Reciprocity
MAY 1 – MAY 5, 2026 (closed May 3)
Reception: May 1 from 5-7pm
Artist Statement:
Reciprocity is an act of giving back.
This interdisciplinary exhibition approaches artmaking as a form of relationship with the natural world. It begins from a simple belief: flourishing is mutual. The systems that sustain us, plants,
soil, water, and other living beings, are not passive resources, but active participants in our existence. This work asks what it means to recognize that relationship and respond with care.
Inspired by the writing of Robin Wall Kimmerer, the project draws on ideas of the honorable harvest, gift-based economies, and the recognition of nonhuman life as persons. These are not abstract concepts, but ways of living grounded in attention, restraint, and gratitude: take only what you need, use what you take well, and give something back.
Rather than depicting nature from a distance, these works reflect how living systems already sustain one another. The paintings are made with natural pigments and sustainable binders, combining traditional oil methods with materially conscious processes. The ceramic works extend these ideas into physical space: wheel-thrown stoneware vessels and sculptural forms that function as offerings. Material choices are integral to the work, they reflect a responsibility to the systems from which they come.
The imagery traces interdependent networks: Three Sisters plantings, root systems, mycelial webs, seeds, braids, and hands in gestures of exchange. Nothing exists in isolation; life is sustained through continual reciprocity.
A large-scale painting anchors the gallery, depicting mosses, roots, and interconnected systems that extend beyond the frame. Soil spreads across the floor, softening the boundary between interior and exterior space.
Living plants are present as participants, not decoration. Each is named and cared for, emphasizing attention and relationship. Books and seeds extend the exhibition beyond its walls, inviting visitors to take, grow, and continue these cycles of care.
This exhibition is not meant to be passively consumed. It is an invitation to reconsider how we live. Sustainability is not a trend or a material choice, but an ongoing relationship grounded in reciprocity.
“Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the earth will last forever.”
Here, art is not the end, it is a means of carrying this ethic forward.
Artist bio:
Blair Newsome is a painter and multidisciplinary artist based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is a senior at Wake Forest University, where she majors in studio art and minors in environmental studies and art history. Her practice explores relationships between memory, place, and ecology, often translating systems of interdependence into layered paintings and ceramic forms.
Newsome’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across Wake Forest’s galleries. Her paintings have received multiple first-place awards in juried exhibitions and are included in Wake Forest’s John P. Anderson Collection of Student Art. In 2025, she was awarded a URECA Fellowship to research sustainable studio materials, an inquiry that continues to shape her artistic process.
Alongside her studio practice, she is the founder and president of the Wake Forest Ceramics Organization, where she teaches wheel-throwing and expands student access to the arts. Outside of her practice, she enjoys gardening, running, baking, and reading.