“Artist examines Cycles in New Exhibition at Gallery 130”

Overview

Gallery 130 at The University of Mississippi is proud to present This Fickle Vessel, a new exhibition featuring the multimedia artwork of artist Erin Harmon. Through tapestry, quilting, and embroidery, Harmon explores the complexities, follies, and transitions of midlife femininity, creating richly layered works that move between pleasure, fertility, sardonic humor, and grief. Her practice draws upon deep lineages of handmaking while honoring the historical traditions of women’s artistic production. The intricate works foreground the labor and intimacy of working by hand, resulting in immersive spaces that evoke an awareness of the body and its physical and emotional experiences. As Harmon describes it, “Materials and processes establish fantasy, illusion, and the interplay between flat and not-flat while building an alternate Utopic world.”

On November 5, Harmon will visit The University of Mississippi to meet with students and visit classes before hosting a closing reception for This Fickle Vessel. The reception is free and open to the public and will offer an evening of food, conversation, and community. Harmon will also give an artist talk at 5:30 p.m. at Gallery 130 in Meek Hall. Through figures that shift between states of pleasure, fertility, humor, and grief, This Fickle Vessel reflects the contradictions and transformations of lived experience, inviting viewers to consider the body as both subject and vessel—an ever-changing site of memory, labor, desire, humor, and transformation.

Harmon is a professor of Art at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. She has exhibited her work nationally in both group and solo exhibitions at venues including Field Projects, NY; Sarah Doyle Gallery, Providence RI; Atlanta Artists Center & Gallery, Atlanta GA; the Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; and the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA; and LAUNCH Gallery, LA. Erin has been invited to produce commissions for organizations including Ballet Memphis, The Women’s Foundation of Greater Memphis, and the Memphis in May International Festival. Currently she holds the James F. Ruffin Chair of Art at Rhodes College and is a founding member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles.

The Gallery is located at Meek Hall on Cross Street. The exhibition will be open M-F, 9:00am-5:00pm and by special appointment. If there are any questions concerning this exhibition or Gallery 130, please contact Anthony Faris at jfaris@olemiss.edu.

Attached Artwork: Erin Harmon, Bouquet of Many Days #42