February 21, 2023

Hinds CC opens dual art exhibit

The exhibit began on Feb. 20 and continues through March 22 with a closing reception at 2 p.m.
BY: Cathy Hayden
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brad Smith

“Women of Cherry Street: Recent Paintings by Chatham Kemp and Hannah Wegner” will be on exhibit at the Marie Hull Gallery on the Raymond Campus of Hinds Community College.

The exhibit began on Feb. 20 and continues through March 22 with a closing reception at 2 p.m. in the gallery. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-Noon Fridays. The gallery is closed for spring break March 13-17.

Wegner is a graduate of William Carey University in Hattiesburg. Kemp is Assistant Professor in art at William Carey.

As a professor and a former student influence each other, the exhibition highlights the artists’ work while showing how the artwork can overlap and differ.

Chatham Meade Kemp has taught painting and drawing at William Carey University for more than 15 years. She received her Master’s of Fine Arts degree in painting from Indiana University in Bloomington in 2007 and her Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2004.

Kemp’s paintings celebrate her love of making discoveries with the expressive power of color and the physical process of layering paint on canvas. She states that each work walks a line between representation and abstraction. Fundamental to her paintings is the south Mississippi landscape that she calls home.

Hannah Wegner is a painter in Wiggins. She graduated from William Carey University with a BFA in painting. She has been selected for two national level painting shows in the 2023 Mississippi Invitational show. Wegner teaches painting and drawing at St. Martin High School.

Wegner’s paintings involve visual play where skeletal contour marks hover across graphic, modern shapes creating a bold drawing structure. The work includes a variety of edges, painterly marks, and tension between open and closed shapes.