Photograph by Brian Miller
May 2–30, 2025 @ Knoxville Arts & Culture Alliance
The Arts & Culture Alliance presents five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville opening Friday, May 2, from 5-9p.m. A free gathering with the exhibiting artists will also feature live music by Robinella and friends.
Knoxville Modern Quilt Guildin the lower gallery
This new exhibition features a curated collection of quilts from members of Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild and showcases modern elements such as bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative spaceand alternate grid work. The collection of small quilts exhibited as a group stems from a challenge in which members all received the same fabric bundle and a prompt to interpret modern quilting elements in a mini quilt.
This Knoxville branch of the Modern Quilt Guild has a mission to support and encourage the growth and development of modern quilting through art, educationand community. The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild is a nonprofit organization for residents in and around Knoxville who have an interest in modern design and quilting. Marking its 15th year of operation in 2025, the guild provides members with a community where modern quilters can meet, share ideas and create in an environment that encourages creativity and acceptance. The Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild meets monthly and welcomes new members.
Instagram @knoxmqg |knoxvilleMQG.com
Photography & Mixed Media by Brian Miller and Iliyana Skrobanskain the upper gallery
Husband and wife duo, Brian Miller and Iliyana Skrobanska, present a new exhibition of photography and fiber art/mixed media.
Miller’s journey started with trips to the Everglades and multi-week family vacations thatignited his wanderlust. He purchased his first camera, a Minolta SRT 201, as a teenager and used it to document travels including the Canadian Rockies and the Arizona desert. He earned a Master’s in Wildlife Ecology studying moose in the North Woods of New Hampshire. After working as an environmental consultant in southern Louisiana, he turned his urge to travel into a full-time photography business. For more than 25 years, he has used photography to capture the aesthetic beauty of this world that hopefully resonates with the viewer on an emotional level. Miller’s first book, "Birds of the Gulf Coast," was published by Louisiana State University Press in 2001. His photographs have appeared in numerous magazines, calendars, and books including National Wildlife magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Natural History, Wildlife Conservation, BrownTrout, and Audubon. National Geographic noted him one of “our finest...photographers,” and he was a featured photographer in their 2000 book "Heart of a Nation: Writers and Photographers Inspired by the American Landscape."
briankmiller.com
For many years, painting and creating art wereSkrobanska’s hobbies: a side activity to her main occupation as a fashion designer and business owner. Her favorite media has always been fiber art and painting with acrylic, and she gradually combined them into one. By stitching pieces of felt onto a painted canvas to create a 3-D effect, or by creating a surface from handmade felt and painting it with acrylic, she emphasizes texture and multidimensionality. Her artworks can look different from different angles, and abstract art is her chosen language because of its ability to trigger the imagination. Skrobanska loves traveling and hiking, drawing inspiration from natural beauty such as landscapes, sunsets, rock walls, and even flowers. She has lived in Knoxville since 2018 and is a full-time, award-winning artist, busy with many art festivals.
iliyana.art| Instagram @iliyanaskrobanska
Laura McRae Hitchcock: Whispers from The Roots and the Riverin the display case
"Whispers from the Root and River"explores the quiet space where nature and spirit meet. Through abstract landscapes and felted, mixed media figures made of wool, branches, and cloth inscribed with blessings, Laura McRae Hitchcock evokes the presence of the wild feminine and the sacred voice of the land. Her process is slow and meditative — felting wool with barbed needles until it becomes form, or painting layer upon layer—mirroring the journey back to self and ancestral memory. This collection is an invitation to remember that we, too, are part of the mystery that lives in root and river, body and breath.
Hitchcock is a painter and mixed media artist whose work is rooted in memory, natureand the unseen forces that shape our inner landscapes. She holds a degree in art from Agnes Scott College. Hitchcock is the co-founder of Wild Hair Adventures Art Retreats, and her art has been exhibited in solo and juried shows nationwide and in Europe. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists and its South Carolina chapter. Recently, she moved from the Lowcountry of South Carolina to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee where she finds great joy being surrounded by rolling mist, the hush of old trees, and the whispers of the mountains.
LauraMcRaeHitchcock.com| Instagram @lmcraehitchcock
wildhairartretreats.com|facebook.com/LauraMcRaeHitchcockFineArt
Sheryl Sallie: The Goddesses Collectionon the North wall
Born and raised in East Knoxville, Sheryl Sallie holds a bachelor’s in education from Knoxville College and a master’s in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee. She taught in the Knoxville City School System and the Knox County School System for 35 years. After retirement, she wanted to try something new, and after several tries at different art forms, she chose mixed media because it became a natural fit. Sallie is also a poet, honored in several poetry contests including winning first place in the Tennessee Writers Alliance Poetry Competition in which Nikki Giovanni served as final judge. Her artwork has exhibited at the Fountain City Art Center, the Oak Ridge Art Center and the Emporium. She lives in Karns with her husband, Reginald.
"I picked this collection to highlight some of my favorite pieces as well as introduce new pieces. Mixed media is ideal because it allows me to express myself by using everyday objects in extraordinary ways. I use layers of collage, paint, image transfers, and found objects to create texture and substance in my art. Currently I am adding works to a group of paintings depicting Goddesses: strong, beautiful women, as I see them. Goddesses exist everywhere women gather. I hope the viewers will see something that brings joy and will touch something deep within," she says.
Instagram @sheryl_j_sallie
Bill Timm: 30 Years of Self-Portraits — A Retrospectivein the Atrium
"I present a curated collection of self-portraits created over my 30-year artistic career. These works chronicle my life from husband to father to widow. The work follows not just what I looked like, but my seasons of life and artistic influences. To quote Vincent Van Gogh: People say, and I’m quite willing to believe it, that it is difficult to know oneself, but it’s not easy to paint oneself either. Other than high school art classes and a scholarship to Governors School for the Arts, I am largely self-taught. I paint in acrylic, using an airbrush and more recently a paintbrush as I have come to value brush strokes. I count among my artistic influences: Salvador Dali, Chuck Close, Van Gogh, and M.C. Escher," Timm says.
The exhibitions areon display May 2-30, 2025 at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, Tennessee. The Emporium is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.additional hours TBA. The Emporium will be closed on Monday, May 24, for the holiday.Most of the works on exhibition are for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop atknoxalliance.store. For more information, seeknoxalliance.comor call (865) 523-7543.
Category: Exhibits