For the rest of this week, you can catch a gallery of Alabama-themed photos at Hotel Indigo.
The “Made in Alabama” photography exhibit by Kathleen Fetters is being shown until Feb. 20 at Hotel Indigo on Greensboro Ave.
The exhibit is an extension of the Kentuck Gallery, which Fetters has been a part of for a number of years. She is also a member of the Crossroads Arts Alliance, which is a group of artists from Gordo, Alabama.
Because Fetters’ work represents the art culture of Alabama and the history behind Tuscaloosa and the Black Warrior River, her art was selected by the Kentuck Gallery team to be showcased at Hotel Indigo. The program manager of Kentuck Gallery, Exa Skinner, manages exhibits at all three gallery locations and is in charge of contacting the artists the Gallery is interested in featuring. She revealed part of the process of how the Kentuck Gallery team selected Fetters for the exhibit.
“I thought it would be great to showcase her photography, because it is undeniably Southern and ‘Made in Alabama,’ the title of the show,” Skinner said. “Fetters has an inimitable perspective that makes her work simultaneously comforting and sort of eerie. She was a perfect fit for the Hotel Indigo Gallery.”
As program manager, Skinner worked closely with Fetters when creating the exhibit.
“Kathleen Fetters had a vision for how she wanted this show to look; so, I was there to help her hang it,” Skinner said. “Often artists don’t have a vision for the show as a whole or aren’t able to hang it themselves.”
Skinner and Fetters hung the exhibit themselves with the help of Creative Campus intern and senior Sarah Johns, who is majoring in interdisciplinary studies with a focus in art therapy. Viewers will see how much of Fetters’ vision is in every detail, from the hand-made mats to the individual frames for the photographs.
“I remember really appreciating that she also hand painted, printed, and dyed the mats that her photos were framed in,” Johns said. “I love the concept of artwork extending beyond itself so I really admired her unique take on hanging her work within another piece of art she made.”
This exhibit also includes a photograph of Fetters’ late husband, Glenn House, and his mother’s Ma’Cille’s Museum of Miscellanea, which is located in Gordo, Alabama.
“People can expect to get a glimpse of Kathleen Fetters’ life: it’s beautiful and strange and right under your nose,” Skinner said. “She has a way of looking at the people and places around as if they were already art, and she just happens to be there to snap a photo.”
While her photography is what is featured in the exhibit, Fetters works in a number of other mediums as well. She creates lifelike drawings from black and white photographs she takes using tools such as pencils, oil pastels, and acrylic paints. Fetters also adds a step to the process in creating her art by layering her photographs with handset wood type prints.
“I am always trying to work with art in my life and have appreciated having this show up these past months,” Fetters said.
Through her art, the audience can see not only life in Alabama, but also the life of Fetters herself.
While the exhibit closes on Monday, Fetters and the other artists in the Crossroads Art Alliance will be showing new work in the Kentuck Museum Gallery this coming November.
