Durham Exhibitions

2026 Durham Exhibitions

July 5, 2026 – Setpember 30, 2026
Golden Belt ARts
ELizabeth Opalenik: Veils of illusion

Opalenik's photographs balance technical innovation with poetic sensitivity that feels suspended between dream and reality where stories are left untold. Her contribution to contemporary photography lies not only in advancing the expressive possibilities of mordançage, but also in crafting a body of work that elevates the ephemeral into the enduring, creating images that linger long after they are seen. Her painterly style invites viewers into a contemplative realm where beauty is never fixed but perpetually unfolding, shaped by chance and creative illusion into profound meditations on transformation and grace.

Elizabeth will be joining us for a closing reception on September 30 in the Great Hall at Golden Belt Arts.

To learn more about Elizabeth and view her working in the mordançage process, visit www.elizabethopalenik.com

2025 Durham Exhibition Recap

July 17, 2025 – January 04, 2026
Nasher Museum of Art
Coming into Focus: A Snapshot of Photography at the Nasher

The museum’s photography collection originated in 1972, when Duke University Museum of Art purchased a portrait of artist Barbara S. Thompson by noted North Carolina photographer and educator John Menapace. Twenty years later, Duke University purchased its second photograph: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #140, depicting a human-pig hybrid creature and part of the celebrated artist’s portrayal of female characters in classic fairy tales. The opening of the Nasher Museum in 2005 initiated a more focused approach to collecting photography building upon these two earlier acquisitions. Within its first decade, the museum acquired significant groups of works by Andy Warhol, Barkley L. Hendricks, and Mike Disfarmer, among many others, as it built a robust collection of national, international, and regional photography.

More recently the Nasher has added over 2,000 photographs to its collection that allow us, for the first time, to chronicle a broad historical sweep of the medium from its dawn in the 1830s and 40s to more recent innovative, experimental approaches. A five-year donation of over 1,500 photographs by Linda and Charles Googe (A.B. ’84) has more than doubled the museum’s photography holdings and included works by the best-known practitioners from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Edouard Baldus, Ilse Bing, Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertész, Arthur Rothstein, Nadar, and Edward Weston. Coming into Focus: A Snapshot of Photography at the Nasher celebrates these gifts and other acquisitions, highlighting a sampling of gems and illuminating a bright future of continued collecting and presenting of photography in innovative and ambitious ways.

Coming into Focus: A Snapshot of Photography at the Nasher was organized by Ellen C. Raimond, Associate Curator of Academic Initiatives and Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art., with assistance from Nasher interns, Charles Blocksidge, III (’25) and Jordan Moyd (Robertson Scholar ’26, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), and Ghita Basurto-Covarrubias (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, ‘26).

This exhibition is made possible by The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions; the Frank Edward Hanscom Endowment; the Janine and J. Tomilson Hill Family; the Neely Family Fund; the E.T. Rollins Jr. and Frances P. Rollins Fund; the J. Horst and Ruth Mary Meyer Fund; and the K. Brantley and Maxine E. Watson Endowment Fund.

September 19 - October14. 2025
Artist Reception: October 4, 2025
Through This Lens Gallery

Fern Nesson "Music of the Spheres"

Fern L. Nesson is a fine art photographer who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received her MFA in Photography from Maine Media College (2018), a J.D. (Harvard Law School (1971), and an M.A. in American History (Brandeis University 1987).

Fern's spare photographs distill reality to its essence, highlighting its energy through the use of form and abstraction. She has had solo exhibitions in Arles, France, the MIT Museum, the MetaLab at Harvard, the Beacon Gallery in Boston, the Auburn Gallery in Los Angeles, Through This Lens Gallery in Durham, NC, Rockport, Maine and on artsy.net. Additionally, her work has been selected for numerous juried exhibitions in the U.S. and in Rome, Barcelona, and Budapest.

Fern's photobook, Signet of Eternity, received a 10th Annual Photobooks Award from the Davis-Orton Gallery and her book, WORD, received the 12th Annual Photobooks Award from the Davis-Orton Gallery. She writes historical photo essays for The LivingNewDeal.org, and photo essays on art and culture for BonjourParis.com.

September 9- November 1, 2024
Artist Recetption October 18th from 6-8pm
Allenton Gallery: Durham Arts Council

Jennifer Cantwell: Where Are We?

I have always struggled with the idea of the self-portrait. The camera is an ingenious tool that allows an introvert like me, a means of making oneself invisible by placing the focus on something or someone else. But when the camera is turned around and is in skilled hands, there is no longer anywhere to hide as it always bores down into one’s soul. I find myself at a point in life that I no longer want to be invisible. I want to be seen, but I want to be seen as myself, to break down the assumptions people make. But to be truly seen, one must know who they are. As life brought on new roles and identities, wife and mother, somewhere along the way I had forgotten who I am.

In my quest to regain my sense of self, I chose to focus on the fundamental relationships that have shaped me; those that are in the present, and those that are in the past. I have manifested this through masquerade. These photographs are not literally me, they are characters, people from my past amalgamated into one. They represent phases in my life and places and people I have known, but they are also the universal, the archetype. They are you just as much as they are me.