Opening reception for Generations - Charlotte On The Cheap

Rowe Galleries, at Rowe Arts Building, 9119 University Road, Charlotte, North Carolina (on the UNC Charlotte campus) is houses three primary exhibition spaces: The Rowe Lower Gallery, Upper Gallery and Side Gallery.

Information about current and upcoming exhibitions.

Rowe Galleries are open during the academic year, Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Read on for upcoming events, which are free to visit.

You might be interested in a list of Charlotte art museums, galleries and events.

How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A Testimony of Community, Joy and Triumph

How I Got Over: Contemporary Black Southern Portraiture, A testimony of community, joy and triumph, curated by Yvonne Bynoe., on view from August 16 to September 24, 2024.

Opening reception and artist talk on Thursday, September 12, 2024, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibition features works by a multi-generational group of eight artists from across the American South. The artists through their diverse portraiture not only present their personal narratives, but also an understanding about how Black Southerners see themselves as both Americans and ancestral standard bearers.

Black Southerners are the genesis of the African American identity. For African Americans who don’t live in the South, most have a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent who did. Southern Black culture inhabits the specters of West African captives who influenced the food, hairstyles, language, and artifacts. It’s a very rich terrain that birthed the socially conservative “Black church,” a legion of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), several American music genres, and numerous artists, such Romare Bearden, who was born in Mecklenburg County.

The Civil Rights movement was formed and led primarily by Black Southerners. Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson was a confidante to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. She performed the spiritual “How I Got Over” at the “March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom” in 1963. The exhibition takes its title from the popular hymn that exemplifies a people who for centuries have faced insurmountable barriers and triumphed by leaning on their faith in God and in themselves.

UNC Charlotte

Role Play

Role Play, a solo show by Charlotte-based artist and Department of Art & Art History alumna Kalin Devone, on view August 16 through September 24, 2024. It’s in Rowe Side Gallery.

Reception on August 21, 2024, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Devone mines for our inner child. With loaded paintbrushes, she excavates deep beneath the surface of adulthood to discover what we think we have lost in the wake of surging age, exposing tidal pools of memory and vitality. Her chosen subjects are friends and family with whom she has reminisced about childhood experiences and waxed nostalgic about those early carefree years. Devone’s careful selection of visual cues, textures, and colors are intended to trigger memories of simplistic pleasures that have been lost along our journey to adulthood. “One day we just assumed all of the seriousness and responsibility of being an adult, but where did those earlier versions of ourselves go?”
UNC Charlotte

Generations

Generations: 60 Years – 21 Conversations, an exhibition of works by alumni and faculty. On view October 8-November 8, 2024.

Reception October 10, 2024, from 5 to 9 p.m.

The UNC Charlotte Department of Art & Art History celebrates its 60th anniversary with Generations: 60 Years – 21 Conversations, an exhibition of works by alumni and faculty. On view October 8-November 8, this exhibition celebrates 60 years of accomplishment in the visual arts, marking the start of art-based research at UNC Charlotte and honoring the oldest of the programs in the College of Arts + Architecture.

In 1964, the acclaimed North Carolina painter Maud Gatewood was hired to create a new program, and over the next decade she developed courses and hired colleagues, spearheaded the design of an arts building and its facilities, and sustained dialogue with institutions such as the Mint Museum and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Both the department and the university have grown dramatically in the intervening years, as more than 3,000 alumni have graduated from the visionary program Gatewood founded.

In recognition of this momentous milestone, we will fill the galleries of Rowe Arts with 85 works that bear witness to the past and consider what may come. Curated by Professor of Art History Jim Frakes, Generations: 60 Years – 21 Conversations draws works by alumni and current faculty of the Department of Art & Art History into thematic and visual conversation with the contributions of 21 “legacy” faculty.
UNC Charlotte

The closest parking for visitors is Cone Deck 1. This interactive campus map will help you.

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More art events

Check out our full calendar of Charlotte art museums, galleries and events or look at a few events here: