Exhibitions
SISTAH GRIOT: THE ICONOCLASTIC ART OF BARBARA BULLOCK
Frist Art Museum / 919 Broadway January 29, 2026 - April 26, 2026
Barbara Bullock
This exhibition showcases the incisive and still-timely work of Nashville-based artist Barbara Bullock (1949−1996). Bullock moved to Nashville in 1969 after being raised by her aunt and uncle in Buffalo, New York, and studied art at George Peabody College for Teachers (now a part of Vanderbilt University). Fifteen years later, after suffering a debilitating stroke at the age of thirty-five, Bullock returned to full-time art making as part of her physical recovery.
At that time, Bullock’s style shifted considerably from precisely rendered graphite illustrations to boldly colored paintings that defy realistic spatial construction, influenced by both the double vison caused by her stroke and the work of M. C. Escher.
While Bullock used her art practice to help heal her double vision and restore her fine motor skills, she maintained that her ultimate goal was to help heal the world of social inequalities. Shaped by her own lived experiences, her work critiqued systemic racism, sexism, and classism. In particular, Bullock offered satirical commentary on societal norms projected onto Black women born into upper-class families.
Bullock passed away in 1996, but the imprint she left on the Nashville art community lives on in her network of close friends and colleagues, some of whom are featured in the adjacent exhibition, In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century. Many continue to see her as a griot, a West African term for a storyteller, and her works continue to be relevant as visual representations of both personal and collective experiences.
image: Barbara Bullock. My Friend Gail, undated. Oil on canvas; 28 x 20 in. Collection of Gail Clemons. Photo: John Schweikert
About Frist Art Museum:
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, TN, the Frist Art Museum offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. Housed in Nashville’s former main post office building – the city’s treasured art deco structure that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 – the Frist Art Museum is a 124,400-square-foot facility with more than 45,000 square feet of combined exhibition and public space. On site, there is a gift shop, Café Cheeserie, and the award-winning, interactive Martin ArtQuest gallery, where guests can create their own works of art. Information on accessibility can be found at FristArtMuseum.org/accessibility. Gallery admission is free for guests ages 18 and younger and for members, and $20 for adults. For current hours and additional information, visit FristArtMuseum.org or call 615-244-3340.
Press Contact: Buddy Kite, bkite@fristartmuseum.org, 615-744-3351
