Past Exhibitions
Sarah Peoples "Through the Oyster Speculum"
June 22, 2026 – September 9, 2026
Reception: Thursday, August 27, 2026 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Sculptor Sarah Peoples from Philadelphia has made a lasting impact on the art world with her thought-provoking works and community involvement. She holds a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a BS from the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a Masters degree from PAFA in 2012.
Most recently, Peoples installed her ever-enduring Plastic Rainbow sculpture on the grounds of Mother in Law's Gallery in Germantown, Ny for Upstate Arts Weekend, 2025. She was a finalist for her public art proposal in a juried competition co-organized by the Association for Public Art (aPA) and the Parkway Council, called Art on the Parkway. In May of 2024 she engaged the public with a moving a ceremonial performance celebrating the Full Flower Moon narrated by a mythical musical score accompaniment and ice sculpture offerings. During her tenure as Artist in Residence at Glen Foerd from June 2022 to September 2023, she created three impactful large-scale public artworks addressing pressing issues such as environmental justice, collective consciousness shaping national identity, and our human connection to nature. The culmination of her residency was a vibrant public event at Glen Foerd, featuring Peoples' art alongside site-specific performative mindfulness practices and interactive community engagement activities.
Recently, Peoples was featured in the online exhibition "The Meaning of Everything" by the Dina Wind Foundation. Peoples' artistic journey also includes a solo public art exhibition, "Between Wind and Water," at The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum in Maryland throughout the summer and fall of 2023. Her insightful writing got her placement in the publication "Artist, Mother, Proud & Serious | VOLUME I," where she critiques the divisive "Art Mama" movement.
Noteworthy among her public installations is the 18-foot site-specific sculpture, "Plastic Waterfall," crafted from post-consumer recycled materials, which adorned the lobby of the Cira Centre in Philadelphia as part of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and HotBed’s Plastic Free Philly campaign in the Spring and Summer of 2022.
Peoples' commitment to community engagement is evident in her participation as lead artist in the DaVinci Art Alliance’s Everyday Future Fest at Palumbo Park in April 2022, where she presented "Deconstructed Landscapes," an exhibition featuring large temporary site-specific sculptures made entirely from post-consumer recycled materials.
Another notable sculpture, "Plastic Rainbow" in Fairmount Park served as a symbol of hope and unity during the early months of the pandemic, earning praise from Conrad Benner of Streets Dept.
Her street sculpture series, including "Oil Soaked Neckties," "Baptismal Font," "Props for Peaceful Protest," and "Props for Nature," have garnered acclaim for their innovative approach to public art.
Peoples has exhibited her work in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide, including AUTOMAT Collective in Philadelphia, PEEP Space in Tarrytown, NY, and MWoods in Beijing, China, where her work is part of the museum's permanent collection. Her talent was recognized with the 2018 Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge award.
Spring 2026 Senior Exhibition
April 9, 2026 – May 8, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
"Assemblage: Spring 2026 Senior Exhibition”
The Spring 2026 graduating class of studio art majors group exhibition, “Assemblage”, is a collection of works from 19 artists showcasing various mediums including, but not limited to: oil paintings, sculpture, photography, printmaking, digital art, ink, ceramics, mixed media, etc.
Family, personal experiences, mental health, escapism, identity, time and space are just a few overarching themes presented within this body of work.
This show features the work of 19 graduating seniors majoring in Studio Art, including:
These graduating artists cordially invite the public to experience their “Assemblage” as UNCW studio art students!
For more information visit https://uncw.edu/seahawk-life/arts/venues/cultural-arts-building/ or check out our Instagram @uncw.seniorexhibit for sneak previews!
Jovencio de la Paz: "Numbers in the Dark"
February 19, 2026 – March 20, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 19, 2026 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Funding for this exhibition at UNCW’s CAB Art Gallery is supported by UNCW’S Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL) and UNCW’s Department of Art and Art History.
BIO:
Jovencio de la Paz (b. 1986, Republic of Singapore) lives and works in Eugene, Oregon. de la Paz received a Master of Fine Art in Fibers from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (2012) and a Bachelor of Fine Art with an emphasis on Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008).
They have exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, NY; PPOW Gallery in New York; NY, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles; Cranbrook Museum of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI; R & Company Gallery in New York, NY; Vacation Gallery in New York, NY; The 2019 Portland Biennial at Oregon Contemporary in Portland, OR; The Museum of Craft and Folk-art in Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, CO; Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea; The Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR; The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Uri Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, Slash Gallery in Seattle, WA; the 2024 Immigrant Artist Biennial in New York; the ICA at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA; among others.
