State of the Art: Discovering American Artists Now,” an exhibition presented by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
The exhibition will be on show beginning Sept. 13 through Jan. 19, 2015. Morgan is among 102 artists, ages 24-87, selected for the show. The Crystal Bridges curatorial team made nearly 1,000 stops during a yearlong, 100,000-mile journey across the nation to discover artists whose work has not yet been fully recognized.
Morgan graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in studio art. Her two works selected for the exhibition are from her autobiographical series “Broken.” The large-scale, black and white photographs illuminate dark moments and broken relationships, Morgan says.
Morgan’s work has been on exhibit at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and at UAB, and in private collections at the Birmingham Museum of Art and UAB’s Palliative Comfort and Care Unit.
Founded by the Walton Family Foundation, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Its mission is to welcome people to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature, according to the museum’s press release on the exhibition. Its collection spans five centuries of American master works ranging from the Colonial era to current day.