Past

​The Portfolio 2023 exhibit celebrating the artwork of Tri-State Area students will be view at the Huntington Museum of Art from April 22 through May 21, 2023. The free opening reception for this exhibit will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 2 p.m.

The exhibit titled The Visual Elements: Shape & Form Presented by Garth’s Auctioneers & Appraisers will be on view at the Huntington Museum of Art from Nov. 19, 2022, through Feb. 12, 2023.

This is the second in a two-year series of exhibits focusing on the basic elements of art.

Works in this exhibit include the screen print on paper titled Mutability by Don Pendleton and the pastel on paper work titled Bottles by the late Winslow Anderson.

“I am hoping that visitors are beginning to make connections between artworks that at first glance seem to have very little in common,” said John Farley, HMA Senior Curator / Exhibition Designer. “One goal of this two-year series of exhibitions is to help visitors see the commonalities in artworks of various styles since artists all create using the same basic principles of art.”

The first exhibit in this series titled The Visual Elements: Line Presented by Edward Tucker Architects, Inc. focused on what is considered the simplest and most versatile art element. This second exhibit will highlight shape, which is defined as space that is flat and enclosed and most often defined by lines. Form is considered the three-dimensional equivalent of space.

This exhibit is presented by Garth’s Auctioneers & Appraisers.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Katherine & Herman Pugh Exhibitions Endowment.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

​The “Art on a Limb” exhibit of artist-decorated trees will be on display at the Huntington Museum of Art from November 29, 2022, through January 8, 2023.

The Palette Tree in HMA’s Virginia Van Zandt Great Hall features palettes painted or decorated by regional artists. Other trees in the “Art on a Limb” exhibit are decorated with ornaments created by area artist groups and art teachers.

The artist will discuss her work in a free public presentation at HMA on March 30, 2023, at 7 p.m. Reception to follow. A three-day workshop titled “Integration of Forms and Surface” will be presented at HMA on March 31 through April 2, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. This workshop is full. We cannot accept any additional registrations for this workshop. (Posted 3/28/23 at 11:06 a.m.)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Growing up in Connecticut, Donna Polseno was influenced by her parents. Her mother was skillful and handy and her father, a naturalist, was a painter and illustrator whose work supported the family. Inspired to pursue a career in art, she received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1972 and earned an MAT from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974. Upon graduating, she and her husband moved to rural Floyd, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they built a studio and a family. Her ceramics have been featured in major museums and galleries across the country. She is represented in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections such as the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California; the St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri; and the Mint Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Charlotte, North Carolina. She has received two National Endowment for the Arts Grants and a Virginia Museum Fellowship.

Throughout her successful career, she has balanced the demands of being an award-winning studio artist and a noted educator. She has taught workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, and Penland School of Craft. She has led college summer programs at Alfred University and the University of Michigan and, from 2004-2020, she taught ceramics part-time at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, where she created and directed the annual Women Working with Clay Symposium. For many years she has taught at La Meridiana Ceramica School, an international ceramics school in Certaldo, Italy, where she and her husband also maintain a small house and studio.

ABOUT THE ARTIST’S WORK

Donna Polseno began her career making pottery and remains an active studio potter. Most pots are slip cast and then altered or reconstructed as she strives to achieve a sense of energy, life, and mystery in her functional work. About her pottery, Polseno states: “I have made many different types of pottery over my career but have always been interested in the way decorative elements can be used to enhance a form, whether one is using an elaborate pattern or the simplest marks.” Those surface treatments draw inspiration from the natural world – the shape of leaves, grasses, flowers, birds, and abstractions of these forms.

Beginning in the 1980s, she blazed a creative trail parallel to her pottery: ceramic sculpture. Her figurative ceramic sculptures center around the metaphor that women are the spiritual vessels of life, capable of giving, nurturing, and protecting. While they remain vulnerable and fragile, like the precariousness of all life, these archetypal female forms radiate a sense of strength and universal beauty.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

The opening reception for this exhibit is scheduled to take place on Friday, November 4, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The passing of beloved Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, 2020, was felt by many as the symbolic climax in a year defined by tumult and tragedy. Justice Ginsburg, champion of gender equity and architect of the legal fight for women’s rights, was revered as a cultural and feminist icon. The effects of her death, after serving nearly three consequential decades on the Supreme Court, continue to compound in the lives of everyday Americans.

To honor her life’s work and process the immense loss of such a historic figure, artist Sassa Wilkes determined to paint a portrait of Justice Ginsburg. They worked all night, and, by the morning of September 22, Justice Ginsburg’s characteristic features emerged from an energetic swirl of color, keen eyes glinting behind her trademark glasses. Justice Ginsburg’s distinctive lace collar, represented with gold and silver leaf applied to the canvas, shone out against her black judicial robes. Wilkes realized that there were 100 days left in 2020 and vowed to complete an oil portrait of an inspiring woman each day for the remainder of the year.

