Alabama’s 10 Must-Visit Contemporary Art Galleries and Museums
From award-winning alternative spaces in Birmingham to a sprawling center for the arts housed in an old textile mill in Huntsville, Alabama is home to a number of first-rate contemporary art galleries. Whether viewing the works of Alabama-based photographer Pinky Bass at Space One Eleven, or wandering the outdoor sculpture trail at the Mobile Museum of Art, here are ten galleries you should visit in Alabama.
1. Birmingham Museum of Art
Museum
2. Naked Art
Art Gallery
3. Space One Eleven
Art Gallery
4. Beta Pictoris Maus Contemporary Art
Beta Pictoris Maus Contemporary Art
Beta Pictoris Maus Contemporary Art is a Birmingham-based gallery that represents a number of up-and-coming, established and internationally-renowned contemporary artists. The gallery has a preference for artworks that demonstrate artistic experimentation and are politically and issue-driven, with the aim of bringing a universal perspective on pertinent topics and innovative art to Birmingham. Beta Pictoris currently represents rising stars of the contemporary art world including Nigerian sculptor and performance artist Jelili Atiku, whose art comments on the various forces – war, climate change, poverty – that threaten both mankind and the planet’s existence, and Kentucky-based multidisciplinary artist Melissa Vandenberg who explores the concept of identity in an era of increasing homogeny and globalization.
Beta Pictoris Maus Contemporary Art, 2411 2nd Avenue North, Birmingham, AL, USA, +1 205 413 2999
5. Eastern Shore Art Center
Eastern Shore Art Center
The Eastern Shore Art Center is based in the small town of Fairhope on the eastern coast of Mobile Bay and was established with the mission of engaging and educating people of all ages and abilities in the arts and bringing artworks from artists across America to the Eastern Shore region. Founded in 1954 by a collective of Fairhope-based artists, the Eastern Shore Art Centre hosts monthly exhibitions which has included sculptures by artist Lonnie Rich and folk art by Alabama native Lucy Hunnicutt. The center also organizes two outdoor art festivals each year in March and October that showcase works from around 100 renowned regional and international artists.
Eastern Shore Art Center, 401 Oak Street, Fairhope, AL, USA, +1 251 928 2228
6. Carnegie Visual Arts Center
Art Gallery
7. Wiregrass Museum of Art
Museum
The Wiregrass Museum of Art was established in 1988 as a response to a damning magazine article published two years prior that claimed the museum’s hometown of Dothan was one of the worst places to live in America, partly due to the city’s lack of a museum. A committee of local citizens set about planning the museum and housed it in downtown Dothan’s Water and Electric building, which was originally constructed between 1912 and 1913 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Wiregrass has a collection of over 600 pieces with a number of modern and contemporary examples including works by American artists John Dine and Robert Indiana. The museum regularly exhibits works from its permanent collection alongside temporary exhibitions which have included shows by kinetic sculptor and animator John Douglas Powers’ Field of Reeds and Alabama-based photographer Beverly West Leach.
8. Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment
Store, Art Gallery, Theatre
9. Mobile Museum of Art
Museum
10. Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Museum, Park
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