Artwork by Queena Stovall and Laura Lynn Hsieh is currently on display at the University of Lynchburg’s Daura Museum of Art. Both exhibitions will run through Wednesday, Dec. 2. Admission is free and the public is welcome.
“Art and Stories: Queena Stovall’s Vision of Rural Virginia Life” is exhibited in Gallery I.
Emma Serena Dillard “Queena” Stovall, a folk artist sometimes called the “Grandma Moses of Virginia,” was born in 1887 in Amherst County, Virginia. She began taking art classes with Pierre Daura at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1949, when she was 62 years old.
During the day, Stovall managed a farm. In the evenings, she often hosted large gatherings at her home. At night, in the quiet of her bedroom, she painted what she knew — scenes of home, farm, and her rural community.
Stovall’s work has been described as “authentic, presenting both the hardships of relentless, life-sustaining farm work and the joys of family and community ritual, without sentimentality or idealization.”
Laura Lynn Hsieh’s installation, “High Yellow,” is in Gallery II.
The Chinese American Museum of Chicago describes Hsieh as a “first-generation Chinese American who doesn’t speak Chinese,” adding that “Growing up in an all-white, Massachusetts town has influenced her work as much as having parents who fled their homeland during wartime and who expect her to maintain ties to a culture she has never known.”
Her creative process, the CAMOC continues, involves “writing, text usage, sculptural and ceramic components, as well as video and performance. Her work investigates notions of community, culture, family, and the routine of the everyday.”
An opening reception for Hsieh’s installation will be held from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1, Hsieh will give an artist’s talk at the Daura Museum of Art. Admission for both events is free and the public is welcome.
The Daura Museum of Art is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, contact Brooke Marcy, the Daura’s director, at 434.544.8343 or [email protected].
