February 26, 2009

• Exhibition of works March 7-April 4

• Reception, round table discussion March 20

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Art and Art History welcomes John Bankston as the 2009 Jack Drake Visiting Artist. His works will be on show March 7-April 4 at the UAB Visual Arts Gallery, 900 13th St. S., Birmingham. Admission is free. Call 205-934-0815.

Bankston will be the guest of honor at a reception at the gallery 5-6:30 p.m. Friday, March 20. A round-table discussion of his work will follow in the UAB Mary Culp Hulsey Recital Hall, 950 13th St. S. Panelists include UAB Assistant Professor Doug Baulos, M.F.A., Rosie O'Beirne from UAB's Center for Urban Affairs,  artist and academic Tony Bingham and moderator Jessica Dallow, Ph.D., UAB associate professor of art. Admission is free and open to the public. Call 205-934-4941 for details.

Bankston is a San Francisco-based artist whose work explores the mythical histories of children's stories and fairy tales, righting the perceived wrong suffered within them from their general lack of African-American subjects and characters. Winner of a 2002 SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and a Fleishhacker Eureka Fellowship, his work has been shown at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, The Contemporary Jewish Museum and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, among others.

Bankston's visit is possible in part by support from the Jack Drake Visiting Artists Project and its patron, Jack Drake, an avid collector of contemporary art with an emphasis on the works of emerging African-American artists. Drake previously sponsored a visit by artist Kori Newkirk.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday; 1-5 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is closed Sundays and public holidays. For information, please call 205-934-0815.