Nellie Ashford Folk Art Exhibit Opens July 29 at the Museum

DALLAS NC – Acclaimed folk artist Nellie Ashford opens her newest traveling exhibit, “Nellie Ashford: Remembrance and Renewal, Wisdom from an Elder Artist” on Tuesday, July 29 at the Gaston County Museum of Art & History in Dallas.

The public is invited to a reception with the artist on Saturday, August 2 from 1:00-3:00 pm at the Museum. Ms. Ashford will give a public talk about her art and creative journey on Saturday, August 16 at 2:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public although reservations are requested at Alexander.Brooks@gastongov.com.

“Sometimes considered “outsider art” or “self-taught art”, folk art is a genre that thrives in the American South,” says Alexandrea Pizza, the Museum’s director. “Nellie Ashford is one of the most important folk artists of our time, and her exhibit at the Gaston County Museum is a long-awaited moment for our team to showcase a great contemporary artist with local roots. Nellie’s work breaks the boundaries of traditional mediums, composition, and form, and captures

moments in time as real as wiping the sweat from your brow on a hot summer day. I am thrilled that our museum has the opportunity to host this important exhibit!” she said.

By: Nellie Ashford

“I am a Charlotte native and folk artist whose art is inspired by growing up in what was once a rural city,” Ms. Ashford says. “My works are expressions of Charlotte that is forgotten and seldom recognized. My interest is in sharing my art creations with the public is to tell stories of people and places of the City. My artwork includes fabric that has been reappointed from my collection, including feed sack cloth, which was prevalent in the 1930s during the Great Depression.”

Born in 1943, Ms. Ashford is a self-taught artist who began painting in her 50s. She grew up in a rural part of Mecklenburg County and attended primary school in a segregated four-room schoolhouse. She later graduated from Plato Price High School. and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social science from Shaw University in Raleigh, NC.

Her work has been featured in a number of special exhibits since the early 2000s. She participated in a 2004 juried art show at the Afro American Cultural Center in Charlotte and earned the curator's recognition award. In 2010 Nellie's People was featured at the Delta Arts Center in Winston-Salem, and in 2016 the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture in Charlotte hosted her first major solo exhibition, Nellie Ashford: Through My Eyes.

In 2018, the Arts & Science Council and the Public Art Commission in partnership with the City of Charlotte commissioned a mural from Ashford to be displayed in Concourse A of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, titled Honoring All Teachers. In 2019, the Mint Museum of Art presented Ashford’s work in the Constellation CLT installation. Davidson College commissioned a painting entitled The Deed of Transformation in 2022, which serves to

spark conversation about enslaved individuals who made the bricks and built the buildings on the historic campus.

The Hickory Museum of Art presented Ashford’s exhibition: Honoring all Women and Children in 2024, and this year, the Gaston County Museum of Art will be the first venue for Ms. Ashford’s traveling exhibition – Nellie Ashford: Remembrance and Renewal, Wisdom from an Elder Folk Artist.

Ashford is a four-time recipient of the Actors Theater of Charlotte award and is a recipient of the Pricilla Literary Award. In 2007, she was named the Harvey B. Gantt Center’s artist of the year. Her paintings are in the collections of the Mint Museum of Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center, the Hickory Museum of Art, and the Gaston County Museum of Art & History.

Admission to the Museum is free. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm and Saturday 11:00am – 4:00pm. For more information, visit www.gastoncountymuseum.org.