Five new exhibitions at the Albany Museum of Art, led by Vitus Shell: Power of Sight, the Louisiana artist’s first solo exhibition in Georgia, will be celebrated at an opening reception on Thursday, June 4, at the museum. The reception starts at 5:30 pm.

The summer lineup includes two exhibitions that focus on Albany’s history: Sense of Place: Green Book Sites in Albany, GA, and the multimedia Moments in the Good Life City: An Oral History of Albany, GA. Works by the two winning artists in the AMA’s second annual open call for artists are also on view: The Middle Way, photography by Rylan Steele of Columbus, Ga., and The House of Bird, works by Jessica Ambadipudi of Leesburg, Ga.

“Each of these exhibitions illuminate how art allows us to discover who we are,” AMA Executive Director Andrew James Wulf, Ph.D., said. “From portraits to photographs, personal memory to regional history, there is an opportunity to view our community, our region, and ourselves through many prisms. Taken together, they will make for a powerful experience for our visitors.”

Artists Shell, Steele, and Ambadipudi are expected to attend the reception, as are local residents who were interviewed for Moments in the Good Life City and who provided information about Green Book sites for Sense of Place. The reception is free for AMA donors at the Reciprocal Level or higher. Tickets are $10 for AMA Artist Guild donors and $15 for the general public. For the RSVP link, visit www.albanymuseum.com/event/summer-2026-reception/.

Vitus Shell: Power of Sight in the Haley Gallery is the first solo presentation in Georgia for Shell, who is based in his home state of Louisiana. In the larger-than-life works in his Gold Everything Series, the subjects of his paintings are shrouded in and surrounded by classic golden motifs and filigree, as in historic European portraiture.

“His work focuses on the weight of contemporary Black portraiture and the idea of sightedness,” Curator of African Collections and African Diasporic Art Sidney Pettice said. “Documenting the likeness of these sitters in his paintings exhibits a certain agency in being—something that Black communities have been denied. Furthermore, his artwork questions and critiques the history of the Black subject in canonical portraiture.”

Pettice said Shell’s work aims to question how the perception of a subject in portraiture not only has historical resonance but also demands that Black culture and Black experience be placed at the forefront.

With the nation’s semiquincentennial fast approaching, Sense of Place in the East Gallery connects Albany’s history with visual art, highlighting Albany locations listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1937 to 1945

“The Green Book was an invaluable tool for Black travelers in the United States, especially in the South during the Jim Crow era,” Pettice said. “Named for its author, Victor Hugo Green, the book provided motorists with lists of safe gas stations, rest areas, restaurants, hotels, and tourist homes. During those years, Mrs. Aurelia Bentley, Mrs. Lula Davis, Mrs. Virginia Ross, and Mrs. Callie Washington opened their homes to travelers for lodging and refuge.”

Community leader and photographer Adrian Jenkins photographed the Albany locations for the exhibition. “While these historic homes no longer exist or function as the homes they once were, the legacy of these four women as activists in their own right remains and deserves to be recognized,” Pettice said. “We reached out to the community for information on these families and sites, and connected with one of their descendants who will also be in attendance.”

Moments in the Good Life City presents an oral history project created through a partnership between the Albany Museum of Art and the South Georgia Archives at the Thronateeska Heritage Center.

Billye Sands, of BillYAY Films, filmed the interviews with Patricia Chatmon Perryman, Pamela Chatmon Washington, Michael Harper, Angelia Gibson Jones, and Adrian Jenkins. Those interviews are presented on-screen in the Hodges Gallery, and the recordings will be permanently housed in the South Georgia Archives.

In summer 2025, the AMA issued its second call for artists to apply for a juried solo exhibition this summer at the museum. The first call in 2024-25 was for Georgia artists, but the 2025-26 call was expanded to include Alabama.

“We had originally planned to show one artist’s work, but because we had unique circumstances with our exhibition calendar, we were able to award exhibitions to two artists,” Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard said.

Selected were Jessica Ambadipudi, of Leesburg, Ga., and Rylan Steele, of Columbus, Ga.

Ambadipudi’s work in The Home of Birds is on view in the West Gallery. A native of India, she began in animation before transitioning into illustration and visual storytelling. Her move to the U.S. in pursuit of her MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design led her to address homesickness and what home really is through the symbolism of stars and birds, the latter migratory creatures that create homes at any location.

Rylan Steele work is on view in The Middle Way in the McCormack Gallery. A photographer and associate professor of photography at Columbus State University, Steele was inspired by a rereading of To Kill a Mockingbird to tell the story of childhood and the pivotal parts of growing up by photographing his son, Owen, over the past nine years, showing his evolution from a child to a teenager. Steele and Owen are collaborators in this body of work, with the documentation of the series constructed from their conversations.

“While both of the artists are from Georgia, we had a strong response from Alabama artists. When we issue our third call this summer, we plan to expand further and include Florida artists,” Dillard said. “Through this open call exhibition, we aim to bring the art of the South to the foreground by uplifting Southern artists and ensuring their stories are recognized as vital contributions to the larger landscape of American fine art.”

The five exhibitions opened on May 27 and will continue through Saturday, Aug 29. AMA galleries are open from 10 am to 5 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is free for everyone.

• Vitus Shell: Power of Sight is May 28-Aug 29, 2026, in the Haley Gallery.
• Sense of Place: Green Book Sites in Albany, GA is May 28-Aug 29, 2026, in the East Gallery.
• Moments in The Good Life City: An Oral History of Albany, GA is May 28-Aug 29, 2026, in the Hodges Gallery.
• The Middle Way, works by Rylan Steele, is May 28-Aug 29, 2026, in the McCormack Gallery.
• The Home of Birds, works by Jessica Ambadipudi, is May 28-Aug 29, 2026, in the West Gallery.