Frist Art Museum to Present IN HER PLACE: NASHVILLE ARTISTS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

The Frist Art Museum will present In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century, an exhibition spotlighting the central role women have played—and continue to play—in shaping Nashville's visual arts community.

Organized by the Frist Art Museum, the exhibition kicks off the Frist's 25th-anniversary year and will be on view in the museum's Ingram Gallery from January 29 through April 26, 2026. Women artists and gallerists have long been at the center of Nashville's vibrant visual arts community. Especially during the recent period of remarkable growth, an outsized number of local women artists are showing their work across the country and globe and receiving prestigious grants, residencies, and critical acclaim. Many have also dedicated years, even decades, to teaching or building impactful community organizations. Through the presentation of nearly 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles, and installation works made by an intergenerational group of 28 celebrated Nashville-based women artists, In Her Place draws attention to the prominent position of women artists in the region and beyond.

On view in the museum's largest gallery space, In Her Place is part of the 2026 Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art, underscoring a commitment to the local arts ecosystem. The exhibition is cocurated by Sai Clayton, independent curator and artist; Katie Delmez, Frist Art Museum senior curator; and Shaun Giles, Frist Art Museum community engagement director. This project is accompanied by a catalogue coedited by Delmez and writer, editor, and independent curator Laura Hutson Hunter and published by Vanderbilt University Press. Selected works relate broadly to concepts of place, whether that be the literal view of a garden outside a studio window, the more general influence of being raised in the American South, a place in time, or the evocation of an ancestral homeland outside of the U.S. The artists range from established leaders to emerging and midcareer figures, including María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Ashley Doggett, Raheleh Filsoofi, Jodi Hays, Alicia Henry, Sisavanh Phouthavong Houghton, Karen Seapker, Vadis Turner, Yanira Vissepó, and Emily Weiner.

In their exhibition catalogue introduction, Clayton and Delmez write, “The title In Her Place challenges the long-held exclusion of women from the art world by asserting that these artists belong in museums, in critical conversations, and at the forefront of contemporary art. And it asserts that each artist is making this place, Nashville, their own by reshaping it as a city not only for musicians but also for visual artists working at the highest caliber. Ten years in the making, In Her Place is an important recognition of the decades-long impact women artists have had in defining Nashville's creative landscape.”

Artists' Conversation: The Foremothers
Featuring Jane Braddock, LiFran Fort, Lanie Gannon, Carol Mode, and Marilyn Murphy
Moderated by cocurator Sai Clayton
Thursday, January 29, 6:30 p.m.
Auditorium
Free for members; $10 for not-yet-members
Registration required