The Cahaba River Watershed Project is a collaboration, exhibition and lecture by new media artist Elisabeth Pellathy, sculptor Lee Somers and printmaker Scott Stephens. Their investigation focuses on the visual language of the river and how its iconography serves as vessel for memory, as well as the history of the Cahaba River Watershed and how it has been shaped by human activity. The exhibition features the working methods of the artists using drawing, photography and CAD generated and 3D modeling images that are laser engraved into acrylic plates and printed using traditional intaglio and relief techniques.
Sonja Rieger received her BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her MFA from Rutgers University. In 1979, she became a Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she has served as Chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Her work is in the collections of the Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Madrid, the International Polaroid Corporation, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Huntsville Museum of Art and other corporate and private collections. Recipient of two Individual Artist Grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, Rieger has also received grants for projects from the Polaroid Corporation, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Fine Arts and Children’s Departments collaborated to produce this Black History Month exhibition and art class. On February 5th, the Children’s Department hosted an art class, open to children ages 7-12, where students completed an art project based on traditional African artwork and motifs. The class was taught by artist and art teacher, Rod Porterfield, who is currently with Jefferson County Public Schools. The work of the students will be on display in the City Hall Gallery through February and when the exhibition concludes each student will receive their framed artwork provided by the Hoover Public Library.
