MOBILE, Ala. – On September 16, 2022, the Mobile Museum of Art will open two special exhibitions featuring the work of two Southern women artists: Terrell James and Wanda Sullivan.
James is a fourth-generation Houstonian and seventh-generation Texan, and she is a graduate of Sewanee University. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. She has had more than sixty solo exhibitions. In 2016, James received the Texas Artist of the Year Award from Art League Houston. James’s work is in collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
James’s exhibition for the Mobile Museum of Art is titled One Eye Sees, The Other Feels, a quotation from the writings of Swiss artist Paul Klee. It will feature more than thirty abstract works, including drawings and paintings ranging in size from small to monumental.
Gardens of Hope is the first solo museum exhibition of Sullivan’s work. Sullivan received her BFA from the University of South Alabama and her MFA in painting from the University of Mississippi. She has exhibited her work nationally in galleries and museums, including the Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans; Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile; Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA; the Wichita Center for the Arts in Wichita, KS; Santa Clara University Gallery in Santa Clara, CA; and the Xavier University Gallery in Cincinnati, OH.
In Gardens of Hope, Sullivan examines the intersection between the natural world, her gardens, and the effects of climate change. About the flowers and nature featured in her work, Sullivan says, “My flowers are beautiful, but they are monsters—contemporary, biomorphic Frankensteins. They are designed to seduce the viewer and lure them in, just like our dependency on fossil fuels, phones, tablets, and computers do.”
Both exhibitions meet two goals of the Museum’s five-year institutional strategic plan, with projects that focus on the art of our time and the art of our place. Terrell James: One Eye Sees, The Other Feels, and Wanda Sullivan: Gardens of Hope are generously supported by the Crampton Trust, established by Katharine Crampton Cochrane. The Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Mobile support all Museum exhibitions and programs. Both exhibitions will be on view at the Mobile Museum of Art from September 16, 2022, through April 2, 2023. For more information, visit www.MobileMuseumofArt.com.
