2005
Carrie Mae Weems: To Be Continued
This exhibition presents two examples of Weems' work that are separated by many years in creation but are linked in their continuation of a dialogue on the discourse of race, class, and gender that are at the heart of her work. Weems is an internationally known, award-winning photo-based artist whose work has been included in more than 150 group and solo exhibitions. A mid-career survey and national tour of her work was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 1996. She received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (1992) and the Herb Alpert Award (1996) as well as the Visual Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In early 2005, she received the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

The oldest form of relief printing, woodcut has its origins in ancient China and Egypt. This exhibit features examples of woodcuts made by Hollins students and their instructor professor Leigh Ann Beavers in the spring of 2005. Also included are materials that examine both the history of the woodcut and the tools and processes used in creating a woodcut.

Long revered by other painters, George Nick is a contemporary realist painter whose hallmark freshness is expressed in vibrant color and brilliant light. The recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, Nick’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, among others. Professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and visiting professor and lecturer at universities and colleges across the country, Nick was the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University in fall 2000.

Part of our ongoing series highlighting the permanent collection, this exhibition looks at the rich tradition of painting in the landscape. Assembled through the active collecting of artists exhibiting on campus and through generous gifts, this exhibition features a variety of styles and examines the rich history of the landscapes as contained within one collection. Particular emphasis is placed on the Virginia landscape that surrounds the Hollins campus. Artists featured include former Hollins professor Lewis Thompson, folk artist Harriet French Turner, former artist-in-residence Marjorie Portnow, alumna Mary Page Evans '59, among others.

Harriett French Turner, Early Spring, 1954. oil on canvas, 19 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches
This exhibition features an extraordinary array of prints on loan from Roanoke collector James W. Hyams. Including more than forty works in a variety of printmaking media---lithography, screen-printing, etching, and digital inkjet printing---this exhibition is both a survey of printmaking techniques and an overview of this important art movement. The prints in this selection, dating from 1972 to 1995, were created by the leading artists of the Photorealist movement.

Augusta Hunter Beale, Amy R. Blackstock, Rachel A. Harrod, Lydia Marie Johnson, Grace M. Johnston, Nicole Theresa Johnston, Annette F. Mathews, Adele R. Moore, Kristin M. Polich, Ashleigh Qualls, Alicia Nicole Rimel, Allison B. Saunders, Elizabeth Scott Westbrook.

This exhibition of drawings by Hollins professor Jan Knipe is the result of her recent sabbatical and travel to the Bay Area in California, made possible by a Cabell Foundation Grant. In a departure from earlier studio still-life work, Knipe's recent drawings explore with sweeping energy the movement of man-made structures (buildings, vehicles, roads) across the larger landscape of the West. Ever mindful of light and the interplay of static forms, Knipe works perceptually to locate incongruent objects and reveal unexpected harmonies.

Francis Niederer Artist-in-Residence
Ruth Miller is a painter whose meditative engagement with nature is revealed in her quiet and subtle works. It is not uncommon for Miller to return again and again to the same motif or source-an old tree at the bend of a road, or a table full of cabbages-and search for its significant form. Long associated with the New York Studio School as a teacher and critic, Miller has been a visiting artist at schools across the country and abroad, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions.

Internationally acclaimed author Eudora Welty (1909-2001) traveled the American South during the 1930s, recording what she observed in both photographs and words. “Passionate Observer” places Welty's photographs, for the first time, in the context of the artwork of her contemporaries. Gathering together the work of painters Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton; photographers Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Ben Shahn, Margaret Bourke-White, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott and Dorothea Lange; and southern artists Walter Anderson, William Holingsworth, Marie Hull, and Karl Wolfe, this exhibit clarifies Welty's artistic vision and affirms her role as both observer and passionate image maker. Developed by the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, this tour is organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

The first in a series of exhibitions that celebrate the emerging artist, this show spotlights Atlanta-based artist Beth Lilly, whose digital photographic series “The Myth of Trees” looks at the reverence we feel when we encounter trees in the landscape. The concept of sacred space is examined as she retraces the steps of early explorers who roamed the forests of the Southeastern region centuries ago. Her use of digital photography is compelling because its modern and ever-changing technical nature is in direct contrast with the ancient forests that inspired the work. Lilly's work has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and can be found in several public and private collections, including the Odgen Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans.
