September 11–20, 2025 @ Slocumb Galleries
The East Tennessee State University Department of Art & Designand Slocumb Galleries in collaboration with Charles Sherrod Library, Women’s Gender & Sexuality and Black American Studies with Mary Jordan Center present exhibitions "Of The Measure That Has Gone Before"by Afro Indigenous ceramic sculptor Gary L. White and "The Sun Speaks in the Language of Light"by Choctaw photographer Benjy Russell that foregrounds creative expressions by Native American Tennessee artists as part of From These Soils series. The public reception is Sept. 11from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Slocumb Galleries and features the two artists speaking about their practices, joined by guests of honor Dean David Atkins of the Sherrod Library and renowned photographer Stacy Kranitz.
White’s figurative sculptures in clay with quilted fiber and mixed media installations included on "Of The Measure That Has Gone Before"are inspired by personal and rich complex history of the South, visualizations of the artist’s perspective of their “multi-ethnic southern experience.”A category that the artist considers as the “Other” and these others he pays homage to the past, his ancestors, their lifeways, folklore and traditions as he create his series of ‘hybrid archetypes.In parallel, Benjy Russell, a registered Choctaw citizen and member of the LBGBTQ community employs the intersections of science, philosophy and art in his photographic images as he views and presents their worldview through the “prism of possibility, questioning and unlearning harmful, outdated social structures.”Russell references science fiction as guiding framework in their imaginings of a future, thus shaping it, as “first step toward manifesting it into reality."
White,a Native of Nashville, received his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from University Tennessee Knoxville., and Bachelors of Fine Arts from Watkins College of Art and Design in 2011. His works have been included in solo shows and group exhibitions throughout the country, including the Crafting Blackness Initiative series.Whiteconducts a cross-cultural visual investigation, that explores folkways, identityand the experiences of the "southern Other."Whiteteaches ceramics at Belmont University in Nashville Tennessee, while maintaining his studio practice.
Russellis a self-taught, multidisciplinary queer artist and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He was raised in Lindsay, Oklahoma—a small rural sundown town on the Chickasaw Reservation. For the past 17 years, Russell has lived in rural Tennessee within an intentional queer community. As an artist, his practice incorporates photography, sculpture, set designand ecological land art.
The exhibitions in "From These Soils" series are funded by the ETSU Student Academic Activities Committee, the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission. The Slocumb Galleries are located at Ernest C. Ball Hall, 232 Sherrod Drive, ETSU campus with viewing hours on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours during receptions and by appointments. For more information, scheduled visit or handicapped accommodations, email Karlota Contreras-Koterbay via contrera@etsu.edu.
Category: Exhibits