Vadis Turner facts for kids

Vadis Turner (born in 1977) is an American artist who lives in Tennessee. She is known for creating art using everyday materials, especially things found around the house. She likes to show how these common items can be used in surprising and artistic ways.

Vadis Turner often explores themes related to women's experiences and stories. She uses materials like fabric, thread, and even bedsheets to create her unique artworks. Her art often features grid-like patterns and is sometimes inspired by strong female figures from history or stories.

Turner's art has been shown in many museums and galleries across the United States and even internationally. Her work is also part of the permanent collections in several museums, meaning they own her art to display for a long time.

Early Life and Education

Vadis Turner was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1977. She studied art at Boston University, earning her first degree in Painting in 1999 and a master's degree in Studio Teaching in 2000. She started experimenting with mixed-media art by using wax paper from her mother's kitchen, showing her early interest in using everyday items.

Teaching Art

Turner has shared her art knowledge by teaching at different universities. From 2004 to 2014, she taught at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2022, she has been a Lecturer of Art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Early Career and Artistic Style

In her early career, Vadis Turner became known for using common household and feminine materials in unexpected ways. She wanted these items to "speak" differently and challenge traditional ideas. Her early art involved making sculptures from unusual items, showing a similar spirit to feminist artists from the 1960s and 70s.

One of her early series was called Dowry (2009). Traditionally, a dowry is a gift given when a woman marries. However, Turner used her Dowry artworks to help her own career, selling and trading them. This series ended with a large art piece called Reception, which was bought by the Brooklyn Museum.

Turner also had a special project with artist Saya Woolfalk at the Museum of Arts and Design in 2012. In 2013, she was an artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts. There, she created art using fabric scraps from the fashion industry. People described her work as "painting" with ribbons and fabric, using them like lines, colors, and brushstrokes.

Turner often says her art is about "partnering female characters with their changing environments." She likes to imagine new endings for famous female characters from literature, like Ophelia or Eve. Her art often shows how personal feelings and experiences can be expressed through creative and unexpected materials.

In 2016, Vadis Turner received a special award called the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, which helps artists with their work.

Major Exhibitions

Tempest at Frist Art Museum

Tempest was Vadis Turner's first museum show, held at the Frist Art Museum in Tennessee. This exhibition explored different stages of a woman's life: the young "Wild Woman," the Mother, and the Elder. Turner often uses old, damaged, hand-sewn quilts in her art. She likes the idea of giving these "unwanted" pieces a new life and meaning.

Megaliths at University of Colorado

For her exhibition Megaliths at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 2018, Turner created art specifically for the gallery space. She explored the Neolithic era, a time when people started farming instead of hunting and gathering. Her artworks for this show were made entirely from braided bedsheets, along with dyes and other materials. These large sculptures took up both the walls and the floor of the gallery.

The director of the gallery, Daisy McGowan, noted that Turner's work challenges ideas about what materials are considered "masculine" or "feminine." She combines everyday items like bedsheets with strong, "macho" shapes.

Cups and Grids in New York

The exhibition Cups and Grids was shown at Geary gallery in New York City in 2020. This show featured large wall sculptures made from materials like resin, cement, leather, and cloth. It also included three-dimensional "vessels" made from charred wood, paint, and braided bedsheets. Turner's art in this exhibition connected to art movements from the late 1960s and early 1970s, when artists, especially women, began to explore materials and crafts in new ways.

Encounters at Huntsville Museum of Art

In Encounters at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama, Vadis Turner continued to use bedsheets in her art. These works explored the idea of the "grid" as a structure and a way of organizing things. Her pieces, both on and off the wall, made viewers think about how materials can be used in unexpected ways. For example, she created "windows we cannot see through" and "vessels that refuse to hold."

Turner often uses the idea of a "vessel" (a container) in her art. She shows how these vessels, even when they have holes or cannot hold things, still have creative possibilities.

She Drank Gold in Alabama

The exhibition She Drank Gold at the Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Arts in Alabama explored historical ideas about women and the use of gold. Turner's art in this show featured what she calls "hysterical grids." These artworks, though abstract, often represent female figures or "tragic heroines" from myths and stories.

Turner's work in She Drank Gold suggests that even when these women might have been seen negatively, they are "pure gold" inside. Her art uses gold grids to symbolize perfection and strength, even if they are slightly bent or tarnished. The exhibition aimed to give a voice to these figures, allowing them to express themselves through art.

Craft Front and Center in New York

In 2024, Vadis Turner's art was part of the Craft Front and Center exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Her piece, Red Relic Vessel (2022), was displayed alongside works by other important artists. This artwork is a twisted shape made from cotton bed sheets, brick dust, and gold leaf.

Turner often uses traditional art forms like reliefs, vessels, and grids. Her "vessels" are made from fabric, a material meant to hold things, but her vessels often have holes, showing a "refusal" to simply contain. This makes viewers think about how art can challenge expectations.

Grants, Awards, and Residencies

Vadis Turner has received funding for her art projects from several organizations, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, South Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and The Current Art Fund.

She has also been an artist-in-residence at various places, which means she gets time and space to create new art. These residencies include Yaddo (2018, 2024), Museum of Arts and Design (2012), Materials for the Arts (2013), Hambidge Center (2020), and Vermont Studio Center (2022).

Images for kids

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  An early artwork by Vadis Turner (2007)