SECCA marks the 18th installment of the Southern Idiom series with an exhibition of new work by photographer and multidisciplinary creative Ashley Johnson.

Image credit: Ashley Johnson. "...from baptisms". Photograph. 2019.

On View January 16, 2021 – February 14, 2021

On view through in SECCA's Preview Gallery, the exhibition will feature work from Johnson's powerful Mark Yourself Safe photography series, exploring themes around black skin, perception, fear, curiosities, and freedom. Works on view will be available for purchase. Admission to the exhibition is free, with a suggested $10 donation.

"We are excited to bring a solo presentation of the work of Ashley Johnson to SECCA," says Wendy Earle, curator of contemporary art at SECCA. "Ashley has a vibrant and incisive photography practice, and her use of framing and light produces stunning work."

Ashley Johnson is a writer and a multidisciplinary creative entrepreneur living in Winston- Salem, North Carolina. Johnson uses mixed media via photography, textile, live floral, woven and braided masks to navigate intra-racial conflict, identity evolution, southern woman and girlhood, and studies of relative time as it relates to African American/feminine beauty practice.

Reserve your spot for the socially-distant opening reception here.

About Southern Idiom

SECCA's Southern Idiom exhibition series launched in 2017 as a platform for elevating and celebrating the work of Winston-Salem artists. In contrast to many exhibitions at SECCA, works on view in Southern Idiom are available for purchase. Ashley Johnson's exhibition marks the 18th installment of the series, which previously presented artists like Frank Campion, Mona Wu, Owens Daniels, Jessica Singerman, Leo Rucker, Kevin Calhoun, Paul Travis Phillips, Laura Lashley, Sam "The Dot Man" McMillan, and others.