On First Friday, May 5th the Gadsden Museum of Art will have a reception for three current exhibits: Walking and Flying: Paintings by Sarah Landrum, Southern Realism by Rachel Wakefield, and the annual FOCUS Photography competition.

Artist and educator Sarah Landrum begins her work as a representation of an ordinary object, then allows her current interests, experiences, and influences to affect the creative process and transform the painting. Just as the formation of the paintings changes according to her own personal experiences, she welcomes evolving interpretations as each individual perceives them. In Walking and Flying, Landrum emphasizes the concept of how performing repetitive or mundane tasks can free the mind to flights of imagination, transforming the ordinary into something exceptional

The paintings of Rachel Ann Wakefield are created through observation and reference photography. Wakefield’s work features subjects immersed in bodies of water, symbolizing the contrasting feelings of pressure and weightlessness. The water is symbolic of the dominant weight and pressures of life while also juxtaposing the “floating,” still silence of such submersion. Wakefield believes that the most meaningful parts of being are found in these both simple and abstract intimate feelings.

The annual FOCUS Photography Exhibit features artists of all ages working in traditional or digital photography. Each submission was reviewed by a blind jury and those selected to be a part of the competition are now on exhibition. An experienced, credible judge will evaluate each piece and Cash prizes will be given to Best in Show, 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and Honorable Mention award winners. Submissions include photographs from the southeast United States to New York.

Exhibits are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact museum staff at (256) 546-7365.