Tangled Roots: Echoes of Herstory in Environmental Justice, Chen Art Gallery, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT

Exhibition Dates: March 4 - April 10, 2026

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 5, 4 - 6:30 pm

The Chen Art Gallery at Central Connecticut State University is proud to present the works of sixteen artists in the group exhibition Tangled Roots: Echoes of Herstory in Environmental Justice, curated by Assistant Professor Sonja Czekalski. Tangled Roots exhibits a group of intergenerational and interdisciplinary artists using visual media to express personal stories and experiences through the eyes of nature. Through these works we see the subversion and reclamation of gendered stereotypes in nature and the echoes of oppression directly tied with the voice of the climate crisis. The exhibiting artists use their creative practice to illustrate a narrative and critique of humanity from the dirt to the spirit.


Chen Art Gallery
Maloney Hall Room 202
Central Connecticut State University

1615 Stanley St, New Britain, CT 06050 

Between the Margins: Re-imagining Materials—Creating New Narratives, Truist Art Gallery, Durham Art Guild, Durham, NC

Exhibition Dates: February 20 - April 5, 2026

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20, 6 - 9 p.m.


Throughout history, manipulating natural and synthetic fibers has been associated with ancient practices and traditions. From linen, wool, and paper to plastics, latex, and cement— artists have explored traditional and nontraditional materials to reflect their innermost visual expression and give voice to personal narratives.


Since the 1960s, the use of fibers and other materials has evolved into innovative art forms in which women artists have revolutionized contemporary methods and practices using traditional and nontraditional materials to create large-scale, monumental, radically abstract, off-the-wall sculptures. The story of women in this evolution is deeply rooted in the social, ethnic, and cultural facets of Western society. Despite centuries of marginalization and silenced voices, women continue to work with traditional materials like linen and cotton, but many are experimenting with new techniques to craft abstract objects; others are experimenting with a variety of nontraditional materials such as latex, acrylic, aluminum, and monofilament to construct woven forms and innovative three-dimensional objects. At every level, these objects are a living and historical narrative of women’s lives and their work.


In this exhibition, we feature the exciting work of five contemporary mixed-media artists. Their work is not only a narrative of and about women but the creative process that preserves and challenges existing knowledge by building new understandings, new meanings, or reimagining old ones:


Heather Baumbach (https://www.heatherbaumbachart.com/) uses traditional textiles to construct soft sculptures that explore her relationship with cloth and the physical body. Her narratives are expressions of gender, domesticity, and craft. The sculpted layers, openings, and folds of her objects draw on themes of acceptance and rejection, hiding and exposing.


Laura Esbensen’s (https://www.lauraesbensen.com/) abstract, theatrical sculptures connect her viewers with the contemporary grotesque and the blurry boundary between the authentic and the artificial. Her objects are made from construction materials and assorted plastics to explore bodily processes of mutilation and healing.


Rebecca Tully Fulmer’s (https://www.rebeccatullyfulmer.art) interdisciplinary practice fuses lens-based media, collage, and fiber processes. Her assemblage techniques include weaving, sewing, and knitting to create tangible and immersive three-dimensional objects using strips of manipulated film and monofilament. Her ethereal objects examine layers of light, shadow, and patterns that change and shift as the viewer walks around the object—revealing different ways of seeing.


Audrey L Pinto (https://audreylpintoart.com/) is a process-based artist who weaves handmade and recycled papers from different sources into woven forms that convey personal narratives hidden between and within layers of paper and other fibers. She investigates the versatility of paper, off-loom weaving techniques, and direct contact and manipulation of the materials used in the woven forms. Her work reimagines traditional techniques and cultural expectations and examines the activity of the artmaking process.


Nicole Uzzell (https://www.nicoleuzzell.com/) is a process-driven sculptor and installation artist who uses paper and other materials to guide her forms. Her work is experimental, and she tries to keep her artistic hand hidden to allow natural reactions to occur without obvious manipulation. At the core of her work is an interest in the intersection of the masculine and the feminine and the tug and pull between strength and fragility, nature and industry, decay and beauty.


We invite you to activate your attention, challenge preconceived ideas, question the arbitrary boundaries used to define what art is, and explore what it means to work and create Between the Margins.


Truist Art Gallery

Durham Art Guild

120 Morris St.

Durham, NC 27701


Come Out & Play, North Carolina Songwriters Co-op, Chapel Hill, NC

Exhibition Dates: August 23–24, 30; September 6, 13, 20 

Opening Reception: Saturday & Sunday, August 23–24, noon–dark

Jim Gin Farm

450 Wild Horse Run

Pittsboro, NC 27312

23rd Annual Community Show, Golden Belt Arts, Durham, NC 

Exhibition Dates: February 21 - 28, 2025

Reception: February 21, 6 - 9 pm

Goldenbelt Artists is ecstatic to host our 3rd Annual Community Show. Our show aims to bring the creative community of Durham and the Triangle together. This year’s show features over 100 artists and creatives. We will pack our gallery walls full of art to celebrate the creative culture that lives in our community. This show is not juried, so we can hear all voices equally.

Please join us for our opening reception this Third Friday. On 2/21. We will host a grand gathering with snacks and beverages. All are welcome, and we sincerely hope you can join. Be a part of the larger creative community and meet your new favorite local artist. Our third Friday reception is from 6 to 9 p.m. at Goldenbelt Artists Studio Space in the heart of Goldenbelt Campus in Downtown Durham.


Goldenbelt Artists Studio Space

800 Taylor St

Durham, NC 27701


Roots/Wings, Art + Everywhere X MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

Exhibition Dates: January 4 - 6, 2025

Reception: Saturday, January 4th, 7 - 9 p.m.

Experience Roots/Wings, an exhibition and art auction sponsored by Art + Everywhere, on view in MASS MoCA's Upper-Level B6 Event Space. Join us for the reception and art auction on Saturday, January 4th, from 7 - 9 p.m.


MASS MoCA

1040 Mass MoCA Way

North Adams, MA 01247

PLY, Zero Space Collective, Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment, Huntsville, AL

Exhibition Dates: October 2nd - November 23rd, 2024

Reception: November 23rd


“PLY”, WORKS BY HEATHER BAUMBACH, LAUREN BRADSHAW, BROOKE DAY, LAURA ESBENSEN, REBECCA FULMER, KATHERINE MAHLER, AMALYA MEGERMAN, AUDREY PINTO, ASHLEY RABANAL, AND JESSICA SWANK TO BE EXHIBITED AT LOWE MILL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT THIRD FLOOR EAST GALLERY


“At the beginning, you work with materials; you don’t know them very well, and you try to get them to do what you think you want them to do. As time goes on you understand the way to make them do what they want to do, but your way.” — Sheila Hicks, From: Ford Foundation, “Begin with Thread”


Focusing on material as a collaborator, the works on display in PLY simultaneously present both sides of the sculptural process: the steadfast forcing of and ultimate surrendering to one’s own materials. In some instances, the body dictates the ultimate form of the material- in others the material forces its own hand, changing the final form of the finished work beyond what the artist originally intended. The artists represented in PLY (gathered from across the country) all share a dedication to the study of materiality as well as rigorous individual studio practices.


Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment

2211 Seminole Drive

Huntsville, AL 35805

The gallery is located on the Third Floor East Gallery. 

Gallery hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.


Contact:

Heather Baumbach / 256.653.2744 / hbaumbach@bellsouth.net

Feature in Chapel Hill Magazine

Read the article


Photography by John Michael Simpson