Exhibition: ARS POETICA I – A Juried Exhibition

Image: Julia Ralston, Sun Shadow Sun, 2022, gouache on paper, 5 x 7 in. Image courtesy of the artist.

Horace, the foremost lyric poet of imperial Rome, wrote in his 19 BC masterwork, Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry), “ut pictura poesis” or “as is painting so is poetry.” Visual and literary art often deploy different strategies to achieve a shared goal, and Horace argues that the transformative power of the pictorial and the textual are heightened when experienced together.

The Blowing Rock Art & History Museum is thrilled to unveil the inaugural edition of ARS POETICA, a juried exhibition, bringing together the work of poets and artists in this gallery and a companion digital publication. A committee of jurors has paired submitted poems and artworks into combinations that expand, highlight, augment, and sometimes even obfuscate meaning, each enriching the experience of the other. BRAHM received over 150 submissions, and choosing amongst the insightful and surprising body of work was no easy task. The natural landscape and the human experience of living on and with it; vivid memories of childhood and the wistfulness therein; and the singular culture of Southern Appalachia, then and now, are just a few of the engrossing motifs we discovered.

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