MIDDLE
The highlight events will include receptions and celebrations at select participating venues.
NASHVILLE
-
Nashville host Museum
In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century
January 29 to April 26, 2026
919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
Mon: 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tues/ Wed: closed
Thurs: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Fri/ Sat: 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Sun: 1–5:30 p.m. -
Women have long been at the center of Nashville’s vibrant visual arts community, and In Her Place highlights their influence by presenting nearly 100 paintings, sculptures, textile pieces, and installations from 28 intergenerational women artists exploring ideas of place and identity. Part of the Frist’s 25th-anniversary celebration, the exhibition underscores the museum’s commitment to the local arts community and will be accompanied by a catalogue co-edited by Katie Delmez and Laura Hutson Hunter and published by Vanderbilt University Press.
-
February 9 - March 6
Buttrick Hall, 2400 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37212
8am to 8pm, Every Day
-
In summer 2025 Vanderbilt faculty Jana Harper, Lutz Koepnick, and Jonathan Rattner traveled to Svalbard to pursue a project on art and climate change in the Polar North. Their aim was to engage with Svalbard's rapidly transforming landscapes and experiment with different artistic methods to address the effects of planetary overheating. In February 2026 some of this work will be on view in Buttrick Hall in a building-wide installation, featuring continuously running experimental films, large-scale photographs, intricate collages, and didactic displays discussing the overall project. Svalbard is famous for its history of extractive coal mining and more recently for its Global Seed Vault. Seeds from Svalbard aspires to transform Buttrick Hall into an ark of curiosity and inquiry—a space for unexpected encounters that challenge what we take for granted about our environments. A series of public events will complement this exhibition, including an interdisciplinary panel featuring artists and scientists jointly discussing the challenges of overheating and resilience, a screening and discussion of the team’s 75-minute collaborative film, and an experimental music program.
-
January 10 to February 14, 2026
237 Rep. John Lewis Way, N., Nashville, TN 37219
Tuesday - Saturday 10a — 5p
-
TINNEY celebrates its twentieth year by showcasing an expansive group exhibition, kicking off its 2026 program. The exhibition will be on display from January 10 through February 14, 2026. The opening reception will be on Saturday, January 10, from 2 to 9 PM in conjunction with the Downtown Arts District’s Second Saturday Art Crawl. There will be a public closing reception on February 14, 2026. TINNEY/20 features the works of over 50 painters, sculptors, and photographers living and working in Tennessee who have exhibited works with the gallery, in its various incarnations, over the past two decades. The exhibition will be a moment to reflect on the gallery’s enduring legacy as a reliable institution whose voice has helped define the vibrant visual arts community in Nashville. TINNEY has occupied its current space since 2006, when Susan Tinney sought a permanent location for her habitual pop-up exhibitions, which had hitherto taken place in her living room and in friends' homes. Since then, an engaged coterie of makers, collectors enthusiasts have propagated in and around the gallery. This “recollection” is a celebration of the joys of making and sharing work, of survival, and of what we continue to cultivate together.
-
Time After Time, Karen Seapker
January 17 to February 28, 2026
919 Gallatin Ave. Suite 4, Nashville, TN 37206
Thursday-Saturday 11am-6pm
-
Karen Seapker’s paintings navigate physical, emotional, and intellectual connections through intensely saturated colors, historical references, shifting lines, and disrupted spaces. While employing strong geometric patterns, her dynamic, gestural style embraces movement and alludes to the power of human relationships and the natural world. Many of the paintings Seapker has produced in the last decade incorporate the garden she tends just outside her studio, which functions as a sanctuary and a teacher in relation to our greater world. Seapker graduated with a BA in studio art and art history from Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, and an MFA in painting from Hunter College, New York. Her work has been exhibited in spaces including James Cohan Gallery in NYC and Shanghai, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, Sargent's Daughters in Los Angeles, The Shepherd in Detroit, Plato Gallery in NYC, Zeitgeist and Red Arrow in Nashville. Seapker’s work was included in Crystal Bridges Museum’s survey of contemporary art, State of the Art 2020, and was acquired as a part of the museum’s permanent collection. Her work is included in various private collections worldwide. She has received numerous recognitions for her work, including the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts Tennessee Artist Fellowship; the ChaNorth residency, Pine Planes, NY; two New American Paintings Southern Competition features; and two nominations for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship. Reviews of her work have been in publications including Burnaway, Hyperallergic, and ArtForum and Wall Street Journal. She lives and works in Nashville, TN and is represented by Red Arrow.
