Exhibitions

THROUGH THE EYES OF RED GROOMS

Leu Art Gallery (Belmont University) / 1907 Belmont Blvd. August 21 - December 6th

Red Grooms

Charles “Red” Grooms became an important figure within the art world beginning in the late 1950s, and he has remained prominent through the rest of his career. Originally from Nashville, Grooms attended Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), and soon after graduation, he relocated to New York City, where he established himself as a key player in the developing downtown art scene.

This exhibition offers a retrospective view of Red Grooms’s career through a collection of prints on loan from the Tennessee State Museum. Originally donated by collector and childhood friend of Grooms Walter Knestrick, these works reflect the lively style that made him such a distinct figure within the art world of the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace Grooms’s influences and inspirations, the eccentric personality in his pieces, and his artistic responses to his changing environment.

The exhibition was organized by students in the spring 2024 Museum Studies class at the Watkins College of Art: Natalie Cardone, Kathryn Cooke, Gwyneth Cunningham, Madison DeOrio, Kiri Hassinger, Sophia Holston, Chloe Jones, Frank Kirk, Nora Leigh, Pamela Luck, Amelia Mistry, Zoe Nichols, Whitney Pavell, Zoe Simpson, Raymarah Watson-Cunningham, and Libby Wisener.