Lost in Thought by Noreen Norton
July 3–31, 2026 @ Arts & Culture Alliance
The Arts & Culture Alliance presents the 2026 Members Exhibition, the region’s largest annual celebration of artistic talent in the Greater Knoxville area. Showcasing an engaging mix of recent two? and three?dimensional works, the exhibition highlights the range of creative practice across media such as oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, mixed media, photography, fine craft, sculpture, ceramicsand fiber. Each participating artist is an individual member of the Arts & Culture Alliance, which serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizationsand cultural institutions. Membership is open to all, and information may be found on the alliance's Membership Page.
The free celebration with the artists takes place Friday, July 3, from 5-8p.m., at The Emporium Center. This First Friday celebration features music byThe Lonetonesa band who explores both urban and rural themes though lyrics that search for identity in the changing Appalachian landscape.
"Anyone coming to the Emporium to see this remarkable exhibition will be delighted and astonished at the breadth of media as well as the talent and skill on display by our local artist community," says Liza Zenni, Executive Director of the Arts & Culture Alliance.
Individual members of the Arts & Culture Alliance participate locally and regionally in gallery exhibitions, art festivals, sculpture trails, weekend shows, studio toursand public murals. Some members are full-time artists, while others have day jobs and create on evenings and weekends. Some members include art professors with the University of Tennessee, Carson-Newman University, Maryville College, Pellissippi State, Roane Stateand Walters State. Others are teachers within Knox and surrounding counties’ elementary, middle and high schools. Some Alliance members teach classes privately or through community classes with the Appalachian Arts Craft Center, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, The Bottom, Fountain City Art Center, Knoxville Art Center, Knoxville Museum of Art, Mighty Mud and Oak Ridge Art Center. Many of the artists have working studios in their own homes, while some are part of studio collectives such as Broadway Studios & Gallery, The Emporium, Mighty Mud, Relay Ridge, Sunday Studiosand West Fifth Studios.
Dream Thesaurus curated by Lynne Marinelli Ghenovcontinuesin the Balcony Gallery
Dream Thesauruspresents the work ofMikel Elam,Risa HricovskyandCaroline Santa. These three artists each use a surplus of materials to create layered surfaces loaded with innovative texture and color combinations that invoke contemplation and introspection.
Elam's work extends beyond the medium specificity of painting into collage and mixed media using found objects and a variety of materials, making the components of each work generously complex. Along with his impetus for a dreamlike quality, hefurther reimagines and reconfigures portraits, interspersing them in patterns tangled in pigment. His work summons histories that have long been made invisible, paralleled with personal experiences and stories.
Hricovsky challenges the traditional use of ceramics through her material medleys that resemble soup-like petri dishes, amassed with a banquet of broken ceramic and glass pieces, a variety of unknown morsels and particles that lure you in. The work feels futuristic and unruly, eliciting a kind of curiosity one gets when looking into a snow globe or a fish tank.
Santa's paintings and drawings are made by building assemblages and substrates from a variety of her own saved scraps of fabric, paperand ephemera, mirroring snippets of what she sees in her everyday life. These, often extra-small "clusters," are packed with a powerful energy that requires the viewer to stand close, examine, and be present.
Lynne Marinelli Ghenovis a visual artist who primarily creates drawing, collageand other works on paper. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in New Jersey, Ghenov lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee. She co-founded and co-directed C for Courtside Gallery, an artist-run curatorial space in downtown N. Knoxville, from 2017 to 2020. Ghenov received her BFA in sculpture from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(1998), and studied at Temple University Rome in Italy (1996). She is the Associate at Loghaven Artist Residency in Knoxville, Tennessee.
These exhibitions are on display July 3 — 31, at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. In July, the Emporium is open to the public,Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Many of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop athttps://www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, seehttps://www.knoxalliance.comor call (865) 523-7543.
About the Arts & Culture Alliance
The Arts & Culture Alliance serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizationsand cultural institutions.The Alliance receives financial support from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Knox County and the City of Knoxville.
Category: Exhibits