WONDERLANDS opens today in Gallery C of ETSU’s Reece Museum and will be on view through May 22. A reception for the solo exhibition will be held on Friday, February 13 from 5-8pm, along with a reception for ‘Through the Light: Sculptural works by Molly Sawyer’ in Galleries A and B. WONDERLANDS explores the intersection of tourism, religion, and folklore with natural beauty, preservation, and decay in southern Appalachia. The title of the series draws inspiration from novelist Charles Baxter’s collection of essays about fiction writing, ‘Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature,’ in which he describes settings that reflect a heightened psychological atmosphere in specific literary works. “Wonderlands are caused by, or are expressive of, emotional instability, estrangement, fantasy, and solitude,” Baxter writes. The exhibition focuses on settings that evoke characteristics of wonderlands in counties of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southeastern Virginia. Roadside attractions, religious iconography, relics, and verdant landscapes create a psychic experience that is at once eerily still and emotionally charged. The most recent photographs in the series capture tragic destruction against the backdrop of natural beauty after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the region in 2024. In conversation with the photographs are a selection of Appalachian artifacts from the Reece Museum’s collection, creating a unique dialogue that connects visual art and material culture.

The inaugural exhibition at ETSU’s new Tipton-Ashe Gallery at 401 Ashe Street in Johnson City opens with a reception on Friday, September 5 from 6-8pm. Curated by Lyn Govette, Layered, Woven, and Pierced: The Appalachian Soul One Year On, considers the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene last fall through the work of more than twenty regional artists. My photograph in this show, first exhibited last winter at Tracey Morgan Gallery in a group exhibition about the hurricane called Postdiluvian, depicts the tragic destruction along the Nolichucky River in Erwin, Tennessee. The Impact Plastics factory nearby was destroyed, and the lives of six employees were lost to the floodwaters during the storm on September 27, 2024. I appreciate the opportunity to participate with another group of artists in reflecting on trauma and resilience in our community. The exhibition will be on view through October 18.

A print of Black Truck, Nolichucky River, Erwin, TN (2024) is included in POSTDILUVIAN at Tracey Morgan Gallery opening on Friday, January 31 from 6-8pm at 22 London Road in Asheville. The exhibition features work by 20 artists living and working in Western North Carolina, and is co-curated by Asheville-based artist, curator, and educator Erika Diamond. Postdiluvian reflects on recovery, resilience, and the enduring strength of community four months sense Helene ravaged our region. 10% of proceeds from sales will be donated to the Community Foundation and the Center for Craft’s Craft Futures Fund: WNC Recovery.

Analogues: North & South, comprising Tema Stauffer’s Upstate and Southern Fiction series, will be on view at Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC from June 9 – August 30 with an opening reception on Sunday, June 9 from 2:30 – 4:30pm.

Tema Stauffer and Dr. Leslie Bickford will discuss the photographs in Southern Fiction, on view in the Rutledge Gallery of the Winthrop University Galleries through October 6. Dr. Bickford has taught widely in the areas of twentieth-century American literature and African American literature. Her research interests include investigating the ways in which hegemonic discourse works to shape subjectivity and, conversely, in understanding the ways in which peoples othered by discourse on the basis of race, sex, nationality, or sexual preference resist such inscription through the creative use of language.

A solo exhibition of Southern Fiction is on view in the Rutledge Gallery of the Winthrop University Galleries in Rock Hill, South Carolina through October 6. Concurrent in the Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Gallery upstairs is a group exhibition, Rites Preserved, featuring visual art, documentary photography, and performance art by Mike Baker, Andy the Doorbum, and Abe Patridge centered around themes of ceremony and divination.  The opening reception for both exhibitions will be on Thursday, September 7 from 5:30 – 7:30 and a conversation about Southern Fiction will take place on Thursday. September 21.

Photographers Ben Depp (TIDE LINES: A Photographic Record of Lousiana’s Disappearing Coast), Neilson Hubbard (THE AMERICAN SOUTH), and Tema Stauffer (SOUTHERN FICTION) will participate in a panel discussion on “Picturing the South” moderated by Ryan Steed at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson. The discussion will take place on Saturday, August 19 at the State Capital 204 from 10:45 – 11:45am, followed by a book signing for at 12:15pm in the Signing Tent.

Tema Stauffer will sign copies of Southern Fiction at Daylight Books’ table at the 2023 ICP Photobook Fest on Sunday, May 14.

Contributing editor Melanie Chapman reviewed Southern Fiction for the PhotoBook Journal: Tema Stauffer – Southern Fiction