Dixon opens third installment of ‘Black Artists in America’
“Black Artists in America” includes Varnette Honeywood’s “Sabbath.” (The John and Susan Horseman Collection/Courtesy of the Horseman Foundation)
This monthly column is a non-exhaustive selection of art exhibitions happening in the greater Memphis area. For consideration, please email an artist bio/statement, show closing and opening dates, examples of works featured and any special events during the show’s run to eperry@dailymemphian.com at least two weeks before opening.
Roger Allan Cleaves ‘A World on Fire’ exhibition opening at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Sunday, Jan. 11:
Roger Allan Cleaves’ “Raised by Wolves.” (Courtesy of the artist)
Memphis visual artist and writer Roger Allen Cleaves’ exhibition “A World of Fire” opens Sunday, Jan. 11, in the Dixon Gallery & Gardens’ Mallory and Wurtzburger Galleries.
His fictional “Forget Me Lots Land” is the center of his current works. “Forget Me Nots Land” is described as “a complex Afrofuturist fantasy that purposefully resists easy explanations and simple summaries.”
Roger Allan Cleaves’ “The Banana Republic of Oz.” (Courtesy of the artist)
In “A World on Fire,” Cleaves invents a biannual festival that begins as the weather changes. Transplants come to participate in the festival, but unlike normal years, the world turns gray after the festival conclusion. Cleaves’ hero, Bookie, hopes to fix the world’s color.
Cleaves weaves in influences of modernism such as cubism, surrealism and pop into his works. He is a University of Memphis and University of Wisconsin - Madison graduate.
“A World on Fire” will be on view through April 12, 2026. The Dixon’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday.
1-5 p.m. Free admission daily. 4339 Park Ave.
Shameka Carter’s ‘Winter Embrace’ at the Memphis Botanic Garden, opening reception, Sunday, Jan. 11:
Memphis artist and art educator Shameka Carter. (Courtesy Shameka Carter)
“Winter Embrace” is the first solo exhibition of local artist and art educator Shameka Carter. Carter is a graduate of Central High School, Memphis College of Art and the University of Memphis. Her works range from paintings to mixed media to copper jewelry.
For nearly two decades, Carter has taught art in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system. She coordinates the annual AAPI (Asian American & Pacific Islander) Heritage Month Memphis Student Art Contest.
Carter said that she hopes her art brings people together and provides a sense of peace.
“I seek to evoke a sense of comfort and warmth — an emotional refuge amidst the noise and coldness of the world,” Carter said in her artist statement. “Each piece is an invitation to pause, feel held, and reconnect with quiet moments of tenderness and whimsical familiarity.”
Carter’s pieces have been previously seen in Dixon Gallery & Garden’s Interactive Gallery, the Germantown Performing Arts Center, the Memphis Botanic Garden, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s gift shop.
“Winter Embrace” will be on view at the Botanic Garden’s Visitors Center Gallery from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31, 2026. An opening reception will be held from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11.
2-4 p.m. (opening reception). Free. 750 Cherry Road.
Works from Patrick McGee at the Memphis Botanic Garden, opening Sunday, Jan. 11:
An oil painting from Patrick McGee. (Jan Davis/Memphis Botanic Garden)
Patrick McGee is a Toledo, Ohio-native, based in Byhalia, Mississippi, since 2018. McGee has been a musician since age 10, with his experience including a performance art band in college and his current gigs under Patrick McGee and the Midnight Choir.
McGee began oil painting in the early 2000s and is a member of the Byhalia Area Arts Council and the Artists’ Link in Memphis. His style includes realism and abstract surrealism.
McGee’s works have been seen in Toledo, Bowling Green, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as in the local area at the Beale Street Art Crawl, the Pinch District artist’s market, WKNO Gallery 109 and St. George’s Episcopal Church.
His exhibition will be on view at the Botanic Garden’s Grand Hallway from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31, 2026.
2-4 p.m. (opening reception). Free. 750 Cherry Road.
