A.D. Gallery to Present Body to Body Exhibition Featuring UNC Chapel Hill Artists
The A.D. Gallery at UNC Pembroke will present Body to Body, an exhibition featuring the work of four artists exploring how the body is shaped by intimacy, memory, culture and ecology.
The exhibition will be on view Sept. 22 through Oct. 22 in Locklear Hall.
The exhibition brings together Ena Sungwon Byun, Jalen T. Jackson, Makayla Harrison and Wen Cheng, all of whom are currently completing their second year in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their work spans painting, photography and installation and draws from personal experiences, inherited histories and connections to others and the natural world.
Body to Body considers love as care, attachment, belonging and remembrance while examining personal and collective memory, identity, ecological connection and histories carried in and around the body. The artists explore these experiences through acts of remembering, caring and reimagining.
Byun’s interdisciplinary practice explores female embodiment through Korean mythology, folklore and histories of healing and care surrounding illness. Her paintings combine bodily and botanical forms to examine vulnerability, transformation and the ways women’s bodies have been interpreted through systems of healing and cultural belief.
Jackson’s paintings and drawings draw on childhood memories, spiritual encounters and everyday experiences to examine identity and African American life. His work challenges narratives that focus solely on suffering by emphasizing care, joy, resilience and community.
Harrison’s multidisciplinary work explores the relationship between ecological loss and possibility. Drawing from photography, performance, multimedia and assemblage, she examines the history of the American chestnut, coal and climate futures, while considering restoration, Indigenous sovereignty and connections across generations.
Cheng’s interdisciplinary practice examines intimacy, memory and identity through photography, print, archival materials, text and installation. Drawing on experiences of migration and cultural displacement, his work explores desire, loneliness, belonging and the ways cultural narratives shape relationships and ideas of love.
The exhibition will feature a reception and artist talk from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the A.D. Gallery.
More information about the exhibition and the A.D. Gallery is available at uncp.edu/art-gallery.