"Gilgamesh," oil on canvas, 42" x 42", 2008 by Virginia Derryberry

Virginia Derryberry, a noted painter and UNC Asheville art professor, will hold a solo exhibition of recent work at the William King Regional Arts Center in Abingdon, Va. "Rebis: New Paintings by Virginia Derryberry" will be on view September 19-February 1. An opening reception will be held 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, in the gallery. Additional events include a gallery talk by the artist on October 16 and a lecture by art historian Virginia Spivey on January 11, 2009. Events are free and open to the public.

"Rebis: New Paintings by Virginia Derryberry" features 17 large paintings fusing realism and portraiture with mythic content and alchemical symbolism. The classically composed paintings include symbolic objects and narratives associated with myth. The paintings take new views on such traditional archetypes as Diana, Mars and Venus and the Greek nymph Echo.

Derryberry is an actively exhibiting artist. Recently, her work was shown in solo exhibitions at Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Center Gallery, the University of South Carolina Upstate, Staples Gallery at Wichita State University and at the Tower Gallery at SUNY Brockport. Represented by Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte and Cumberland Gallery in Nashville, her work has been included in numerous solo, juried and invitation exhibitions. These include "20th Century Painting in Tennessee" organized by Cheekwood Museum and "Convergence" and "20th Century American Drawing" at Forum Gallery in New York. Her paintings are also in the collections of the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport Concourse E, Carnegie Museum of Art, Tennessee State Museum, Morris Museum of Art, and the West Virginia Permanent Collection. In recent years, Derryberry has received the Southeastern College Art Association's Annual Artist Fellowship, two Individual Arts grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts as well as the West Virginia Governor’s Award.

A Tennessee native, Derryberry received her bachelor’s degree in art history from Vanderbilt University, a master of fine arts degree from the University of Tennessee and a master of arts degree from Peabody College. She joined the UNC Asheville faculty in 1996. In 2004, Derryberry received the UNC Asheville University Research Council Award for Professional Scholarship and Creative Activities, and in 2005, she was presented the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award, the University’s highest faculty honor. In addition to teaching art courses, Derryberry serves in UNC Asheville’s nationally acclaimed Undergraduate Research Program.

The William King Regional Arts Center, 415 Academy Dr., Abingdon, Va., is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call the center at 276/628-5005 or click on www.krac.org.