Ackland Art Museum showcases MFA Class of 2025 in new “Phantom Limb” exhibit

ARTS and CULTURE

By Sarah Atkins
Correspondent

A new exhibit at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum explores themes of erasure and legacy as they relate to personal, environmental, and cultural loss.

“Phantom Limb: Selected Works by the MFA Class of 2025” opened on March 27 at the Ackland Art Museum. The exhibition discusses a phantom limb as “the sensation of a part of one’s body still being present when it has been removed.” Delving into the body and mind’s relationship with pain, each piece speaks to the sensations of memory and grief.

The exhibition displays works by four graduating artists, each with unique perspectives on the theme of “Phantom Limb. ” It examines the ways in which something can be missing and what has been left behind.

The exhibit was curated by Julianne Miao, curatorial associate for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

The artists

Rebecca Pempek’s work in the exhibition speaks to how medical research of bodies often excludes marginalized groups, like women, a trend that persists even today. Pempek works to visualize pain that may be outwardly unrecognizable but is very much accurate. Her space in the exhibit includes her notebook, woodcut prints, and depictions inspired by historical medical documents.

Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, John Felix Arnold reimagines local landscapes to consider the legacies of labor and violence. His work draws viewers to interact with their environments in new ways and seeks to recognize the monuments and histories that have been erased from the narrative.

Carson Whitmore’s space takes on a more abstract visualization of her message. By building on the foundation of found objects, Whitmore explores the superficiality of boundaries and complicates the viewer’s perceptions of reality. Demonstrating the superficiality in capitalistic claims of ownership over the environment, Whitmore speaks to loss as it relates to land.

Dominique Muñoz visualizes what a memory looks like, engaging with his space in the exhibition through family archives and portraits from his friends and family in the queer community. Muñoz distorts these images in ways that recall the impacts of loss, identity, and displacement.

Speaking with an artist

Starting in the fall semester of 2024, the MFA Class of 2025 began meeting with the curator for the show. Throughout many studio visits with each artist, Miao developed the “Phantom Limb” theme and discussed with the artists what pieces they would display in the show.

For Muñoz, a vision to expand a previous project and turn it into a space that brought thought to the state of childhood inspired him to develop one of his pieces for the show. By collecting baby portraits of members of the queer community and distorting them in his style, Muñoz comments on what is lost on the journey from childhood to adulthood.

“It’s a state of not caring and not having all these strict ideologies of gender and sexuality; it’s just us being free,” said Muñoz.

The process of developing his other collection of pieces for the show began when Muñoz discovered a roll of paper at The Scrap Exchange that was unsuitable for his printing process. When Muñoz printed his archival images, the ink remained on the paper for several days, allowing him time to manipulate the ink and distort the images.

Though the “Phantom Limb” exhibition is not Muñoz’s first experience having his art displayed in a museum, he is excited to see the exhibit come together in a space where he and his classmates present their work and the public can interact.

“Having these four artists coming from different perspectives and approaching different topics allows us to further think about the world around us and how we tend to think about art and to question authority in all regards,” said Muñoz.

Upcoming Events and More

Ackland will host a 2nd Friday ArtWalk focused on the “Phantom Limb” exhibit on April 11 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Two artists will host hands-on workshops, and Miao will give attendees mini-tours of the exhibition. The event is free and open for people to attend throughout the evening.

Muñoz and Whitmore will have more of their work on display at the Lump Gallery in Raleigh from April 4 to 26. Muñoz will be displaying his exhibit titled “¿Qué dice tu corazón?” and Whitmore will display “Confluence.” These thesis exhibitions are available for viewing on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment.

Sarah Atkins is a student at UNC and the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, studying journalism and history. She has worked as an intern and freelance journalist with the Mitchell News Journal and is excited to contribute to TLR. She enjoys photography and is always eager to find the deeper human interest in her work. She can be reached at information@thelocalreporter.press.