The Gadsden Museum of Art will be hosting a reception for five new exhibitions from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3: Melissa Tubbs – “Andrea Palladio: Shaping American Architecture,” Autumn Baugh – “Pink Funeral,” Sarah West – “Circuit,” Ryan Carlson – “The Light Within,” and Hokes Bluff High School Student Nigel Dean’s “Cornucopia of Carnivora.”

Melissa Tubbs’s exhibition entitled “Andrea Palladio: Shaping American Architecture” was created to give the viewer a better understanding of the influence a 16th-century architect has had on American architecture using pen-and-ink drawings. 

Tubbs loves learning the history of buildings: who built them and why, what materials were used and anything else that was going on at the time. The work was created first by traveling to Italy taking photographs then coming back to America to find structures that show many of the characteristics of Palladio’s architecture, primarily villas and churches.  

“As an artist, I celebrate and preserve with pen and paper,” Tubbs said.

Alabama native Autumn Baugh graduated from Gadsden State Community College with her Associate in Arts and then from Jacksonville State University with her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in graphic design. 

She seeks out portraits of those close to her as her primary subjects for her paintings and utilizes arbitrary, monotone color palettes to execute her work. Autumn finds color as her main inspiration for painting, with endless outcomes and possibilities at the end of a palette knife, able to convey any emotion she likes with the slight squeeze of a paint tube.

Sarah West is an artist whose work examines a collective cultural yearning to be transported by visual means. Her recent body of work aligns Early Renaissance painting compositions and digital spaces in their shared role as a dream space/site of spiritual quests. The resulting paintings evoke a divine encounter, reflecting on both the religious narratives of the Renaissance and the mystical aura surrounding new technologies. 

West was featured in the South 2016 edition of the juried art publication “New American Paintings.” West received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Wake Forest University and an MFA from Clemson University. 

Sculptor Ryan Carlson’s work is a reflection of a deep connection to nature. His current body of work is titled “The Light Within.” It is rooted in the idea of transmigration, the transfer of a soul from one being to another after death. The title suggests that our souls are a light that never burns out. 

Using nuts, leaves, and fungi in the handmade paper or inks points to new life/new beginnings. Branches point to growth and aging. Bones and rust point to death and decay. Like the theme itself, the work has an entire life cycle contained within it.

Lastly, Hokes Bluff High School Student Nigel Dean will have pencil drawings on display from his “Cornucopia of Carnivora” works.

Light refreshments will be served.