Spring 2025 Moss Arts Center Opening Exhibition

Last Thursday, Blacksburg residents and visitors were invited to the opening reception of the Spring 2025 Exhibition at the Moss Arts Center. Upon entering the Grand Lobby, I was greeted by tables stacked with a wide range of catered food and beverages. After admiring the purposely placed decorative table arrangements I visited each of the two new exhibits. Whether you’re looking to socialize or admire the solo exhibitions of Shaunté Gates and Charisse Weston, I highly recommend checking out the new exhibits.

Exhibition One: This Is Not a Test by Shaunté Gates

Shaunté Gates is an artist born in 1979, currently working and living in Washington DC. Gates’ exhibition features various paintings created using a wide range of materials and media, which immediately caught my attention. He creates intricate and contrasting landscapes that are not only pleasing to the eye, but are thought provoking as well. His work explores social class, race, religion, and more in a unique and cinematic way. Gates has a recognizable and potent style, using primarily dusky and glooming colors in his paintings. However, many of his paintings included one vividly colored portion, successfully drawing one's attention.

One particular work called Holy Parachutes features a young girl wearing a bandana over her eyes. The girl and background are colored in black and white, while the bandana is a bold, dark red. This immediately draws the viewer's attention and helps emphasize the painting’s purpose. Kadi Suba says, “I think his use of different colors adds to the impact of the painting,”  Each piece of artwork also has a sheet of paper beside it detailing the title and materials used in the painting, and I enjoyed receiving extra information about each piece.

To say that I was impressed with Gates’s work would be an understatement, and I definitely recommend exploring this exhibit.

Exhibition Two: Charisse Pearlina Weston

Charisse Weston is a conceptual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She primarily focuses on architectural pieces and sculptures that often explore Black intimacy, resistance, and the daily threat of anti-Black violence. Weston’s pieces were exceptionally distinctive and conveyed that she clearly has an impressive eye for structural art that not just anyone possesses. Her pieces are made with a wide range of materials, but a majority of her work is centered around glass. 

Weston revealed to Cultured magazine that she kiln-fires repurposed glass to use in her sculptures. She bends and folds the glass to inclination while it’s still in the kiln so that it can be utilized in her work.  In an interview given by Zoe Hopkins,Charisse stated that, “Glass has been an interesting and generative material for me because of its fragility and the danger inherent to its breaking.”

Aside from glass, Charisse also used wood, acrylic, and paper in a lot of her projects. One in particular was even made using paper pulled from a history textbook! Despite the occasional use of peculiar materials, her work still manages to look coherent and intentional.

If you're interested in exploring unparalleled creativity and skill, you should definitely give Weston’s gallery a look.

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Written by Adaia Ivory

Photography by Daxson Clay