Current Exhibition
Edith Younger Edmunds - Hands Making Light
Exhibition Dates: February 1 – February 28, 2026
Reception: February 28, 2026Â 2-5 pm
Curated by: Joanne Rogers
About Edith Younger Edmunds
Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery proudly presents HANDS MAKING LIGHT, a month-long exhibition celebrating the life, legacy, and luminous artistry of textile artist Edith Younger Edmunds at age 100. On view throughout the month of February, the exhibition is curated by Charlotte’s visionary arts advocate Joanne Rogers and mixed-media artist Cheryl Edmunds, co-curator.
Radiating explosive color, symbolism, and cultural memory, HANDS MAKING LIGHT showcases Edmunds’ powerful storytelling through clothworks that illuminate history, resilience, and ancestral knowledge passed down through generations. Central to the exhibition is Edmunds’ iconic Underground Railroad wall hanging, featured on the cover of her award winning, bestseller Secret Stitches: An Underground Railroad Activity Book for Children and Adults. The piece highlights ten primary quilt codes believed by some scholars to have communicated warnings, directions, and messages of hope to enslaved people seeking freedom prior to Emancipation.
Also featured is Edmunds’ celebrated Monkey Wrench quilt, which appeared on the cover of Lynchburg Living Magazine’s 2025 Arts Issue.
Together, these works reflect the artist’s mastery of textile language and her lifelong commitment to preserving African American history through visual form.
Luis Ardila - Symbolic Painter
Exhibition Dates: January 10 – March 21, 2026
Closing Reception: March 7, 2026 1-5 pm
Art Talk: 2-3 pm
Painting Class/Demo: 3-5 pm ($10)
Curated by Joanne Rogers
About Luis Ardila
Born in Bogota, Colombia, and a US citizen.
Master’s in Fine Arts from the National University of Colombia.
ARCHITECTURE 4 years from the National University of Colombia.
My work features a symbolist style, incorporating mythologies from both Eastern and Western civilizations. Syncretism is the combination or fusion of different beliefs, philosophies, mythologies, or religions, emphasizing an underlying unity that allows an inclusive approach to other faiths.
Syncretism manifests in art and culture through expressions that can come together. I use Syncretism to develop patterns that reveal how our current culture opens itself into its different functions to reflect our way of living, hopes, and mistakes.The purpose of my work is to find a way to communicate our history so people can understand that we have choices as to our present and future.
Prophecies will be the same today as they were in ancient times. They become alive when the patterns that created that prophecy are repeated in history. They are a warning that history will be repeated if the patterns are not acknowledged and behaviors change.
