BSC's Durbin Gallery to host painting exhibition by Virginia Derryberry

For Immediate Release
Oct. 24, 2016

Derryberry painting BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--The Durbin Gallery at Birmingham-Southern College will host Asheville, N.C.-based painter Virginia Derryberry's "Private Domain" exhibition for much of November.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 4, from 6-8 p.m. in the gallery, and the collection will be on display from Nov. 4 through Wednesday, Nov. 23. Both events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition will feature large-scale, figurative oil paintings on canvas alongside costume constructions. Derryberry's paintings have been lauded as vibrant and dream-like with "a quality of being familiar and unfamiliar at the same time." A bold, bright palette of colors captures human and natural forms, but with slight alterations that, as Derryberry writes, "at first seem like they [define] a 'real' space... but are in fact constructed from multiple viewpoints and lighting systems."

The costume constructions are either extensions of the paintings or work on their own to expand the paintings' narratives beyond what the canvas is capable of achieving. Some are reconstructions of quilts, and some are fabrics sewn into paintings.

Derryberry has a master's degree in painting and printmaking from Peabody College and an MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Tennessee. She has exhibited throughout the U.S., and her work is in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Asheville Art Museum, Tennessee State Museum, and West Virginia University. She recently retired from teaching studio art at the University of North Carolina at Asheville after 20 years; "Private Domain" celebrates this achievement.

About Birmingham-Southern College:
Birmingham-Southern College is a four-year, private liberal arts institution in Birmingham, Ala., founded in 1856 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It enrolls about 1,300 students from more than 30 states and 15 foreign countries.