“This has been the darkest year I can remember, and I’m turning on the lights.” With this bold declaration, Wilkes embarked on the painting project titled One Hundred Badass Women. As the days passed and the portraits took shape in Wilkes’ studio, it quickly became apparent that an entire community of likeminded people was transfixed by the process, eager to channel their emotions into something cathartic, uplifting, and educational. On social media and beyond, the project became a collaboration between artist and audience, sparking important conversations far and wide. Wilkes bravely offered the community a window into their creative process – a vulnerable place for many artists – and provided an opportunity to learn about the accomplishments of extraordinary women, many of whom remain underappreciated or unacknowledged. In response, supporters provided Wilkes an ever-expanding roster of influential women to research and paint. The 100 canvasses that resulted from this collaboration, presented in total on the gallery walls, serve as a chronological record of this transformative experience.

Currently the Artist-in-Residence at West Edge Factory in Huntington, West Virginia, Sassa Wilkes is working to challenge and expand the cultural understanding of gender in Appalachia. A native of Barboursville, West Virginia, they earned a BFA and an MAT from Marshall University. For the past decade, they have taught art in the Cabell County School District, at Marshall University, and offered art lessons to their community through a private studio.

This exhibit is presented by Leslie Petteys in Memory of Her Heroes, Grandmothers Anna C. Petteys & Fannie Christner.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

The Huntington Museum of Art will host the exhibition titled Vietnam: The Real War, Photographs from The Associated Press from Oct. 22, 2022, through Feb. 12, 2023.

A free opening reception for this exhibition takes place on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., featuring a gallery walk led by Michael “Mickey” Johnson, Vietnam veteran and retired journalist; and Dr. Chris White, Marshall University history professor.

In addition to the exhibition, HMA will present the award-winning documentary Vietnam: West Virginians Remember on Nov. 22, 2022, at 7 p.m. Admission is free to this 4^th Tuesday Tour event. Documentary
shown with permission of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

The Associated Press organized an extraordinary group of photojournalists in its Saigon bureau to document the Vietnam War. The Associated Press earned six Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of the War, with four of those awards for photography. Vietnam: The Real War features 50 large-format images that chronicle the arc of the Vietnam War, curated from the archives of The Associated Press. This exhibition includes Malcolm Browne’s photo of the burning monk; Eddie Adams’ photo of the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner; and Nick Ut’s photo of a 9-year-old running from a napalm attack. The exhibit also
includes works by Associated Press photographers Horst Faas and Henri Huet.

“Vietnam: The Real War features images taken by unbelievably courageous photojournalists,” said John Farley, HMA Senior Curator / Exhibition Designer. “West Virginians have a proud history of stepping up to serve the United States military, and we are dedicating HMA’s presentation of this exhibition to all West Virginians who have served our country through military service.”

This exhibit is organized by the Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama, and The Associated Press, New York, New York.

Many photographs in this exhibition are graphic, and parental discretion is strongly recommended.

Gallery walk speakers Johnson and White will discuss individual photographs in the exhibition and take questions from those attending at the end of the gallery walk on Oct. 21.

Johnson is a U.S. Army veteran, who served in Vietnam with the 135th Assault Helicopter Co. from 1971 until 1972. He attended Cabell County public schools and graduated from Marshall University in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He spent 33 years with Gannett Co. Inc. newspapers as a reporter, assistant city editor, sports editor, and managing editor for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington; executive editor in Fremont and Port Clinton, Ohio; executive editor in Gainesville, Ga.; managing editor in Pensacola, Fla.; and executive editor and general manager in Richmond, Ind. He retired in 2013. He and his
wife, Sheila Dawn Johnson, are the parents of adult twin sons, Travis and Justin. Mickey and Fran Allred, another former managing editor of The Herald-Dispatch, are the co-owners of We Edit Books (weeditbooks.com), a manuscript editing service based in Huntington.

Dr. White is a History Professor at Marshall University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 2005 specializing in Latin America and U.S. Foreign Policy. He has taught a course at Marshall on the Vietnam War for the past 10 years, and was an advisor for the West Virginia Public Broadcasting documentary, Vietnam: West Virginians Remember, which aired in 2017. He also served in the Marine Corps Infantry from 1994-1998, at various locations around the world. He met his wife, who served in the Navy, on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Dr. White and his family have lived in the Huntington area since 2006, when he started teaching at Marshall.

This exhibit is supported in part by Valley Health Systems, Inc.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

For more information on exhibits at the Huntington Museum of Art, visit hmoa.org or call (304) 529-2701. HMA is fully accessible.

West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. Registration does not imply endorsement.

About the Huntsville Museum of Art

The Huntsville Museum of Art is a non-profit municipal corporation established by the City of Huntsville, Alabama, and governed by a city-appointed Museum Board. The Museum seeks to foster understanding of the visual arts and appreciation of artistic achievement. In addition to its galleries and exhibitions, the Museum offers art classes for children and adults along with special programs, lectures and musical presentations. Rental space is also available for weddings, meetings and other events.

About The Associated Press

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of
independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP. On the web: www.ap.org.

Teach Them to Dream: The Art & Influence of Stan Sporny will be on view at the Huntington Museum of Art from Sept. 10 through Dec. 30, 2022. A free opening reception for this exhibit takes place on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at HMA.

