Leu Art Gallery
All art exhibits are free and open to the public.
The Leu Art Gallery is located inside the Lila D. Bunch Library. Gallery 121 is located inside the Leu Center for the Visual Arts.
FALL 2009
Continuing from Summer - September 24th
Snake Handling and Redemption
by Gary Monroe
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 2nd from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Leu Art Gallery
A Knoxville native, Monroe uses chalk, pastels and graphite to explore the historic and current practice of taking up serpents.
After several years as a predominately abstract artist, I began a group of figurative drawings based on Southern narratives, of which the Appalachian Serpent Handlers became the focus. These large-scale drawings illustrate this unusual religious practice of a small number of Holiness churches in Southern Appalachia. The earlier drawings of this group are fictitious narratives. The latter drawings are narratives based on actual individuals.
Primarily based on classical works of Renaissance religious and mythological art, one can also notice abstract references in the likes of Jackson Pollock and Kasimir Malevich. One work, The Anointing of Miss Hopi, injects visual references of Native American Hopi Culture, which had a snake handling ritual early in the twentieth century.
For Immediate Release
NASHVILLE, August 27, 2009 – Artist and Knoxville native Gary Monroe’s long standing fascination with Appalachian folk life is the inspiration of his show, Snake Handlers and Redemption, now open in the Belmont University Leu Art Gallery. “This series of drawings depicts the religious snake handling practices of certain Holiness churches in Southern Appalachia,” said Monroe
Snake Handlers and Redemption is a collection of works created with chalk, pastels and graphite to explore the historic and current practice of taking up serpents.
An artist reception will take place in the Leu Art Gallery on Wednesday, September 2 from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. The show opened in July and will hang in the Leu Art Gallery through September 24.
For more information on gallery exhibits, please contact the Victoria Boone, Director of the Leu Art Gallery at (615) 460-6770.
