The Gadsden Museum of Art will be hosting an opening reception on April 1 for "Winter Light" by Amy R. Peterson, "Mirror Muir: The Cumberland Mountains" by Katie Hargrave and Meredith Lynn, and "Fermentation" by Chiharu Roach.
The reception will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 1, and refreshments will be provided.
Amy R. Peterson is an artist and art teacher, a lover of art, music, animals, nature, architecture, antiques, outdoors, travel, and people. She lives in Trussville near her native Birmingham. She is a wife and mother of three children and a sister and aunt to many.
Her artwork has been featured in regional and national exhibitions by the American Impressionist Society and Oil Painters of America.
She is represented by Beverly McNeil Gallery in Birmingham, AL, and Crown Gallery in Blowing Rock, NC.
Katie Hargrave (b. 1985) and Meredith Laura Lynn (b. 1984) are artists and educators who work collaboratively to explore the historic, cultural, and environmental impacts of public land.
"Mirror Muir: The Cumberland Mountains," explores 19th century American environmental writer John Muir and his continued legacy in the Southeast.
Included in the exhibition are new sculptures, videos, and collages made with imagery the artists captured during a visit to the John Muir Trail in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
Chiharu Roach is from Nagoya, Japan, where she got her education degree with an emphasis on child psychology. After moving to Birmingham in 2001 and getting her art degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Chi began painting with acrylic paint her tangled hair series, exploring the spiritual connection between humans and their range of behaviors and emotions.
She paints each hair line as a prayer for her clients, future owners, and a special friend who is not with her anymore.
Also, Chi often portrays cultural differences and stereotypes between Japan and America based on her experiences from living in both countries and expresses her mind without using the sound of speech.
Now Chi is challenging herself to use 2D as well as 3D art, and mixed media to express her themes of memories, spirituality, loss and humanity.