The Van Every Smith Galleries 2020 True Likeness exhibit opened at the Van Every Smith Galleries on October 29, 2020. The exhibit was co-curated by Lia Newman, Davidson’s gallery director and curator, and Tom Stanley, an artist and independent curator. Take the virtual tour of the exhibit here.
The curatorial statement notes “True Likeness presents an exhibition of contemporary portraits from diverse makers in a variety of media including video, photography, painting, collage, installation, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. Artists, some familiar, others more on the fringe of the art world, hail from all over the United States. Their own identities, and those presented through their works, provide a snapshot of who we are as a country. As the exhibition took shape over the last two years, as overt and coded hate speech became congruent with one of the most divisive elections of our time, it became apparent that highlighting and celebrating diversity was paramount.” Read more about the exhibit here.
Wendy Redstar | Apsáalooke Feminist #1 
Deborah Luster | Levelle Black Tolliver (Judas) HR 
Mickalene Thomas | Afro Goddess with Hand Between Legs
During the spring semester on March 28, 2021, the exhibit was taken down from the Van Every Smith Galleries and started its journey to be displayed at other galleries across the country. True Likeness is currently being displayed at the Sarah Moody Gallery at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and will remain on display through January 18, 2022.
The exhibit will also be on display at the HUB-Robeson Gallery at Penn State and later at the Baker Art Museum at Artis-Naples in Naples, Florida. The exhibit will likely be shown at other galleries in the future as well.
The theme of the exhibition— a celebration of the diversity of those who live in the United States— becomes further emphasized through the traveling iterations. Stay tuned for more updates on the upcoming gallery locations for the True Likeness Exhibition.
– Claire Begalla ’24