Exhibitions
HANNAH LANGER: PLACES KNOWN AND UNKNOWN
Arrowmont Gallery / 110 S Gay St. November 6 - December 19th
Hannah Langer
Through ceramic sculpture, Knoxville-based artist Hannah Langer explores themes of identity, belonging, and place in Places Known and Unknown.
Places Known and Unknown is a presentation of multiple ceramic sculptures brought together as I explore how I define where I come from, both the place I grew up in and the one I could only imagine. Answering questions of race, family, and belonging, my work draws from my lived experience as a transracial adoptee who grew up with two white parents off the coast of Massachusetts.
Growing up I often found different ways to associate with my cultural heritage, whether that be examining the distinctive lattice screens found in Chinese architecture or ink wash mountains in Chinese paintings. Beginning with this imagery, I transform the ceramic sculptures into natural objects I grew up seeing in Massachusetts, such as coastal rocks and seaweed. Through these familiar objects, I bring a sense of home to a part of my history that I long for despite never knowing it firsthand. By combining these two aspects of my identity: the one I never knew and the one that I get homesick for, I understand how I can miss being separated from a place.
As a transracial adoptee, I often feel a sense of disassociation when I talk about my Chinese heritage. I question whether I am Chinese enough to claim this aspect of my identity. Within this installation, I challenge these ideas by emphasizing how my own lived experience can combine with a heritage I am working to understand.”
Hannah Jun Langer was born in Anhui, China and raised in Massachusetts after being adopted as a baby. She is currently living in North Carolina, where she is exploring local clays and materials. Borrowing from nature, her work takes inspiration from the ocean, as she thinks about how her transracial adoption has shaped her identity and sense of home. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Master’s in Fine Art with a concentration in ceramics. She has completed a residency at the Cub Creek Foundation and Watershed Center for Ceramics Arts. She has exhibited her work nationally in gallery shows, such as Will of the Kiln in New Haven, CT, Points of Departure in Cincinnati OH, and Emergence in Highlands, NC. Her most recent solo show was exhibited at COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN. Currently she is working as a ceramics intern at Starworks in Star, NC.1
Image: Hannah Langer, 2026