In 2022, de la Paz was awarded the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship for their significant contributions to the field of weaving.
They are represented by Chris Sharp Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
Jovencio de la Paz is an Associate Professor and Head of Fibers at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon USA.
Artist Statement:
“My work and research is situated within the unfolding relationship between ancient weaving technology (the loom) and modern computers. I approach this intersection as a traditionally trained weaver, but also as a digital native. Sharing the same language of binary code, I see this relationship as both fraught and fruitful. Using the digital TC2 (Thread Controller 2) Jacquard loom, I manipulate, hack, confound, and fracture design software to explore and test the boundaries of how cloth is typically conceived. I push design software to the point of rupture or failure, capturing the physicality of these behaviors as the warp and weft of hand-woven textiles.
The resulting weavings often display frenzied patterns: distorted, agitated, or corrupted. I revel in the conflicts that arise between the digital and the physical, between traditional forms and emerging technologies, and I am always sensitive to the presence of the ghosts in the machines I use. Additionally, I work to create new software, drawing tools, and self-generating, parametric systems that employ “computational creativity” to make weaving patterns independently from a human designer. My visual language relinquishes much formal determination to the algorithmic operations I choose. I collaborate with this computational creativity to weave cloth that is neither entirely human nor completely machine in origin. What emerges is often an alien visual language, a vernacular of line, color, and shape that surfaces from the interior, computer world of algorithms. Ultimately, I am interested in the soft world of machines and their programming, obscured by the rigidity of technocracy and the structures of capital; a queer and cyborg theory emerges from the intimacy of dissecting the machine or electing programs as collaborators. I question the subject/object relationship generally established between maker and tool, and I contemplate the possibility that tools form the maker as much as they are wielded, teaching their users what is possible within their disciplines, and physically influencing the products and outcomes of the studio.
Speaking in the vernacular of geometric abstraction, color, composition, line, and the formal concerns of painting are at the forefront of my process. And yet, I diverge from individualistic decision making: first by employing the strict parameters of the loom, and secondly by the algorithmic properties of the software I engage. The loom is an engine of abstraction, condensing the physical, material world into the grid and its intellectual and cultural order. And yet this order can also be tested, ruptured, or un-made, a process of loosening or reversal not available to the material of paint, which undergoes irreversible chemical transformation. Thread can always be unwoven, and I emphasize this looseness, erratic and irregular as it may be, to resist the fixity and stasis associated with the picture plane of Modernity. Thread, which is the vehicle of color in my practice, betrays the illusionistic quality of the painted image. From a distance, threads appear as fields of color, but on close inspection the objecthood of the phenomenon of color becomes self-evident. Each discrete thread remains an identifiable and unique physical instance despite its place in the matrix of the cloth.”
Taro Takizawa: "Undercurrents"
January 15, 2026 – February 11, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 15, 2026 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, January 15, 2026, 5 p.m. in Cultural Arts Building Room 2033
“Undercurrents” offers an immersive experience with a site-specific window vinyl installation, followed by pockets of intimate story telling through relief printing on paper. Born in Japan, artist Taro Takizawa’s imagery conveys lived experienced since moving to the US in 2002, through associations between the contemporary and personal history, perspective, thought, Japanese heritage and permanent memory.
Taro Takizawa is an artist specializing in printmaking, wall vinyl installations, drawings, and 2D designs. His work blends both Western and Eastern aesthetics, with a deep appreciation for traditional printmaking processes and the art of mark-making. Takizawa is fascinated by the fusion of contemporary studio practices with traditional methods, exploring the boundaries between printmaking and installation art.
Takizawa earned his BFA with a printmaking emphasis from Central Michigan University and completed his MFA in printmaking at Syracuse University in 2017. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally at prominent venues such as the Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, PARADOX European Fine Art Forum in Poland, ArtPrize 10 at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, LUX Center for the Arts, the China Printmaking Museum, Tyger Tyger Gallery, and Kai Lin Art in Atlanta, GA. He has also participated in several artist residencies, including those at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Morgan Conservatory, GoggleWorks, and Lawrence Arts Center.
Takizawa currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Artist Statement:
“The past few years my focus has been a relief printing technique with using chipboard as a main material to create a relief block, oppose to woodblock (Shina plywood, MDF, and others) or linoleum sheets which are more common. I am particularly fond of the chipboard because it is 100% recycled material, it is super cheap, and it creates unexpected chatter, or textures on my print. The chance element was perhaps the most welcoming surprise since I was at a point where I had too much control in my work and it was becoming too predictable, and I needed a change. When I started using chipboard, I was also becoming more conscious of reducing the waste in my studio practice.
