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Derek Trucks, Guitar Virtuoso, Jacksonville, FL, 2015, Timothy Duffy. From Our Living Past: Platinum Portraits of Southern Music Makers.
Posted December 16, 2021

New Exhibits Feature Platinum Portraits of Southern Musicians, Explore Pandemic Life in Appalachia

Join Piedmont Arts for an opening reception in honor of the museum's new exhibits on Friday, January 21, 2022 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the museum.

Our Living Past: Platinum Portraits of Southern Music Makers is a collection of portraits and still lifes by photographer Timothy Duffy. Over 35 years, Duffy has forged a unique vision immortalizing Southern musical heroes and the world in which they live. The founder of Music Maker Foundation — a non-profit that preserves the musical traditions of the South by directly supporting the musicians who make it — Duffy traveled the South to capture this compelling collection of 25 wet-plate collodion photographs, which were printed with the platinum/palladium process. Our Living Past includes portraits ranging from guitar virtuoso and Allman Brothers Band member Derek Trucks and legendary bluesman Taj Mahal to lesser-known blues and soul artists, as well as images of instruments, like former Carolina Chocolate Drops member Dom Flemons' circa 1920 banjo, “Big Head Joe.”

Dear B.J.: Postcards from the Pandemic is a creative non-fiction interpretation of life in Appalachia during the COVID-19 pandemic, as imagined by artist L.S. King through intimate postcard-sized images and one side of written correspondence. Each card features a black-and-white photograph with a backside written to a mysterious B.J. and signed by “ME.” Through these vagaries, King invites the viewer into a shared world. Perhaps you wonder who B.J. is, or maybe you know. Perhaps you relate to the “ME,” who signed the cards. And as you think about it all, perhaps you overlay King's visual narrative over your own.

Tara Compton, featuring work by the local abstract painter, sculptor and jewelry designer will be on display in the Lynwood Artists Gallery.

The opening reception is free and open to the public. Complimentary wine and light refreshments will be served. Limited capacity. RSVP required by January 18, 2022 to 276.632.3221 or online here.

Exhibits will be on display January 22 – March 12, 2022. Exhibit admission is always free.

Exhibits and reception sponsored by Gael and Smith Chaney, Cindy and Steve Edgerton, Marty Gardner, Jennifer Reis and Pete Mannen, Barbara and Guy Stanley, The Martinsville Graduate Kappa Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Lynwood Artists.

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