Exhibitions
WHAT WE CARRY: MEANING, MEMORY, AND THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
The Emporium Center / 100 S Gay St. April 3 - 30th (Reception: April 3 5:00pm - 9:00pm)
Patty Carroll, Seth Clark, Tom Eckert, Jennifer Halvorson, Heather Hietala, Pam Longobardi, Robert F. Lyon, Samantha Keely Smith, Tim Tate, Arthur Hall
What We Carry: Meaning, Memory, and the Human Experience, curated by Jordan Ahlers in the Balcony Gallery, brings together ten contemporary artists whose work explores the emotional and conceptual forces that shape human life. Through photography, painting, sculpture, glass, and mixed media, the exhibition examines themes of love, memory, environmental responsibility, identity, and transition. Each artist approaches these subjects through a distinct visual language, yet all engage a shared question: how do we process experience and give form to what we carry within us? Together, the works invite viewers to reflect on the ways personal histories intersect with broader cultural and environmental narratives.
At its core, What We Carry: Meaning, Memory, and the Human Experience considers a question fundamental to artistic practice: why do artists make work at all? Across differences in medium, scale, and aesthetic language lies a shared impulse—to process lived experience, to grapple with the forces that shape our lives, and to translate emotion, memory, and inquiry into visual form. What we carry, individually and collectively, becomes both subject and substance.
Collectively, these artists are united not by medium but by inquiry. Each body of work reflects a distinct response to the experiences we carry through life—love and loss, memory and transformation, responsibility and belonging. Ultimately, What We Carry proposes art as a site of reflection: a space in which personal histories intersect with broader cultural and environmental narratives, allowing viewers to encounter not only the artist’s perspective, but their own.
Jordan Ahlers is the owner and director of Momentum Gallery in Asheville, NC, one of the leading fine art galleries in the southern United States. With over three decades of experience in the art world, Ahlers has collaborated with thousands of professional artists nationwide, helping to advance their careers and place works in prominent private and corporate collections. He has curated hundreds of solo and group exhibitions across a wide range of media and has partnered with numerous museums to develop and facilitate traveling exhibitions. Known for his discerning eye and thoughtful approach, Ahlers has designed and successfully implemented multiple gallery spaces. Prior to founding Momentum Gallery in 2017, he served as gallery director at Blue Spiral 1 (1999–2017), earning a reputation for his expertise, integrity, and market insight.