Anthony Lee’s ‘River Coral’ at Levy Gallery at the Buckman Arts Center at St. Mary’s, opening reception Friday, Jan. 23:
Artist Anthony Lee in his studio on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
You’ve very likely seen the work of artist Anthony Lee if you live in Memphis. Among other works, Lee is the painter behind the nationally recognized “Modern Hieroglyphics” mural at Central Station on Main Street and he completed a large mural inside the renovated Cossitt Library.
Lee serves as assistant director of the Edge District’s Marshall Arts Gallery. His “River Coral” opens the Buckman Center’s Levy Gallery’s spring season on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. An opening reception will be held from 5-7 p.m.
One of Anthony Lee’s new works. (Courtesy Buckman Center)
The exhibition will be on view through March 30, 2026. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Thursday or one hour before performances.
Lee, who has lived in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as Memphis, has said his influences include Memphis’ food, music, and the years after the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the colors and life in the Virgin Islands.
Lee was a pupil of Central High School art teacher Bill Hicks and also served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army.
This exhibition features new works from the artist.
“These works are emotional vignettes of the living experience past and present,” Lee said in an artist statement. “Different topics are explored using colorful symbolism and placement to narrate each work. I didn’t intend for the viewer to be able to decipher the writing used in the composition. I simply wanted to use the image of script to say to the viewer, ‘Hey, there’s a real story here. Look closer and let your mind develop its plot.’”
5-7 p.m. (opening reception). Free admission. 60 Perkins Ext.
‘Meet the Dixons’ exhibition opening at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Sunday, Jan. 25:
On Jan. 25, 1976, the Dixon Gallery & Gardens opened its doors for the first time. On its 50th anniversary, the museum will host an anniversary celebration from 1-4 p.m. Jan. 25, 2026, set to include light refreshments, cakes, and tours. Beginning on the anniversary, attendees can visit an exhibition in the Interactive Gallery to learn more about the founders: Margaret and Hugo Dixon.
“Meet the Dixons” will be on view through May 31, 2026. The Dixon’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25, at noon, Jane Ward Faquin will lead a (free) Munch and Learn lecture about the Dixons. Faquin, retired director of education for the Dixon, is a curator and art historian (and a Memphis native).
1-5 p.m. Free admission daily. 4339 Park Ave.
‘Black Artists in America: From the Bicentennial to September 11, 2001’ exhibition opening at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Sunday, Jan. 25:
Barkley L. Hendricks’s “Doc and Ruby’s Oldest Boy.” (Courtesy of the estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)
On its 50th birthday, the museum will open the final installment of what it has called its most ambitious exhibition ever.
Kerry James Marshall’s “The Face of Nat Turner Appeared in a Water Stain” (image enhanced). (Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)
“Black Artists in America: From the Bicentennial to September 11, 2001” is the third in the series curated by University of Memphis art history professor Earnestine Jenkins.
The more than 50 paintings, sculpture and paper works include the artists Ernie Barnes, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Kerry James Marshall and Kara Walker. Several Memphis artists are included, like Luther Hampton, James Little and Floyd Newsum Jr.
“I’m hoping that (the series) nudges (people) to really think about the value of the Black cultural heritage that we have in Memphis and the need to preserve that and document that and protect that and to understand and appreciate how influential this Black cultural heritage that we have in Memphis (is),” Jenkins said in a 2023 interview.
That follows a members-only reception the day prior from 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
This exhibition spans 1976 to 2001.
The first exhibition, “Black Artists in America: From the Great Depression to Civil Rights,” was on view from Oct. 17, 2021, through Jan. 2, 2022. It focused on 1929 to 1954.
The second exhibition, “Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial,” was on view, Oct. 22, 2023, through Jan. 14, 2024. It focused on 1954 through 1976.
Like the previous editions, the latest exhibition will include a catalogue published by the Dixon and Yale University Press.
The Dixon’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday.
1-5 p.m. Free admission daily. 4339 Park Ave.
Topics
Dixon Gallery & Gardens Memphis Botanic Garden Buckman Arts CenterElle Perry
A native Memphian, Elle Perry has earned graduate degrees from the University of Memphis and Maryland Institute College of Art. She’s written for publications including the Memphis Business Journal, Memphis Flyer and High Ground News, and previously served as coordinator of The Teen Appeal.
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