Stan Sporny (American, 1946-2008) was an accomplished professional artist and an inspiring Marshall University professor, passionately dedicated to helping his students achieve success. He aimed to revolutionize oil painting with his brand of non-toxic solvents and mediums: “The Sporny Solution.”

“Stan Sporny was always exploring and discovering, teaching and challenging,” said John Farley, HMA Senior Curator / Exhibition Designer and one of Sporny’s former students. “Classroom discussions ranged from color saturation to Sri Lankan politics, formalism to Foghorn Leghorn. While his students quietly painted, he played the blues on his guitar and shared stories of New Orleans. At the end of the semester, he was known to bring a pot of homemade jambalaya to class.”

Born in Philadelphia, Sporny could remember wanting to be an artist by age eleven. He attended the Philadelphia College of Art from 1964 to 1968 and the University of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1972, where he studied under noted artists such as Neil Welliver, Red Grooms, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, and Elaine de Kooning. During the summer of 1972, he was sponsored by Katz to attend the prestigious Skowhegan School in Maine. That same year he received an Albright Scholarship to study in Sri Lanka, where he resided for nine years. Sporny taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 1987 to 1988 before becoming a beloved educator at Marshall University for the rest of his life. He received a Federal Art-in-Architecture Grant in 1993 to create 12 paintings that were installed in the Veterans Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.

Sporny exhibited widely throughout his career, including solo shows in Sri Lanka; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia. His latest paintings were featured in Charleston, West Virginia, when he passed away unexpectedly in 2008. His work can be found in public collections such as the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the Utah Museum of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; and the Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia.

The Huntington Museum of Art is honored to partner with family, friends, and private collectors to present Teach Them to Dream: The Art & Influence of Stan Sporny.

This exhibit is presented with support from BesTitle Agency, Inc.; The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment; and Drs. Joseph and Omayma Touma.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

The Huntington Museum of Art will launch a two-year series of exhibits titled The Visual Elements, with each exhibit focusing on a different building block of art. The first exhibit in the series titled The Visual Elements – Line Presented by Edward Tucker Architects, Inc. will run from Aug. 13 through Nov. 6, 2022.

This series of six interrelated exhibits begins with one of the simplest and most versatile elements in any artist’s toolbox: line. A line is a literal or implied connection between points or, as poetically defined by artist Suzanne Caporael, “a point moving through space, trailing its history behind.”

Drawing inspiration from the vision of famed architect Walter Gropius, The Visual Elements will cultivate creativity and a greater understanding of artistic expression with a six-part series of exhibits that explores the foundational building blocks of artmaking. Using the museum’s permanent collection, each exhibit will emphasize, thematically, a certain shared aspect of the art on display. Yet artworks are, most often, orchestrated arrangements of multiple visual elements, composed together in the service of constructing an image. Each installment in this series will also illustrate ways in which the visual elements build upon one another.

Walter Gropius (German, 1883-1969) is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern architecture. The Bauhaus School, founded by Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, greatly influenced subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

In partnership with his firm, the Architects Collaborative of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Walter Gropius designed the Huntington Museum of Art’s 1968 addition and studios. Ours is the only American art museum brought to completion using a Gropius design, a remarkable chapter in HMA’s story and a significant contribution to Huntington’s architectural landscape.

In 1968, at the groundbreaking of what would become HMA’s expanded facility, Gropius spoke:

“It will be of incalculable value for Huntington and its neighboring towns to have at their disposal a greatly broadened institute – after these buildings will be finished – to pursue both the improvement of historic knowledge of art as well as the artistic creativity of their own young generation for the cultural benefit of the whole community. I ask your permission to stress particularly the aspect of workshop development in the gallery which is perhaps less obvious in its scope and value to the average person than appreciation of art of the past, but ever so much more important for the future generations’ creative attitude.”

This exhibit is presented by Edward Tucker Architects, Inc.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Katherine & Herman Pugh Exhibitions Endowment.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

​Opening reception is planned for June 5, 2022, from 2 to 4 p.m.

In conjunction with the Huntington Museum of Art, the Tri-State Arts Association presents its biennial juried exhibition, a recurring showcase of the best artwork representing artists from West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. A variety of media will be displayed, including painting, drawing, photography, ceramics, sculpture, glass, wood, textiles, and mixed media.

The Tri-State Arts Association was founded in 1953 to encourage and promote the work of artists living and working in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. TSAA and HMA have enjoyed a natural partnership thanks to the organizations’ shared mission to champion the arts in our community.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

The Huntington Museum of Art will display artwork created by participants in its studio classes and workshops during the Studio Selections exhibit from May 21 through June 12, 2022. A free opening reception for this exhibit will take place on Tuesday, May 24, at 7 p.m. as part of the 4^th Tuesday Tour Series at HMA.

“We are excited to give participants in the art classes and workshops at the Huntington Museum of Art the chance to display their artwork in a museum setting,” said HMA Education Director Cindy Dearborn. “It is also nice for museum visitors to see the quality of the work taking place in our art studios here at the Huntington Museum of Art.”

Recent studio classes offered at HMA include ceramics, photography, painting, printmaking and drawing.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.