Three exhibitions presented by East Tennessee State University this fall invite audiences to consider how identity, history, place and personal experience shape the ways people understand themselves and the world around them.
Presented through ETSU’s Department of Art and Design and Slocumb Galleries, the exhibitions span multiple campus and downtown locations and feature work by Tennessee Asian artists, internationally exhibited photographer Pamela Pecchio and ETSU Art and Design Chair Dr. Tao Huang.
ETSU’s Department of Art and Design and the galleries are part of ETSU’s Phil and Martha Bachman College of Arts and Sciences.
Together, the exhibitions explore subjects ranging from diaspora and belonging to American history, travel, memory and intellectual growth.
‘BeComing / BeLonging: Tennessee Asian Artists’
“BeComing / BeLonging: Tennessee Asian Artists” will be on view through Nov. 25 at Tipton-Ashe Gallery.
Presented by ETSU’s Department of Art and Design, Slocumb Galleries and the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville in partnership with Film and Media Studies, the exhibition explores diaspora, displacement, identity and belonging through work by Tennessee artists of Asian lineage.
Featured artists include Leticia Bajuyo, Nuveen Barwari, Sai Clayton, Sepideh Dashti, Tao Huang, Mable Ni, Sisavanh Phouthavong Houghton, KT Wester and members of the Meng Cheng Collective: Thandi Cai, Lili Nacht and Yidan Zeng.
A First Friday event will take place Nov. 6 from 5-8 p.m., beginning with a screening of Thandi Cai’s “Bluff City Chinese Documentary” at 5 p.m., followed by a reception and artist remarks.
Tipton-Ashe Gallery is located at 401 Ashe St.
‘Founder: Pamela Pecchio’
“Founder: Pamela Pecchio,” now on view at the third-floor gallery of the Charles C. Sherrod Library, examines American history through questions of gender, place and who shapes the historical record.
Curated by Slocumb Galleries curatorial fellow Katie Sheffield, the exhibition features photography Pecchio began creating while at the University of Virginia and later expanded after moving to the Boston area.
The work combines photography, collage and re-photography while playing on the word “founder” as both a reference to the nation’s founders and a verb suggesting failure or collapse.
Pecchio is a Boston-area multidisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in major museum collections.
The exhibition remains on view through May 2027.
‘50 / Journeys: Tao Huang’
“50 / Journeys: Tao Huang” is on view through Nov. 20 at Slocumb Galleries.
The exhibition traces Huang’s physical and intellectual journeys across Asia, North America and Europe through photography, installation and graphic design.
One section features travel photographs and the installation “Window,” while another includes posters and typographic work inspired by books that have shaped Huang’s thinking over time.
Huang serves as chair of ETSU’s Department of Art and Design and has more than 30 years of professional experience across multiple design fields.
A closing reception and artist talk will be held Nov. 19 from 5-7 p.m. at Slocumb Galleries in Ernest C. Ball Hall.
The exhibitions are supported by the ETSU Student Activities Allocation Committee, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts, the Arts Fund at East Tennessee Foundation and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
To learn more about upcoming exhibits and galleries, visit etsu.edu/cas/art/galleries/.
