Hanes Gallery Exhibition: Timely Conversations

Jan 29 – Mar 21 / Hanes Gallery

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 29th, 5-7 pm

Timely Conversations features a selection of works from the Wake Forest University Art Collection and highlights contemporary artists who explore the interconnected themes of history and time. The exhibition presents artworks in dynamic pairings that are intended to spark unexpected connections and dialogue around a wide range of global topics, including identity, art and art history, archival erasure, labor, migration, and the environment. Visitors will encounter works by artists such as Robert Colescott and Glenn Ligon, who use vastly different visual strategies to reexamine race in American history; Martine Gutierrez and Shahzia Sikander, who challenge dominant Western art historical narratives of the body; and Suchitra Mattai and Jay Lynn Gomez, who offer layered perspectives on labor informed by personal histories of migration. Through these juxtapositions of paintings, photographs, and mixed media works, the exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider the past through the present and to reflect on both collective and individual experience.

Conversation is highly encouraged, but not required.