Autumn view from Kevin McNamee-Tweed’s studio, 2023.

Beginninging

The 2023 UTC Art Annual Juried Student Exhibition: Juror Kevin McNamee-Tweed

November 2-December 2, 2023

Opening reception:
Thursday, November 2, 5-7pm

In the beginning, there was just another beginning. Another reaction, another rejection of the void. It was also just another middle point in one story or another; and many endings contained within. 

But beginnings suggest a glorious emptiness, a possibility for pure action, and new thoughts. Innocence even sniffs around in beginnings. Things await their meaning. 

These are human endeavors: meaning-making, living on the arc of time. An early human encounters a first snowflake, a neanderthal uses poison ivy for toilet paper, a child in the 1990s or 1390s sees the ocean for the first time, a planetary society called Earth endures a global pandemic and in its twilight, finds accelerated consumerism, ongoing violence, seismic cultural-political-economic turmoil, climate crisis, AI, and very little ‘glorious emptiness’. 

Nevertheless, the Earthlings go on envisioning past beginnings and future beginnings. The start of new life, the retelling of old stories, transformation and regeneration. They imagine what others felt as they witnessed what the world does; change and grow. They reckon with constant emotional saturation as iphones hum and gape, Autumn leaves float in slow motion, or a squirrel escapes a hawk. The Earthlings, especially the younger ones, understand themselves as change and growth, agents of it. 

Selected Artists 
Megan Bailey, Maddie Benefield, Starr Bryant, Elijah Bullard, Lillian Dent, Lily Dixon, Jensen Dropp, Hadley Garren, Gabriella Gloster, Katharine Greenwell, Sam Hudgins, Anna Huss, Manny Martin, Ashley Marquardt, Van Sawyer, Kate Scrip, Jessa Shedd, Maya Stewart, Nico Wilcher, Helen Wiley, Emma Womble, Taylor Sampson

About the juror:
Kevin McNamee-Tweed (b. 1984) is based in Durham, North Carolina. He holds a BFA from New York University and an MA and MFA from The University of Iowa. Recent solo exhibitions include ICA Chattanooga, Cob Gallery (London), Steve Turner (Los Angeles), L21 Gallery (Mallorca), Harper’s (New York), Rod Barton (London), Devening Projects (Chicago), The Still House Group (New York), and The Menil Collection Books (Houston). He has participated in group shows in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Iceland, Greece, and the UK. He is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including the Mildred Pelzer Grant, the Willhelm and Jane Bodine Fellowship, The Iowa Arts Fellowship, and the Montello Foundation Fellowship. Reviews of his work have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Artnet, Glasstire, and Hyperallergic, among others. A monograph on his ceramic work was published by Steve Turner (Los Angeles) in 2020. Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at The Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina and JVDW in Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as two new books, including a monograph surveying McNamee-Tweed’s interdisciplinary practice.