University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts.
See work from artists Kate Meissner and Alex Chitty from Jan. 21-March 15 at thePlus, student art selected by Chitty is featured in the 49th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, co-presented by AEIVA and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History.
An opening reception for all three exhibitions will be from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, at AEIVA, 1221 10th Ave. South. The evening will feature gallery talks by Chitty and Meissner beginning at 5:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.
AEIVA is open from noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Admission is free and open to the public. Visit uab.edu/aeiva for more information.
Alex Chitty, “Entirely opposite, with moments of overlap”
Chitty’s exhibition, “Entirely opposite, with moments of overlap,” brings together sculptural and photographic work spanning a decade of the artist’s practice. Included are a series of small tabletop works, or “Character Studies,” that echo the themes and motifs in a central triptych piece. Steeped in the histories and conventions of both art and design, Chitty’s work incorporating found and fabricated objects undermines the stability of form and our narrative associations with it. Through strategies of imitation, appropriation and misuse, it points to the slipperiness of representation as the basis of various forms of knowledge, be they scientific, cultural or historic.
Chitty was born in Miami, Florida, and now lives in Chicago, Illinois, teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2008. Chitty’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Virginia Commonwealth University; the Elmhurst Art Museum; GAVLAK Gallery; Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy; and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, among other venues. She is represented by Patron Gallery, Chicago.
Kate Meissner, “Replica”
“Replica” is an exhibition of new and recent paintings by Meissner, and the artist’s first institutional solo show. Meissner’s lurid canvases depict scenes both seductive and unsettling. Otherworldly figures inhabit settings reminiscent of nightclubs, theaters, hospitals and dressing rooms, where one is often watched or examined. Drawing just as much from surrealist filmmakers as from past painting traditions, Meissner’s work evokes fantastical private moments from a stage play that the audience was never intended to see.
Based in Los Angeles, Meissner holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Yale University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California Polytechnic University. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at 1969 Gallery and the Armory Show in New York, and in group exhibitions at Lyles and King, New York; Office Baroque, Antwerp; and Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. She was recently featured in Frieze Magazine’s “Five Emerging Artists to Watch at Frieze Los Angeles 2025” and in Cultured Magazine’s “2024 Young Artists.” She is represented by Lyles and King, New York.
49th Annual Juried Student Exhibition
The Annual Juried Student Exhibition is an experiential learning opportunity for students in art and art history and many other fields of study. All UAB students who have taken art and art history courses in the past two years are eligible to submit works for the show.
Students whose works were selected for the 2025 Annual Juried Student Exhibition are Alyx Smith, Angelina Robinson, Bekah McCarty, Brennan Lein, Camp Metz, Catherine Blake, Chloe Black, Edward Copeland, Elizabeth Hill, Emily Slawson, Felix Sarabia, Geremy Cantrell, Gracie Hollington, Harper Gordon, Izabella Janush- Hernandez, Jane Bergan, Jayla Smith, Journey King, Kana Luecke, Karah Gohn, Katie Anne Bates, Kristen Jones, Landon Krall, Laura Pigott, Lawrence Schultz, Lex Livingston, Maisie Davis, Martinee Hill, Megan Maddry, Mira Taylor, Moka McCann, Nneka Onwuka, Savannah Wasko, Suzanne Noble and Virgil Bragg.