-
Faith, Fraud, and Fearby Bill Brimm
February 6 to February 28, 2026
507 Hagan St., Nashville , TN 37203
1-9pm on February 7, 2026; by appointment
-
Faith, Fraud, and Fear delves into the complex and troubling themes of religion, greed, and governmental abuse. Social ills prevalent in contemporary society are confronted through a combination of assemblages, digital still lifes, and music-inspired digital collages. The use of rat traps reflects a sense of entrapment many of us feel, be it political, social, or personal. Brimm views this exhibition as fear hanging on the walls. The anchor of this show is a seven-foot-tall wooden cross made of 34 rat traps. This piece reflects the overarching messages of entrapment and suffering, symbolizing the painful intersections of faith and exploitation. Other themes Brimm explores include abortion, global warming, bigotry, and gun violence. This work offers a raw and evocative response to issues impacting the country and individuals alike. While his work often expresses anger or sadness, it is tempered with a sense of humor and hope. Viewers are invited to confront uncomfortable truths and reflect on the implications of oppression in their lives and communities. This will be Brimm’s first exhibition at COOP but returning solo exhibition in Nashville. The artist will be present at the artist walkthrough on February 7th at 5pm and throughout the opening. More about the Artist Bill Brimm was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, raised in a conservative Southern Baptist family. He found solace not in what the preacher had to say but in the church's colorful, vibrant stained glass windows. While growing up, he witnessed the threat of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. These events have had a significant impact on his life and themes in his art. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Art from Middle Tennessee State University, Brimm co-owned Emmanuel Stained Glass Studio, Inc. for 37 years where he spent much of his career designing and producing commissioned stained glass works for churches, blending traditional techniques with his evolving artistic vision. During those years, he developed his art practice and exhibited work in the Nashville art scene, including local collectives and commercial galleries. He owned Bryant Gallery in East Nashville from 2009 to 2013. Since retirement from stained glass in 2019, Brimm has worked at his East Nashville home studio. In recent years, the rise of hate and intolerance, often supported by those claiming religious authority, has continued to shape his work. He resides with his partner, Andrew, and their two dogs, Sookie and Paco. More about COOP COOP is a curatorial collective made up of artists, curators, thinkers and professors who are committed to expanding Nashville’s dialogue with contemporary art by presenting challenging new or under-represented artists/artworks to our community. COOP is committed to exhibiting art of diverse media and content, with a goal to provide an alternative venue for artists free from the constraints of the retail market. COOP seeks to initiate a discourse between Nashville and art scenes across the country by inviting artists to show, develop projects and interact with the Nashville community.
-
Yanira Vissepo: On The Mountainside By The River
February 6 to February 28, 2026
1207 South Street, Nashville, TN 37212
Wed-Sat, 10 am - 3 pm
-
ZieherSmith art gallery presents Yanira Vissepo: On The Mountainside By The River, a solo exhibition of paintings that are as much built as they are painted. Continuing her process of staining raw canvas, Vissepo layers shimmering gradients with collaged linocut-printed black linen cutouts, creating works that hover between construction and improvisation. While rooted in metaphorical reflections on her personal journey from Puerto Rico to Nashville to Japan, these dreamy hybrids of landscape and still life invite meditation on transition -- embracing change as a site of transformation and healing. Viewers encounter a broad and vibrant spectrum, both in palette and in the reach of Vissepo’s naturalist imagination. Seeds and spores, spadix and spathe, stems and stamens float, mingle, and meander across the canvas, embodying ideas of environmental impact, impermanence, and the possibility of renewal through buoyant bursts of color. Saturation, form, and feeling are constants in Vissepo’s work, here channeled into stylized natural compositions inspired by landscape snapshots from her native Puerto Rico, her current home in Middle Tennessee, the speculative fiction of Octavia E. Butler, and recent travels to Echizen, Japan. While in Echizen, a village with a 1,500-year history of papermaking, Vissepo further developed her practice of water-based woodblock printing, deepening her engagement with material, process, and ritual. Specific botanical references throughout the exhibition include Tennessee’s broadleaf plantain, a wild weed traditionally used for its healing properties; the iris, the state flower of Tennessee; Echinacea tennesseensis, the medicinal purple coneflower endemic to the Nashville area that has recovered from endangered status; the Puerto Rican onion flower, drawn from the folk tale of the Little Onion; and the Japanese chrysanthemum, a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation and the emblem of the Imperial Family, which Vissepo studied closely while in residence at MI-LAB. Reflecting on her time in Echizen, Vissepo notes: “The paper village was part of my everyday life -- walking to Otaki Shrine to say hello to the paper goddess. Studio discipline became a central focus, and bringing that rigor back into this body of work felt like kismet: Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and Japan living together in memory paintings. Water is my friend -- the sun on my face, leaves turning and speaking to me, whispering hello, waking up to see the sky for the first time, again.”
-
February 5 to February 24, 2026
516 Hagan Street, Nashville, TN 37203
Tue-Sat 11-5pm
-
This 33-artist group show takes its conceptual point of departure from the album Johnny Cash and His Woman, co-written by June Carter, whose creative labor has historically been referred to under the possessive designation “Johnny’s woman.” This naming reflects a common pattern of erasure, one in which women’s contributions are rendered secondary, anonymous, or instrumentalized in service of a figure of cultural authority. Painting and Her Women engages this pattern by foregrounding the overlooked materials that sustain artistic practices, specifically the tools and processes that are foundational yet rarely given appropriate appreciation.