Nature and memory are a big theme for me (and probably for a lot of other artists). I’m fascinated by the overwhelming patterns, colors and textures the nature offer us (or whoever willing to take time to go out and observe). I document nature by taking photos on my phone, drawing, through dialogue and generally being aware of the surroundings. These documentations will be filtered through my studio practice by drawing, sorting, editing and printing. Other influences are by going to see exhibits at museums and galleries.
www.cargocollective.com/tarotakizawa
For more information: https://linktr.ee/cabartgallery
Fall 2025 Senior Exhibition, "The Sum of Us"
November 13, 2025 – December 12, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 13, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Fall 2025 Senior Exhibition, "The Sum of Us”, will open with a free, public reception on Thursday, November 13th, 2025 in UNCW’s Cultural Arts Building (CAB) Art Gallery.
The exhibition will be on view until December 12, 2025 and showcases the work of 18 graduating seniors majoring in Studio Art:
Logan Beechner
Andrea Boctot
Karoline Carl
Atlanta Carrera
Sara Driver Dyjak
Madelyn Frazier
Dana Moon
Sarah Horning
Brandon Huebner
Chaniris Jimenez Nieves
Ryan Lewis
Tatiana O’Brien
Kit Osborne
Maya Scalabrino
Emelia Stinson
Julie Sydes
Owen Varner
Ella Williamson
“The Sum of Us” is a multi-media exhibition characterized by various art styles and subject matter. The works range from digital prints, to screen prints, pastel drawings, oil paintings, photography and feature everything from digitally created characters to biblical figures brought to life in soft pastel.
This exhibition is the culmination of artwork created over the last four years; the painstaking hours, days, and weeks spent learning technique, exploring new media, and searching for their own voice.
These graduating seniors will also give individual artist presentations in the UNCW Cultural Arts Building, Room 2033, on Friday, December 5th, 2025 beginning at 11:30 am. These presentations are free and open to the public.
Please visit https://linktr.ee/cabartgallery for more information
Naya A. Mauricio: "Museum of Unborn Memories"
September 25, 2025 – October 29, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 25, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 5 p.m. in Cultural Arts Building Room 2033
“Museum of Unborn Memories” is an exhibition of new paintings by visiting international artist, Naya A. Mauricio, opening in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Cultural Arts Building (CAB) Art Gallery on September 25, 2025. The exhibition will run through Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
A public reception will be held on Thursday, September 25, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m., with an artist talk before the reception at 5 p.m. in UNCW's Cultural Arts Building, Room 2033.
Naya A. Mauricio is Cuban artist living in Ecuador. On view will be his new work, close to 70 small format oil paintings on paper.
For more information visit https://linktr.ee/cabartgallery
Artist Statement
“Our memories are imprecise and changing; they depend on our recall and reinterpretation. All human beings carry out the creative work of reconstructing what we believe to be our invariable memories. We are, to a greater or lesser extent, authors of our memories. We use the raw material of the small, imprecise notes our brain takes at every moment of our lives, and we reconstruct scenes with the help of our own memories of other events, our collective memories, or the memories left to us by the experience of contemplating various forms of art (film, literature, music, visual arts, performing arts). In this, we are no different from a fiction writer.
In the "Museum of Unborn Memories" exhibition, I propose to reconstruct this fragmentary process of recreating memories. That is why the word "unborn" is used in the title, because it is precisely the process, not the final image, that is portrayed in the works. This process resembles the syncretism with which all cultures are constructed. A transculturation process where borders disappear and identity is not something fixed but rather is shaped at every moment. The decision to paint isolated elements, without a background, attempts to recreate the experience we have when visiting an archaeological museum, where we encounter mysterious fragments of a largely unknown past. The exhibition should be perceived as a large installation where each element is a mysterious fragment of a past that never existed.
Of course, there are autobiographical elements in this exhibition. For example, the experience of being born in the Caribbean, of having lived most of my life as an immigrant, of having lost almost my entire family, among others. But those memories have been reworked until they become something that no longer belongs to me.
Speaking about my work in a more general way: almost unconsciously, all my life I have been building a personal bestiary in which the human being plays a predominant role.”
Biography
Born in Havana, Cuba, 1975.
Graduated from Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas San Alejandro, Cuba, 1994.
2025 Studio Art Faculty Biennial
July 31, 2025 – September 10, 2025
Reception: Thursday, August 28, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
University of North Carolina Wilmington’s “2025 Studio Art Faculty Biennial” will open in UNCW’s Cultural Arts Building Art Gallery on July 31, 2025. A public reception will be held on Thursday, August 28, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
The exhibition will run through Wednesday, September 10, 2025.
