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 and Jennifer 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.