Works by 19 artists from across the state will be featured in the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts’ 2025 Alabama Triennial: “Currents,” on exhibition June 6 through Aug. 16 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
An opening reception will be from 5-7 p.m. Friday, June 6, with performances by Celeste Pfau and Valerie George, at AEIVA, located at 1221 10th Ave. South, Birmingham. The opening reception is free and open to the public.
“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, it is viewed as a confluence of various currents, constantly in motion, made and remade in relation to what came before, write the show’s curators: 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. One question guiding this exhibition is: How do we position ourselves in relation to what we inherit?
The first of three artist panels presented in conjunction with the Triennial will be Saturday, June 7, from 2-3:30 p.m. Loosely organized around themes of ancestry, family, community and narrative, this panel will include short presentations by several participating artists, followed by a Q-and-A moderated by curator bet elliott.
Launched in 2022, AEIVA’s Alabama Triennial is intended as a survey of current artistic practices in Alabama, although far from comprehensive. It is of a time and place washed ashore by the past, with one eye fixed on the horizon.
Participating artists this year are 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 and Jennifer Wallace Fields.
AEIVA is open from noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is free. Visit aeiva.uab.edu or call 205-975-6436 for information. Follow AEIVA on Instagram and Facebook.