Frist Art Museum opens “In Her Place” a group exhibition featuring 28 women artists; Vanderbilt Art faculty among the exhibitors
On February 1, 2026, the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee celebrated it’s 25th anniversary with an exhibition the brings the focus inward to the city of Nashville by featuring the works of 28 women artist who have made a significant impact the the art community and lasting effects with their studio practice and works.
The exhibiting artists are Beizar Aradini, Alex Blau, Jane Braddock, Lakesha Calvin, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Ashley Doggett, Raheleh Filsoofi, LiFran Fort, Lanie Gannon, Lauren Gregory, Kristi Hargrove, Briena Harmening, Jana Harper, Jodi Hays, Alicia Henry, Mandy Rogers Horton, Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Shannon Cartier Lucy, Carol Mode, Elisheba Israel Mrozik, Marilyn Murphy, Sisavanh Phouthavong Houghton, Kit Reuther, Karen Seapker, Vadis Turner, Yanira Vissepó, Emily Weiner, and Kelly S. Williams.
Vanerbilt University has a strong presence in the roster as current and emerita faculty in the Department of Art exhibit alongside artists who worked as staff during a run with the department of art and or have work with other offices at Vanderbilt University.
The Frist Museum’s state for the exhibition reads, “Women have long been at the center of Nashville’s vibrant visual arts community. Especially now, during the city’s current period of growth, an outsized number of local women artists are receiving prestigious grants, residencies, and awards; are written about by respected critics; and are showing their work across the globe. Many have also dedicated years, even decades, to teaching or building impactful community organizations.
In Her Place highlights this prominent position of women artists here in Music City and beyond through nearly one hundred artworks spanning painting, sculpture, textile, and installation. Selected works by this intergenerational group of Nashville-based women relate broadly to place—whether conceived of as the view of a garden outside a studio window, the influence of being raised in the American South, a moment in time, or the evocation of an ancestral homeland outside of the United States.”
Critiquing the exclusion of women from the art-historical canon, scholar Linda Nochlin famously asked in 1971, “Why have there been no great women artists?” In response to her rhetorical question, we offer this exhibition in our largest gallery space as part of our twenty-fifth anniversary to celebrate the achievements of women artists right here in Nashville over the last four decades. – Frist Art Museum, February 2026
The exhibition has artist works grouped into four thematic motifs – Materiality and Memory; Cultural Foundations; Scenes and Dreams; finally, Patterns and Abstraction organized by the Frist Art Museum and co-curated by Sai Clayton, independent curator and artist; Katie Delmez, Frist Art Museum senior curator; and Shaun Giles, Frist Art Museum community engagement director. The exhibition was funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee administered by the Tennessee Commission for the United Sates Semiquincentennial.
The exhibition is also accompanied by a catalogue with essays. The catalogue was co-edited by Katie Delmez and Laura Hutson Hunter, published through Vanderbilt University Press.