Exhibitions
LOOKING AT LOOKING THROUGH (FEAT. LINDA KING FERGUSON AND ALEX LOPEZ)
Tri-Star Arts / 4450 Candora Ave., Candoro Marble Building May 1 - August 7th (Reception: May 1 5:00pm - 8:00pm)
Linda King Ferguson, Alex Lopez
Tri-Star Arts is pleased to present the next exhibition in their Main Gallery at the historic Candoro Marble Building. A two person show, Looking At Looking Through, featuring recent works by artists Linda King Ferguson (Nashville, TN) and Alex Lopez (Carbondale, IL) opens Friday, May 1 and will run through Friday, August 7, 2026. Curator: Brian R. Jobe.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 1, 2026 from 5:00 until 8:00 pm (artists in attendance). There will be a joint artist talk given by Ferguson and Lopez beforehand on Friday, May 1 from 3:30 until 4:30 pm. The address is 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920 and admission is always free of charge. Visitors should drive only on the crushed gravel driveway and parking lot surfaces. Driving vehicles on the lawn is always prohibited.
Linda King Ferguson (b. 1954, Battle Creek, MI) thinks of her abstract paintings as social bodies defined by relational determinants. Through a material language of open and closed forms, color gradients, surface depths, and spatial proximities she explores the subjectivity of vulnerability and strength. Ferguson earned a BFA from Alma College, a MA from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also studied at Penland School of Crafts and Academia Di Belle Arti (Perugia, Italy). Ferguson has an affiliation with Minus Space (Brooklyn, NY), Red Arrow Gallery (Nashville, TN), and La Fontsee Gallery (Grand Rapids, MI).
Ahead in 2026, Ferguson has a two person exhibition at Tri-Star Arts (Knoxville, TN). In 2025, she had a solo exhibition, Rhythms and Remedies at Bay College and in 2024, she had solo exhibitions at NY Artists Equity Gallery, An Unthought Logic, and at Graci Gallery, Kiss the Sky. She also has had solo exhibitions at DeVos Art Museum, Channel To Channel, and Lipscomb University. Ferguson has participated in many group exhibitions, and most recently exhibited in Painting and Her Woman: A Feminist Palette Show at David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, TN and Memphis, TN.
Ferguson was awarded residences in 2023 at Press Here Projects, 2009 at Morris Graves Foundation, and 2008, Ragdale Foundation. She also was a resident artist semi-annually from 2013-2017 at Cathouse FUNeral (Brooklyn, NY). She was awarded a Personal Development Grant from the State of Michigan in 2015, and a Northern Michigan University Educational Research Grant in 2013. Her work is published in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Vol.113, Presence, Artdose Magazine, and Boulevard, Nos. 68-69.
From 2017-2023, Ferguson was Founder and Director of The Bakery, a non-profit, artist run project space in Munising, MI. As contingent faculty she taught from 2008-2013 at Northern Michigan University (Marquette, MI). Currently, Ferguson’s studio is located in Nashville, TN.
Alex Lopez holds an MFA from Alfred University in New York and a BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has taught at Trinity University and at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is currently an Associate Professor and heads the sculpture program at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Lopez’s work as a multimedia artist encompasses a diverse range of media, including sculpture and installation. His method resembles that of a scientist or anthropologist, involving observation, evaluation, experimentation, and documentation of significant moments and events. Through exploration and trial, Alex generates an unsettling, contradictory sense of completeness as his work shifts between factual and fictional narratives.
His current work is influenced by meteorological mapping that uses polygons to precisely track and identify localized severe storms, thereby reducing risk. These images are processed, layered, and then minimized or redacted to lessen the psychological impact of the events.
Lopez’s work has been showcased in over 90 exhibitions, including the Illinois State Museum (Chicago, IL), Christie’s (New York, NY), Hudson Show Room at ArtPace (San Antonio, TX), Eyebeam Art and Technology Center (New York, NY), Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX), Cedarhurst Museum Center for the Arts (Mount Vernon, IL), McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX), Illinois State Museum (Lockport, IL), Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX), Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago, IL), the Contemporary at Blue Star (San Antonio, TX), Soil Art Gallery (Seattle, WA), Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts (St. Louis, MO), New York Center for Art & Media Studies (New York, NY), Illinois State Museum (Springfield, IL), and the San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio, TX). His work has been featured in several catalogs and reviewed in Art in America, Artlies Magazine, Voices of Art, and Art Papers.