The 2025 Faculty Biennial features current work in a diverse range of media explored by University of North Carolina Wilmington’s studio art faculty members:
Shannon Bourne, Rebecca Chappelear, Madison Creech, James Farley, Gene A. Felice II, Matthew French, Courtney Johnson, Katie Knoeringer, Anne Lindberg, Anna Pagnucci, Abby Spangel Perry, Ana Vizcarra Rankin, Loraine Scalamoni, Andi Steele, Taro Takizawa, Pam Toll, and Aaron Wilcox.
The exhibition was thoughtfully organized, hung, and presented by UNCW Art History alumni, Skye Dlugy-Hegwer.
Spring 2025 Senior Exhibition
April 10, 2025 – May 9, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 10, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Senior Exhibition is a capstone requirement for all UNCW seniors graduating with a major in Studio Art.
2025 Graduting Studio Art Seniors include:
Gracen Alsheimer
Caeson Baker
Anika Beecher
Enrique Boyd
Ashtyn Bunn
Maheylah Colie
James Cross
Holly Dabal
Zoe Durst
Thomas Gardner
Briana Mijoie Griffin
Katie Lewis
Meghan Lewis
Sylvia McGee
Coleman Ray Merritt
Laney Mills
Sophie Plummer
Melody Quate
Alexandra Russell
Keaton Snider
Killian Spangler
Kala Surigao
Marissa Van Dyke
Haylee Vitale
Hallie-Claire Weems
Caroline Wilkerson
Rachel Gloria Adams: "Bloom for Yesterday"
February 20, 2025 – March 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, February 20, at 5 p.m. EST
(in person): UNCW's Cultural Arts Building Room 2033
"Bloom for Yesterday" is a collection of 10 quilts that highlight moments of tenderness within the Adams family. A combination of paint and quilting are patched together to capture these seemingly small moments that reflect the happiness, pride and depth of motherhood. These moments are depicted in an illustrative style that distills the essence of its subjects. Subtle clues of the subjects identity are exposed whether it be the strong emphasis on hair to allude to the blackness of the subjects or patterning within their clothing. In many ways each piece serves as self portraiture as they are moments that have evoked an emotional response from the artist.
Adams comes from a lineage of quilters and creatives. The practice of quilting allows Adams to work from home within the chaos of raising two daughters. Her girls, Zoe and Norah are able to experience these moments and witness the process of translating life into art through their mothers lens. Adams has created heirlooms that memorialize these specific points in time for the Adams and provide a tangible means of holding onto these moments.
The quilts themselves breakdown art institution norms by bringing together painting and craft. These objects give the viewer the sensation of warmth, comfort and home.
"Bloom For Yesterday" in essence is a love letter to Adams younger self. As products of divorce and troubled youths, both Rachel and Ryan are dedicated to providing a life for their girls that is full of adventure, creativity and love. In many ways they are able to experience things for the first time alongside their girls and in return their own inner child is able to blossom in ways they didn’t know they were capable of. On a broader scale the work serves as a reminder of Black joy. As a Black family living in Maine it is not often Black families are represented enjoying the Maine landscape. These moments provide a narrative of joy despite the hardships people of color endure.
BIO
Rachel Gloria Adams is a multidisciplinary artist living in Portland, ME. Adams has developed a vibrant, graphic pattern-based visual language filled with references to the natural world that possess an heirloom quality. Her work takes form by way of quilting, painting, design and large-scale murals.
Adams moved to Maine in 2005 to pursue her BFA from the Maine College of Art and Design. She has gone on to exhibit artwork at Center for Maine Contemporary Art Dowling Walsh Gallery and Portland Museum of Art. She has attended residencies at Speedwell, Stephen Pace House and is an Indigo Arts Alliance David C Driscoll Fellow. Her artwork has been acquired by the Farnsworth Art Museum and several personal collections. In addition to her studio practice, Adams has been commissioned to create murals for several institutions including the Children’s Museum of Portland, University of Maine and the Farnsworth Art Museum.
This spring Adams alongside her husband and creative partner will install a mural at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.
Pam Toll: "Longing and Movement"
Jan. 13, 2025 – Feb. 13, 2025
Reception: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 from 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, Jan. 30, at 5 p.m. in the CAB Art Gallery
Pam Toll’s “Longing & Movement” is an exhibition of narrative paintings and collage, made in different places and at various times throughout Toll’s career, but exhibited together for the first time.
There are works made after her first residency in Macedonia in 1991, works painted on Bald Head Island in North Carolina, and collage paintings made for an ongoing memoir series, “The Familiar Distance in Going Home”. Also included are new works.
Pam Toll
Fall 2024 Senior Exhibit
