Image courtesy of the artist
From March 7-26, 2025, New City Arts will presents Sketches of Home: Personal Considerations of Cherished Space featuring new work by Somé Louis.
In this installation-based exhibition, Somé Louis explores the concept of self-directed memories, activities, and meditations within a cherished space, such as a home. Prompted by aesthetic interests in her own home, studio, and childhood memories of home in the Caribbean, this exhibition utilizes a variety of media to consider these concepts. These include: works on paper, embroidery, display of found objects, and performance on video. The gallery space will seek to integrate the display of recent artworks in connection with aesthetic considerations of the cherished spaces of the artist.
Photo by Laura Dillon-Rogers
Somé Louis is a Charlottesville-based conceptual artist investigating concepts of memory, home, family, and identity through the rituals of mundane occurrences and observations. She explores these concepts through a variety of media and methods, most frequently installation, embroidery on found / antique household textiles, minimal drawing on found papers, and performance on video. In her most recent visual work, Somé explores memories of a childhood in the Caribbean through common gestures of daily activities on found linens, textiles, and papers from the domestic sphere. She considers the connection these routines hold in building a sense of self, home, and connection to one’s family and ancestors. Through drawing and embroidery on found materials with aesthetic and personal historical relevance, she attempts to record these simple memories that have remained with her over time.
Somé holds a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Wellesley College, and is an active participant in a number of Charlottesville creative projects. She has completed residencies at New City Arts, Second Street Gallery, and McGuffey Art Center. She recently joined McGuffey Art Center as a member and holds an active studio practice.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Friday Opening Reception
March 7 from 5-7:30PM; Artist talk at 6PM. Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
Wednesday-Saturday from 10AM-5PM
Exhibition Events
Mundane Item Show & Tell | March 15 at 1PM | All ages are welcome. Bring a simple, mundane, cherished item to share.
Mending Circle | March 22 at 1PM | Join us for mending and conversation—bring a fiber project you’re working on or something that needs mending.
Thank You
This exhibition is presented by The FUNd at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation and is supported by the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
Exhibition Statement
Sketches of Home: Personal Considerations on Cherished Space is a personal investigation into the aesthetic and material conventions of a space that can be called home, and the mundane, yet cherished actions and rituals that occur there.
This is an installation-based exhibition that combines a variety of media and methods, including embroidery on found linens, works on paper, video performance, journal entries, and the presentation of found objects and work materials. These media are presented in a format similar to the artist’s own working and living areas over the course of many years of creative practice.
The exhibition considers the artist’s own understanding of her creative practice as a personal space, and the production of artwork, as well as the collection of cherished objects as the actions within. It can perhaps be considered a visual journal, or a museum of personal interests and habits.
The representation and performance of simple mundane gestures as observed in this exhibition, as well as the objects within the space serve a variety of purposes to the artist, but have been especially useful as tools for mediating on core considerations of her practice, such as investigations into memory, family, and self, and how these impact a sense of cherished space.
Of special note are the displayed poems, created especially for the exhibition by the author (and artist’s father), G.E. Louis. These poems, which use “home” as a starting point, are an essential valuable “object” for the artist. They serve as a critical point of connection between her understanding of cherished space in relation to her family, ancestors, and their own cherished aesthetics and memories that will inevitably impact her own experiences. As many of the aesthetic considerations of this exhibition draw on memories of the artist’s childhood home in the Caribbean, shared by multiple generations of family, these poems suggest the multitude of ways that family members meditate on a shared, valuable space.
Located at 114 3rd St. NE on Charlottesville’s downtown pedestrian mall, New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery supports artists who live in the Charlottesville area. Welcome Gallery exhibitions and programs are made possible by generous sponsors, donors, and grants. Interested in sponsoring an exhibition? Connect with us!