ARTS & EXHIBITIONS SPOTLIGHT

START TALKING: FISCHER/ SHULL COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART

NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART Through February 5, 2023 ncartmuseum.org

Start Talking features more than forty works, including photographs, paintings, mixed-media assemblages, and sculptures, from a transformative promised gift to the NCMA from the collection of Randy Shull and Hedy Fischer. The artists in this exhibition challenge the status quo and diverge from dominant historical perspectives on identity, power, resistance, and agency, focusing on women and Black and Latin American artists.

EGYPTIAN TENT

GREGG MUSEUM OF ART & DESIGN Through December 23 gregg.arts.ncsu.edu

Roger Manley, director of Gregg Museum of Art & Design, describes a collecting museum as a “climate-controlled attic of curiosities.” A fine example of this is now on display. Egyptian Tent features a rare and colorfully appliquéd Egyptian tour tent—one of only six of its kind known in the world—and several pharaonic and geometric appliquéd tent panels, known as khayamiya, made in Cairo in the early twentieth century. All objects represented are part of the museum’s diverse and dynamic permanent collection of over 35,000 objects. Adding to its exotic provenance: the Egyptian tour tent was transferred to the Gregg Museum from the collection of North Carolina’s storied Chinqua Penn Plantation.

TITUS HEAGINS: I STILL LOVE YOU . . .

CAM RALEIGH Through February 5, 2023 camraleigh.org

A love letter to the transgender community in Havana, Titus Heagins: I Still Love You . . . refers to a pattern the photographer observed while visiting the island and building relationships with its transgender community members over the course of two decades. In intimate portraits, Heagins expresses his enduring commitment to the people, their lives, and their humanity.