The Gadsden Museum of Art has four new exhibitions opening and will host a reception for all exhibitions during the upcoming First Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.
Artists Heather Baumbach and Tracie Hayes have collaborated on the show “Though Entry is Barred” that can be viewed in the Courtyard and Piano Galleries located on the first floor. Combined, their works assert presence and convey primacy through Baumbach’s forms and Hayes’s mark-making. The works coalesce and offer the viewer a new interpretation of independence – as akin to the relationship of skin and sinew to the vascular system.
Caylee Cooper is a graduate of Jacksonville State University with a concentration in painting. She has professional training and hands-on experience in traditional methods such as oil paint, watercolors, acrylic, graphite, charcoal, ink, clay, printmaking and mixed media. Her show “Alarum” consists of original works of art inspired by the fear of human connection and death. Her work will be exhibited in the Hallway Gallery.
Graphic designer Aidan Garcia will be featured in the Barbara Reid Gallery on the second floor. The Pensacola, Fla., artist’s show is entitled “Aidan Gonzalez Garcia: An Introduction.”
Recent master’s graduates Molly Lay and Kole Nichols from the University of Alabama are exhibited in the Main Gallery and Leo Reynolds Gallery. Lay’s “An Act of Attention” explores how the practice of walking through natural spaces can bring awareness to one’s lived experiences. The drawings of Nichol’s exhibit “Tracing Shadows” are influenced by his interests in cyclical movements and patterns, navigation, mapping, repetition, light, presence and absence.
The museum will host openings for all exhibitions from 5 to 8 p.m. during First Friday.
Light refreshments will be served, and public restrooms are available for all visitors and First Friday attendees.