“Voice Carry: Art by Alabama Women” Coming To The Birmingham Public Library Downtown

"Me and My Friend Playing Cards," Annie Tolliver, 1996 

Birmingham, Ala. - In celebration of Women’s History Month, a new art exhibition is set to open at  the Birmingham Public Library . Voices Carry: Art by Alabama Women will  debut at an artists' reception in the Fourth Floor Gallery at the Central Library's Fourth Floor Gallery. BPL looks forward to making an announcement about the opening and reception dates as soon as possible.

The exhibition features work by 20 artists and will be on display through Friday, April 26. It is the latest installment in BPL’s new visual arts series, Art for Everyone. Please see below for brief background information on each artist participating in Voices Carry: Art by Alabama Women. 

The show follows on the heels of the exhibition Assembly: Contemporary Gee’s Bend Quilts. Exhibitions showcasing works by Misty Bennett and Stacey Holloway are currently on view on the first floor of the Central Library through Friday, March 29. 

Voices Carry is curated by Paul Barrett and BPL's Margaret Splane. The exhibition has been made possible, in part, by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts  and the National Endowment for the Arts, awarded to the Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library. 

Artists featured in Voices Carry: Art by Alabama Women:

Sara Garden Armstrong recently published a monograph titled Threads and Layers to accompany a travelling solo exhibition of the same name. She founded the art space Ground Floor Contemporary  and has work in the collections of major museums around the world. 

Kelly Bryant is the current Alabama Fellow for South Arts' Southern Prize and teaches graphic design at Auburn University.

Merrilee Challiss serves as Executive Director of Studio by the Tracks and has exhibited her work nationally. She has participated in Birmingham's art scene dating back to her cofounding of the popular music venue Bottletree. 

Tameca Cole’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Birmingham Museum of Art. She was the 2021 Alabama Fellow for South Arts' Southern Prize and in 2020 received the Art Matters Foundation Grant.

Deidre Darby is a recent BFA graduate from the University of Montevallo. 

Brenda Davis is a longtime guest artist at the Kentuck Festival with work included in many private and museum collections. 

The triptych by Patti B. Driscoll on display at BPL is a larger version of the triptych in the collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art. 

Lauren Frances Evans teaches art and manages the art gallery at Samford University. 

Jenny Fine is the 2023 Fellow for South Arts' Southern Prize.

Erin London is an artist activist whose work can be seen in the travelling exhibition Embodied.

Betty Sue Matthews is a longtime guest artist at the Kentuck Festival. Her work is included in many private and museum collections. 

Haruyo Miyagawa is the former manager of the visual arts program at BPL and is an accomplished printer and multimedia artist. Haruyo is also the visionary behind Bards & Brews, BPL's popular spoken word poetry event.  

Amy Pleasant is the first recipient of South Arts' Southern Prize and a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellowship for individuals interested in the arts. 

Irasema Quezada received a BFA at UAB and is currently working on an MFA at the University of Alabama. 

Debra Riffe was the longtime graphic designer for the City of Birmingham and recently had a solo exhibition the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts . 

Mary Ann Sampson has exhibited her artist books at the Smithsonian Institution and numerous other museums. She is featured in multiple publications about book artists. 

Carolyn Sherer has work in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery among numerous other museums. She has a new monograph coming out this year. 

Annie Tolliver was a longtime guest artist at the Kentuck Festival. Her work is included in many private and museum collections. 

Yvonne Wells received the Governor's Award from the state of Alabama, and her work is featured in numerous museums throughout the United States. She has a monograph coming out this year through the University of Alabama Press. 

Joi West is the Alabama State Council on the Arts’ inaugural Gay Burke Fellow for Photography. 

By Margaret Splane| Library Assistant III, BPL Community Engagement & Fundraising