A new exhibition, Undercurrents, will be open in the East Gallery and the winner of the 38^th annual Congressional Student Art Contest will be announced at the Albany Museum of Art’s Spring Exhibitions Reception. The event is 5-7 pm on Thursday, April 18, 2019. It is free and open to the public.

“Whether you’re a frequent visitor to the museum or a first-time guest, the Spring Exhibitions Reception is a great opportunity to see what’s going on at your Albany Museum of Art,” AMA Executive Director Paula Williams said. “You get to meet the artists, hear them talk about their work, chat with other art lovers and learn about the artwork. It will be a terrific evening."

The reception will be for five exhibitions at the AMA, including one that opens the same day as the reception. Undercurrents, works by Atlanta artist Jerushia Graham, opens at 10 am on April 18 in the East Gallery and continues through June 15.

Alex Mixon: A Life Well Lived, featuring works by the late Albany artist, opened April 2 and continues through the end of April in the Hodges Regional Gallery.

Memory and Meaning, works by Masud Olufani, is in the Haley Gallery, and Ghost Yonder Moonscape, works by Zipporah Camille Thompson, is in the West Gallery. Both exhibitions will continue through June 15.

The fifth show is a collection of works by high school students in the 2^nd Congressional District of Georgia who entered the 38^th annual Congressional Student Art Contest. Their artwork will be displayed April 16-18 in the Willson Auditorium. Congressman Sanford Bishop, D-Albany—or a member of his staff if his Capitol Hill duties prevent Bishop from attending—will announce this year’s winner. That student’s artwork will be on display for a year in a heavily traveled pedestrian tunnel between the House of Representatives offices and the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s quite a lot to pack into a single evening,” Williams said. “Of course, we’re always delighted when Congressman Bishop can visit the AMA.

“The museum also is happy to support this important program by hosting the district announcement, making a $250 purchase offer for the winning piece, and providing hotel accommodations in Washington for the winner and a parent to attend the national ceremony this summer. We all should do everything we can to get youth and teens involved in the arts.

Williams said she is pleased that two of the exhibiting artists, Jerushia Graham and Zipporah Thompson, plan to attend and speak at the reception. Taylor Mixon, wife of Alex Mixon, also plans to attend the reception.

“This exhibition of Alex’s art from childhood through his work as an adult is a celebration of his life, which touched so many in the short time he was with us,” Williams said.

While Olufani and Thompson’s exhibitions have been showing for several weeks, this will be the first opportunity that many in the Albany area will have to see Graham’s work in Undercurrents. Graham is a printmaker and fiber artist based in Atlanta, where she is the museum coordinator for the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking.

“The prints, papercuts and fabric pieces that make up Undercurrents explore the discontent, unrest and tension felt by many in an increasingly polarized society,” Graham said in describing her exhibition.

That polarization comes in many forms, she says.

“A widening socio-economic divide, daily injustices perpetrated towards anyone who is perceived as ‘other,’ and the continued struggle for gender equality fuel frustrations that lie just beneath the surface of our daily interactions,” Graham said. “Undercurrents expresses this slow-burning unrest and an uneasiness about the future."

Graham earned an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pa., and BFA degrees in Fabric Design and Printmaking from the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. Today, Graham exhibits both nationally and internationally. She was previously the education director for Atlanta Printmakers Studio, and has served as an arts professor for Kennesaw State University, the University of West Georgia, and the Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur.