Join us for First Friday on February 2, 5:30-7:30PM, as Second Street Gallery celebrates the opening of two new exhibitions! Both shows will be on view February 2 - March 22, 2024.

Second Street Gallery is pleased and honored to present First Nation Australia: Contemporary Artists from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala, to be held in the Main Gallery. The exhibition will feature the work of 12 artists from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre : Gunybi Ganambarr, Yinimala Gumana, Djambawa Marawili AM, Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Galuma Maymuru (dec), Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, Yimula Munuŋgurr, Garawan Waṉambi, Binygurr Wirrpanda, Ḻiyawaḏay Wirrpanda, Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra, and Moyurrurra Wunuŋmurra. Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land. Exhibiting artists from the Yolŋu (Aborigianal) delegation will be present at the First Friday opening. 

Objects on view will include contemporary Aboriginal bark paintings, works on metal, and ḻarrakitj (memorial poles). Part of the Charlottesville-wide Indigenous Art Takeover, First Nation Australia at Second Street Gallery will coincide with the major touring exhibition organized by Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection that will take place concurrently at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. 

First Nation Australia: Contemporary Artists from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala is organized by the Second Street Gallery in partnership with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala and Agency Projects. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Pamela Friedman & Ronald Bailey, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tending, a solo exhibition of works by Charlottesville-based artist Laura Josephine Snyder, will occupy the Dové Gallery. The exhibition will feature personal drawings in conjunction with a film created in collaboration with photographer Kristen Finn.

Snyder explores memory, emotion, and relationship through visual abstraction. Her work references cartography and inquires into the ways in which the signs and symbols found in our physical environment influence the movements of our minds and bodies. You will encounter elements of humor, disruption, and play via visual repetition of line, shape, pattern, and symmetry or lack thereof. Snyder is currently engaged in a study of natural pigments, their historical significance and their intrinsic reference to place. The artist will be available at the First Friday opening to chat with visitors.

Tending is a Season 50 Call for Submissions pick and is generously sponsored by Camille Gerrick, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.