With approximately six new exhibitions each year, there is almost always something new to see at the Gregg. These engaging shows present diverse artists, cultures, media, and techniques and examine the regions where art and design intersect with science, engineering, math, and technology. Many originate at the Gregg, while traveling exhibitions from other institutions are sometimes brought in to broaden the range of perspectives offered. Each offering is enhanced by related programming, and many are accompanied by thought-provoking publications.
Of the many forms of visual art that have emerged in the last two centuries, collage and its three-dimensional sibling, assemblage, probably come closest to representing the process of human memory. Most of us summon up the past only in scattered bits and pieces that require instantaneous reassembly in order to literally “make sense” of recollected experiences each time we need to remember something. Every memory is a new collage of ephemeral thoughts, feelings, and impressions. Frank Lee Craig–Near Distance features multimedia work, collages, paintings, and sculptures by the late architect and NC State College of Design Graduate, Frank Lee Craig (B. Arch ’77). The bulk of the very substantial body of work we celebrate in this exhibition parallels his efforts to make sense of the mortal circumstance he suddenly confronted when diagnosed with a fatal illness, as well as his need to keep seeing the world through the lens of endless opportunities and possibilities. Frank Lee Craig–Near Distance was co-curated by Dr. Margret Kentgens-Craig and Roger Manley is on view through August 20, 2022.
Across the Threshold of India – Photographs by Martha Strawn, features photographs that make up a work of visual ecology that perceptively portrays one of India’s and the world’s longest and least-known religious practices—the art of sanctifying space through the creation of threshold diagrams. Objects from the Gregg Museum’s permanent collection will also accompany the photographs. Many of Strawn’s photographs are in the permanent collection of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the nation’s foremost research center for Indian culture and art, and are featured in her book, Across the Threshold of India: Art, Women, and Culture. The exhibition is on view through November 12, 2022.
Chapel Hill artist Eric Serritella creates his ceramic sculptures as conduits to emotion through inquiry, recognition, and familiarity. Through aging and decay, Serritella’s sculptures challenge the viewer with both the nature of the material and the messages within. Each organic creation is filled with metaphor, both literal and implied. Anthropomorphic elements and vessel forms link humanity as timelessly inseparable from its interactions and relationships to its natural surroundings. Each sculpture in Eric Serritella–Sharing Spaces fosters awareness to affect viewers’ behaviors toward the environment. Through this consciousness they can acquire new appreciations and ways of seeing. The exhibition is on view through December 3, 2022.
Gregg exhibitions support and enhance the curriculum of the university’s classroom teaching by offering opportunities for professors to incorporate class visits, individual assignments, or research projects as well. Contact the museum’s Curator of Education to make arrangements; it may be possible to customize our offerings to meet the needs of particular courses or syllabi. K-12 teachers are also encouraged to consider making use of the Gregg’s exhibitions and resources.
All exhibitions are accessible, and admission is always free. Large-print gallery guides for the seeing-impaired and other accommodations can be provided on request.