Encounters

Nashville artist Vadis Turner transforms domestic materials into new forms, both reviving and reinventing a function for handmade objects in a society with progressively fewer hands-on activities. The artist manipulates textiles and other elements, allowing them to transcend their intended functions, contradict their structural natures, and transcend their traditional gender association. Resisting categorization, Turner’s engaging works occupy a zone between textile art, painting, craft and sculpture.

After receiving her BFA and MFA from Boston University, Turner became fascinated by the possibilities presented by traditional handicraft materials to define and contradict conventional gender roles. Her mixed-media work began with a debutante gown made out of wax paper from her mother’s kitchen. She continues to create works that transcend the commonplace from its intended function into a vehicle for social commentary. The artist observes, “Transforming domestic materials into contemporary art objects bonds me with ancestral forms of craft that determine a woman’s value, sexual worth and cultural identity. My time — like generations of women before me — is judged by what I make with my hands.”

Turner was awarded the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2016. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Arts and Crafts Museum and the Hunter Museum of American Art, among others. She has had exhibitions at numerous museums across the country, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and Cheekwood Museum and Gardens. Residencies include Yaddo, the Museum of Arts & Design, the Hambidge Center, and the Vermont Studio Center. Turner is currently the Hamblet Artist in Residence at Vanderbilt University, and is represented by Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville and Geary in New York City. Organized by HMA.

Thank you, Sponsors!
Lead Sponsor: Sasha and Charlie Sealy

Additional Support: Alabama State Council on the Arts Huntsville Museum of Art Guild

Reception hosted by: Kathi Tew, Linda Bryant, Lynn Carden, Carolyn Gandy, Marie Newberry, Kathryn Powers, Carol Tevepaugh, Martha Wilson, Marcie Wingo, Jennifer Wu