Field Studies: Ways of Knowing Place in Southern Appalachia
June 13, 2026 - January 9, 2027 | Fort & Atwell Galleries
Field Studies brings together contemporary artists whose work grows out of sustained attention to the landscapes, materials, histories, and lived environments of Southern Appalachia. Through practices spanning film, sound, photography, textiles, ceramics, sculpture, and installation, the artists in this exhibition engage modes of field study and observation associated with the natural sciences, historical records, and archives. In doing so, they respond to the rich history of documenting the unique biodiversity and culture of the region, while raising questions about what it means to draw from and represent this landscape today.
While diverse in their media and approaches to field work, the artists in the exhibition share a common understanding of being of this land and intimate with it. Rather than turning to the grand views and distant perspectives often associated with landscape as a genre, they move toward close looking, deep listening, and direct tactile engagement with the details that make up an environment: plants, waterways, soil, sound, weather, memory, labor, and material trace.
Taking an ecological approach, the artists presented here emphasize human entanglement with nature and understand the materials that form the basis of their work not only as subjects to be represented, but as active participants shaping the work itself. In this sense, Field Studies frames art-making as one way of knowing a place: a process shaped by observation, familiarity, repetition, and care.
Artists featured in the exhibition include:
Andrew Bailey Arend (Boone, NC); Jasmine Best (Cookeville, TN); Amanda Brazier (Chattanooga, TN); John Ryan Brubaker (Thomas, WV); Colby Caldwell (Asheville, NC); Amanda Leigh Evans (Knoxville, TN); Lara Call Gastinger (Charlottesville, VA); Tom Hansell (Boone, NC) ; Brian Harnetty (Columbus, OH); Lotta Helleberg (Charlottesville, VA); Neil Goss (Asheville, NC), Mark Nystrom (Boone, NC); Joel Queen (Qualla Boundary, Cherokee, NC ); Jody Servon (Boone, NC); Stephen Vitiello and Matt Flowers (Richmond VA); and Joshua White (Boone, NC).
Field Studies is Co-Curated by Guest Curator Jennie Carlisle (Appalachian State University) and Ian Gabriel Wilson-Rhodes, BRAHM’s Curator of Exhibitions & Collections.
Thank you to our Presenting Sponsors, The Samuel M. & Alma Catsman Foundation Inc., managed by Glenn & Eileen Dempsey.
June 13 - August 8, 2026 | Alexander Community Gallery