UA Opens Paul R. Jones Gallery of Art in Downtown Tuscaloosa with ‘Icon’ Exhibit

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama has established an art gallery in downtown Tuscaloosa that will exhibit works year round from the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama, as well as other artists’ exhibitions.

The Paul R. Jones Gallery of Art at 2308 Sixth St. will be dedicated Aug. 13 at 4 p.m with an exhibition featuring selections from the Jones Collection.

The gallery provides an advantageous location for the community to view art from The University of Alabama, said Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, which will manage the gallery.

“While we have wonderful, year-round galleries on campus, the Jones Collection is specifically intended to be shared with the public,” Olin said. “The Sixth Street location puts us in an attractive, high-pedestrian area where members of our community can drop in and enjoy work from the Collection and by our faculty and students. And we are delighted to be a part of the cultural revitalization of downtown.” 

Entitled “Icon,” the opening exhibition has been curated by graduate students in studio art and art history from The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham and explores, thematically, the notions of ‘the icon’ in contemporary art from the Jones Collection.

The gallery honors the late Paul R. Jones who, during his lifetime, amassed one of the largest collections of African-American art and donated 1,700 pieces of his collection, valued at $4.8 million, to UA in 2008. He died Jan. 26, 2010 in Atlanta after a brief illness.

The gallery will feature a rotating selection of pieces from the Jones collection as well as works by UA students and faculty.

In addition to the Jones Gallery, the department of art and art history manages two galleries on the UA campus, the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art in Garland Hall and the Sella-Granata Gallery in Woods Hall.

“Icon” will give the Tuscaloosa community a glimpse of the many subjects and themes addressed by artists represented in the Jones collection, said Dr. Lucy Curzon, assistant professor in the department of art and art history and faculty adviser of the student exhibition.

“In this instance, iconicity is a concept broadly conceived and thus the works on exhibit embrace religious, national and community beliefs; exemplify fame, fortune and success; and embody notions of veneration, to name only a few of the contexts under exploration,” said Curzon.

“Icon” will include works by artists Clarissa Sligh, Carrie Mae Weems, Emma Amos and others. A color catalog will accompany the exhibition.