CURRENT EXHIBITS: JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2025
Art Center galleries are currently open to the public Tuesday-Friday 10am-4pm, Saturday 10am-6pm. If you are interested in purchasing a piece from our galleries, please contact Marketing Director, Adrienne Clow at info@esartcenter.org.
“We Are Artists”
On display: January 3 – February 28, 2025
In recognition of Black History Month, curator Soynika Edwards-Bush has invited African American artists from the Mobile area to participate in this impactful exhibit.
“Assembling these artists wasn’t a hard task, knowing that we are all different creatives, but we are all connected by our passion our craft. We are artists and come from creatives who had to endure, and we celebrate those who came before us. This group shows different avenues, on how we express lived experiences, history, our environment, culture, and what we have deep within.
This exhibit celebrates the beauty of where we come from, exploring the deep history and cultural significance of a land that remains a source of strength and resilience. It is a love letter to my father’s land, honoring its enduring beauty and the roots that have shaped who we are.”
-Soynika Edwards-Bush
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Artists include:
Monica Beasley
Evoking her Southern roots, mixed-media artist Monica J. Beasley brings concepts of feminism, marriage, family, and race together in her work. She has dabbled in different media during her career, from photography to painting to collage. The viewer at first is drawn to the bright colors and tactile materials in her works, but each piece is ingrained with serious subject matter. Source: Sophiella Gallery.
Robert W. Goler
Robert W. Goler (born, 1964, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S), is an American painter and collage artist whose vivid, and striking images moves ones emotions. Working from contemporary and historical photographs, Goler recreates and reimagines universal themes and the specifics of the African American experience. He primarily works in oils, boldly blending colors and patterns to evoke specific moods. Full Bio.
Margaret Richey
Margaret is a pastor, missionary, and mixed media artist passionate about serving God’s people. During a trip to Jos, Nigeria, she had the opportunity to meet a group of women, widowed due to terrorist attacks. Margaret’s heart is deeply moved by their situation, and she is committed to helping them. Through her artwork, Margaret uses mixed media to express her mission and support this initiative, with each piece representing her dedication to empowering these women.
June Reddix-Stennis
June Reddix-Stennis resides in Mobile, Alabama, she and her husband (Navy Veteran) have three children. June is the current “Artist in Residence” at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. June holds an AAS degree in Advertising Arts from Tide Water Community College, an BFA in Socially Engaged Arts, is currently enrolled in pursuit of an MFA (Visual Arts) at Vermont College of Fine Arts/California Institute of the Arts. June Reddix-Stennis draws her artistic inspiration from the deep roots of the African Diaspora, enriched by the vibrant cultural tapestry of the Gulf Coast. Growing up on a farm in Vancleave, Mississippi, June’s artistic journey was shaped by the profound influence of Dr. Gilbert Mason, a local civil rights leader who not only delivered her into the world but also instilled in her a deep sense of purpose and social responsibility. Full Bio.
Herbert “Mannie” Pair
Soynika Edwards-Bush
Soynika Edwards-Bush paints people without faces. It’s the first thing that hits you about her work. At first it startles you. Then you realize that by leaving the face blank, she’s inviting you to fill it in.
“I want the person standing in front of my paintings to feel connected to the image,” she said. “Maybe they see themselves in the little girl’s hair or the collar on a blouse brings back a memory. The people I paint are faceless but full of personality. They have a soul, they have a story, but it’s up to the viewer to imagine who they are.”
Soynika paints with acrylics and calls her work “skin folk/ kinfolk art.” Her colorful paintings reflect her family, roots and beliefs. Her distinctive style shares the warmth of memories from family photos, as well as the pain of civil rights history that lives on today. She knows the importance of keeping the civil rights era relevant to today’s time by painting what she feels and from the stories told to her by her family in the South.
Soynika is a self-taught artist, inspired by her father who was a carpenter and who taught her to draw. She is a wife and mother of four children from Prichard, Alabama.
“Almost Human and Yet…”
Works by Paulette Dove
On display: January 3 – February 28, 2025
Biloxi Artist Paulette Dove is an oil painter drawn to the almost-human qualities of rabbit hares. “These creatures, with their expressive faces and movements; serve as symbols of emotion, vulnerability and instinct. Through my art, I use them to explore the blurred line between human and animal – where our shared connections to nature and each other become clear.”
By painting rabbit hares, Dove aims to reflect the emotions we often see in ourselves while reminding us of the wild, instinctive nature that lives within us. “My work invites viewers to consider what it means to be human – and how much of that is tied to our animal like nature.”