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Alabama Triennial 2025: Currents

June 6 – August 16, 2025

Opening: Friday, June 6, 5-7pm with performances by Valerie George and collaborators of Celeste Pfau
Artist Panels: June 7, 2-3:30pm; August 1, 5-6:30pm; August 16, 2-3:30pm


Featuring work by 19 artists from across the state, the Alabama Triennial 2025: Currents explores questions of place and identity. Through work that emphasizes movement, journey, mapping, exchange and transference, the exhibition complicates notions of Southern identity as something static or unitary, instead viewing it as a confluence of various currents, constantly in motion, made and remade in relation to what came before.  

Currents are directional movement and energy. As natural phenomena in our oceans and atmosphere that gave rise to trade routes and transit corridors, they are reminders of the inextricability of history and culture from the material conditions of place. Yet they are also immaterial, invoking spiritual practices such as channeling, as well as the amalgamation of religious influences common in this region. As directional movement, currents call to mind lineages – of ancestry or heritage – as well as the belief systems that have shaped our environment and material existence. One question guiding this exhibition is: How do we position ourselves in relation to what we inherit?

Finally, although far from comprehensive, the Triennial is intended as a survey of current artistic practices in Alabama. It's of a time and place washed ashore by the past, with one eye fixed on the horizon. 

ARTISTS: 

Douglas Pierre Baulos 
Daphne Burgess 
Merrilee Challiss 
E L Chisolm 
Soynika Edwards-Bush 
Valerie George 
Allison Grant 
Arielle Gray 
Darius Hill 
Helga Mendoza 
Micah Mermilliod 
Joe Minter 
Bethany Moody 
Celestia Morgan 
Miriam Omura 
Celeste Amparo Pfau 
Millian Giang Pham 
Rial Rye 
Jennifer Wallace Fields 
 
The Alabama Triennial 2025 was curated by elizabet elliott, Executive Director of Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile; Sydney A. Foster, Montgomery-based creative director and community architect; and AEIVA Curator Hannah Spears.

 

ARTIST PANELS

Saturday, June 7, 2-3:30pm

Exploring themes of ancestry, family, community and narrative, this panel will include presentations by artists Daphne Burgess, E L Chisolm, Soynika Edwards-Bush, Millian Giang Pham, Bethany Moody, Rial Rye anJennifer Wallace Fields followed by a q&a moderated by curator bet elliott.

Friday, August 1, 5-6:30pm

Exploring themes of spirituality, myth, ritual and folklore, this panel will include presentations by artists Douglas Pierre Baulos, Merrilee Challiss, Arielle Gray, Darius Hill and Helga Mendoza followed by a q&a moderated by curator Sydney A. Foster.

Saturday, August 16, 2-3:30pm

Exploring themes of land, mapping, ecology and movement, this panel will include presentations by artists Valerie George, Allison Grant, Micah Mermilliod, Celestia Morgan, Miriam Omura and Celeste Pfau followed by a q&a moderated by curator Hannah Spears.

All programs are free and open to the public.