The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville October 3 through November 1. Many of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at KnoxAlliance.store.
AIA East Tennessee | Art Salon in Lower Gallery
Hosted by the American Institute of Architects – East Tennessee Chapter, the Art Salon is a vibrant showcase of creativity that reaches far beyond the built environment. This annual exhibition celebrates the original works of architects, designers, students, emerging professionals, and allied collaborators throughout East Tennessee. Here, the region’s most inventive minds reveal another side of their talents: woven textiles, hand-thrown ceramics, expressive oil paintings, and custom-crafted musical instruments. The Art Salon is a rare opportunity to see how those who shape our spaces also shape culture, ideas, and artistry in unexpected forms. Each year, a curated collection of submissions is unveiled during a First Friday opening, inviting the community to discover and celebrate the breadth of creativity within our profession.
Nhora Ortiz: Brushstrokes of Freedom in the Atrium
Artist statement excerpts: My art is an act of liberation. I paint with my fingers, without tools, allowing every emotion to flow directly onto the canvas. Guided by sensation, intuition, and faith, I create worlds of color that transform silence into voice and vulnerability into resilience. Inspired by artists such as Kandinsky, Pollock, and Frida Kahlo, I embrace both freedom and struggle in my work. Each piece reflects a search for connection – between people, cultures, and the spirit – and a celebration of beauty and freedom through color. Each color is an expression of freedom, a burst of combinations that reflects my free will and my complete devotion to art. Every piece is created solely with my hands, intensifying the direct connection between my inner self and the work. These are abstract, impressionist, colorist, and cubist paintings through which I explore and embrace diverse artistic movements.
Ortiz’s work has been recognized internationally for its humanitarian values and exhibited in Venezuela, the United States, Bolivia, Colombia, Italy, South Korea, and India.
Hannah Hancock: Memory Piecing in the Display Case
Artist statement excerpts: Memory Piecing is the title of a series of works focused on exploring traditional barn quilt painting and other quilt inspired pieces based around personal memories and life events – an ode to the arts and crafts that have shaped my personal aesthetics and visual understanding of the world having grown up in East Tennessee.
My work is an exploration of my southern roots in East Tennessee and the relationships I have cultivated as an adult. Carefully crafted topographies are woven together in quilt-like patterns, telling the stories of the people I love or have loved. The bright and saturated colors are inspired by the memories and impressions of events, both how they did and did not actually appear. These vibrant colors, coupled with serious titles, evoke a feeling of whimsy and heaviness that we all face as human beings.
Hanna Seggerman: Noteworthy on the North WallArtist statement: Noteworthy is a new body of work exploring how light and shadow can be a means to further understand experiences of grief and the ephemerality of life. Artworks noting quick glimmers, micro moments of joy, observed in paused moments of everyday life. Grounded in an investigation of a personal collection of images that pay attention to the shadows created when sunlight passes through foliage. Moments of temporary darkness created only because of light.
This collection of works on paper and fabric address both light and shadow simultaneously through a variety of media and techniques. Shadow often represented through India ink and graphite. Light existing within the negative spaces of each composition and piercing through the darkness as free motion embroidered metallic thread.
Givin’ the What For curated by Michael Dickins in the Upper Gallery
Givin’ the What For takes its title from a Southern colloquialism that expresses stern disapproval or a serious reckoning. It’s a phrase rooted in confrontation, calling for accountability and highlighting the weight of one’s actions.
This exhibition showcases the work of six women artists – Erika Diamond, J. Leigh Garcia, Katie Hargrave, Stacy Kranitz, Susan Alta Martin, and Liz Trader Williams – living and working in Southern Appalachia. Using a mixture of media and materials, these artists tackle urgent global concerns such as social justice, environmental degradation, personal and collective identity, and political unrest.
Michael Dickins is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and gallery director whose work has been widely exhibited.
The exhibitions will be on display October 3 through November 1 at the Emporium Center, located at 100 S. Gay Street. In October, the Emporium is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 1 pm, and October 10, 17, 23, and 31 from 5 to 7 pm for Gallery 1010 openings. For more information, call 865-523-7543 or visit KnoxAlliance.com.