Vadis Turner facts for kids
Vadis Turner (born 1977) is an American artist who lives in Tennessee. She creates art using many different materials, often everyday items. Her art encourages these "domestic materials" to act in unexpected ways. She often explores how patterns, like grids, can be used in art. Many of her artworks are named after famous female figures from history or stories.
Vadis Turner explains that her art often tells stories about "tragic heroines" from old Greek myths, books, and experiences shared by women from different times. She uses everyday materials with these stories, letting the materials go beyond their usual purpose. This helps them show new meanings and challenge traditional ideas about gender.
Art expert Donald Kuspit said that Turner's "female grids" are like dream-like pictures with a strong emotional feeling. He noted that the way she changes shapes in her art shows the sadness of these female figures.
Turner has had solo art shows at important places like the Frist Art Museum in Tennessee and the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama. Her art has also been shown in group exhibitions at places such as the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Brooklyn Museum.
Her artworks are part of the permanent collections in several museums. These include the Brooklyn Museum, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Hunter Museum of American Art.
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Early Life and Education
Vadis Turner was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She now lives and works in Brooklyn. She studied art at Boston University, where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in fine arts.
Teaching Art
Vadis Turner taught art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, for many years. She was a visiting instructor, then an adjunct instructor, and later an adjunct associate professor from 2004 to 2014. Since 2022, she has been a lecturer of art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Early Art Career
When Vadis Turner lived in New York, she used everyday and traditionally feminine materials in surprising ways. She wanted these materials to show new meanings. Early in her career, she made bold sculptures from unusual items. These included lingerie made from wax paper and a "tampon wedding cake." This style was similar to that of feminist artists in the late 1960s and 1970s. These artists often challenged traditional ideas about women's roles.
One art writer described Turner's work as making a strong, colorful, and sometimes elegant statement about feminine topics. The writer noted that her mixed media pieces were deeply meaningful. Another expert, Glenn Adamson, said that Turner's art explores important moments in life. He added that her work is powerful because it shows deep understanding of human feelings.
In 2009, Turner showed a series of artworks called Dowry at the Lyons Weir Gallery in New York City. A dowry is traditionally a gift of valuable goods given to a woman when she marries. However, Turner used her Dowry art to help her own career. She sold and traded the pieces for her professional growth. This project ended with a large art display called Reception, which was bought by the Brooklyn Museum.
People have said that Turner tries to make ordinary things special. She turns them from their usual purpose into art that comments on society.
In 2012, Turner worked with artist Saya Woolfalk during a special art program at the Museum of Arts and Design. In 2013, Turner was chosen as an artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts. There, she made art using fabric scraps from the fashion industry. MFTA said that Turner "paints" with ribbon and fabric. She uses ribbons like lines and brushstrokes, and larger pieces of fabric like splashes of color.
Turner says that her art is made by bringing together female characters with the changing places around them. She enjoys creating new endings and lives for sad female characters from books. She mentioned Ophelia and Eve as two examples.
An art critic noted that Turner cleverly uses the strong feelings often seen in abstract paintings by male artists. She connects these feelings to the worries about personal appearance that society, especially for women, encourages. By doing this, she creates a kind of social commentary. Her art also gives viewers something generous, thoughtful, and unexpected to see.
In 2016, Vadis Turner received a special grant called the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant.
Exhibitions
Here are some of Vadis Turner's important solo exhibitions:
- Tempest, Frist Art Museum, TN
- Megaliths, Ent Center for the Arts, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO
- Cups and Grids, Geary, NY
- Encounters, Huntsville Museum of Art, AL
- She Drank Gold, Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL
- Craft Front and Center, Museum of Arts and Design, NY
In 2024, Turner's art was part of the Craft Front and Center exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. This show highlighted how important craft art still is today. Her artwork, Red Relic Vessel (2022), was displayed next to a famous artwork by Sheila Hicks. Turner's piece is a twisted shape made from cotton bed sheets, brick dust, and gold leaf.
Grants, Awards, and Residencies
Vadis Turner's art projects have received funding from several organizations. These include the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. She has also received support from The Current Art Fund, which is part of the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Turner has participated in several artist residency programs. These are special times when artists can focus on their work in a new environment. Her residencies include:
- Yaddo, NY (in 2018 and 2024)
- Museum of Arts and Design, NY (2012)
- Materials for the Arts, NY (2013)
- Hambidge Center, GA (2020)
- Vermont Studio Center, VT (2022)
