The Moss Arts Center summer exhibitions explore the culture of place
The Moss Arts Center’s current exhibition offerings traverse the culture of place with fresh approaches to traditional landscape paintings. Now on view, the summer exhibitions feature “Legacy of Place,” a solo show by Lilian Garcia-Roig examining her personal connections to land and place, and “MaterPolis,” a 10-person show exploring what it means to live in a city.
The exhibitions are currently on display in the galleries of the Moss Arts Center, located at 190 Alumni Mall. The galleries and all related events are free and open the public.
Lilian Garcia-Roig
“Legacy of Place”
Ruth C. Horton Gallery
Garcia-Roig's landscape paintings examine ideas of place, belonging, and identity. Drawing from the perceptual to conceptual experiences of landscape, Garcia-Roig’s works use the materiality and process of paint to explore her own connections to land and place. Her on-site works, painted over the course of an entire day, are immersive expressions of bodily movement, fleeting moments of time, and the illusionistic and abstracting possibilities of painting.
“Legacy of Place” features work from four of the artist's series, including “Plein-Aired Histories,” “Fluid Perception: Banyan as Metaphor,” “Hyphenated Nature,” and “Hecho con Cuba.”
Born in Havana, Cuba; raised in Texas; and presently living in Tallahassee, Florida, Garcia-Roig’s practice links her Cuban and American identities. In the included four series, she speaks to the differences in the experience of place — the closeness of the American South versus the forced distance of the Cuban landscape. Referencing histories of painting, representations of land, and legacies of place, the works express the complexity of her hyphenated identity.
“MaterPolis”
Featuring Susan Chen, Susanna Coffey, Lindsey Brittain Collins, Ian Decker, Emily Henretta, Farah Mohammad, Clintel Steed, Stipan Tadic, Matthew Woodward, and Yuri Yuan
Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery and Sherwood Payne Quillen '71 Reception Gallery
From expansive cityscapes to intimate public encounters, ”MaterPolis” gathers 10 artists whose works explore what it means to live in a city. Building from traditional landscape painting, the artists use a variety of traditional and nontraditional mediums to present firsthand views of urban scenes.
Reflecting a shared interest in surface and material process, glowing color and rhythmic compositions layer a sense of immediacy with the slow time of construction. Inhabiting architectural imagery, the artists question how the built environment shapes human experiences of identity, race, history, community, isolation, and intimate otherness.
As people begin to move back into shared spaces after two years of domestic distancing, “MaterPolis” kindles a sense of untold and overtold stories, of the change and continuity housed within the generational lines of the city.
The exhibitions are curated by Brian Holcombe, Moss Arts Center curator.
Visiting the galleries
The center’s galleries are open on Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. The exhibitions will be on view through Friday, Sept. 2.
Parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street. When not staffed for a special event, visitors may park in the garage by taking a ticket at entry and paying with Visa or Mastercard upon exit. Virginia Tech has also partnered with ParkMobile to provide a convenient, contactless electronic payment option for parking, which may be used at any parking meter, campus parking space, or lot with standard F/S, C/G, or R parking.
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jamie Wiggert at least 10 days prior to the event at 540-231-5300 or email wiggertj@vt.edu during regular business hours.