The artists in the exhibition engage materiality as a method of inquiry. They use processes to reconsider authorship and generate meaning. The palette, in particular, shifts from a secondary support to an active participant in the work. This shift raises a central question: does a work of art reside solely in the finished object, or does it also exist within the acts, tools, and decisions that lead to its making?
Within the exhibition, tools of painting function as both material and metaphor, crediting process, labor, and material intelligence as key components of authorship. Artists utilize palettes, biscuit cutters, and rolling pins. Their apertures, handles, and surfaces record touch, pressure, and duration, making embodied knowledge visible through form. The exhibition challenges singular perceptions and complexifies what it has meant to be defined by labels such as mother, woman, binary, female, and lady painter.
-
February 6 to February 28, 2026
1411 Buchanan St, Nashville, TN 37208
Fri Sat 12-6 or by appt
-
Xavier Payne (better known as XPayne) is an award-winning artist and illustrator. Born in Flint, Michigan and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Payne earned a BFA from Watkins college of Art Design and Film in 2014. He began his professional career as a graphic artist working for companies with clients like Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. At the same time, XPayne moon-lighted as an illustrator working for cuktural icons like Spike Lee and Issa Rae, and gaining and support from the likes of Wesley Snipes and Martin Lawrence. In 2022, XPayne was named Best Artist of the Year by the Nashville Scene, where he is based.
-
February 7 to June 30, 2026
444 Humphreys Street, Nashville TN, 37203
Saturdays 12-6pm & by appointment
-
Nine artists, self-curating nine micro galleries within Julia Martin Gallery for 6 months, rotating their exhibitions monthly.
Scott Anderson, Ash Atterberry, Megan Curtin, Brooke Gillon, Julia Martin, Keavy Murphree, Bill Nickels, Noah Saterstrom, Natasha Sud
-
February 5 to April 24, 2026
1801 Edgehill Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212
M-Th, 10-4 and by appointment. Closed March 9-12 for Spring Break
-
Resilience + Adaptation highlights the work of ten Middle Tennessee visual artists engaging with the complementary concepts of resilience—a perspective concerned with systemic change, capacity-building, and recovery—and adaptation—incremental and transformational actions that aid communities locally and globally in adjusting to the reality of climate change. Spanning media including photography, painting, and sculpture, Resilience + Adaptation engages with these themes through sustainable materials and processes; formal and representational choices; critical and intersectional perspectives on climate change; and galvanizing communities facing the impact of climate change through ar.
-
February 14 to May 10, 2026
304 Cohen Memorial Hall
1220 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37212Monday: CLOSED Tuesday-Friday: 11am-4pm Saturday-Sunday: 12pm-5pm, Closed during Spring Break (March 7 - 15, 2026)
-
Woven Wind is a multi-layered research project drawing from artistic translations of the Lovell Quitman archive, which includes extensive Quitman Plantation records and photographs of the Civil War era. In a time of social and racial reckoning and division in the U.S., Woven Windconstructs an artistic platform for education, conversation, empathy, and healing. Its artistic team includes artists Vesna Pavlović, Courtney Adair Johnson, Marlos E’van, community advocate Mélisande Short-Colomb, musician/artist Rod McGaha, genealogist Jan Hillegas, and historian Woody Register, director of the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race and Reconciliation at the University of the South. Archival research studio and field work, community engagement, genealogical findings, and conversations with the descendants inform the project.
Image (above): Vesna Pavlović, Monmouth, archival pigment print, 2025
-
Print Show
Jan 10- Feb 26, 2026
Downtown Presbyterian Church, 154 5th Ave N. Nashville TN 37219
Saturday February 14 - Nashville DADA Downtown Arts District Art Crawl. Other times by appointment with the church office.
-
Print Fair features socially engaged prints that celebrate the democratic nature of printmaking and its capacity to spark dialogue and collective imagination. The exhibition honors the spirit of printmaking—artworks that are reproducible, accessible, and rooted in community. Unlike singular works that often remain out of reach, prints encourage broad artistic participation and offer collectors and viewers an approachable entry point into contemporary art. This openness makes printmaking a natural fit for church-based galleries grounded in inclusion, reflection, and service. Print Fair advances that mission by expanding artists’ networks while offering the broader community meaningful, affordable creative work
Ellen Campbel, Charles Chalot Douglas-Book, Ahmed Eldarrat, Micha Fessler, Eliza Frensley, Keeton Holder, Margaret Keller, Hope Kise, Bryce McCloud, Zachary Millner, Ashley Mintz, Kenya Mitchell, Adrienne Outlaw, Mo Overholt, Barbara Sherman, Amy Travis, Patrick Vincent, Dianna Walters-Hartley, Rebecca Willhoft, Ripley Whiteside, Janet Decker Yanez, Ashleigh York.