Artist Bio
Biography
I am a multidisciplinary storyteller living and working in Birmingham, Alabama. I hold a B.A. from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Artist Statement
My most recent work is more about being lost than found. I wander through the woods that I call home and I contemplate the natural world and the human condition. A series of mixed media collages is my trail of breadcrumbs. They are the ramblings of a madwoman in a brambly thicket trying to find her way…
My current work has been created as I contemplate ideas about autonomy, identity and community. Through the practice of observation within the parameters of a small geographic space and an infinite philosophical space, the development of a visual language describing these spaces emerged. By attempting to develop a stronger sense of my place in these landscapes, I began to imagine change in myself and the world at large. Memory, patterns, cycles and environmental cues took on new importance when moving through these landscapes with heightened senses rather than maps.
Faced with the challenges and contradictions of this modern age where cultural pressures, political drama, algorithms and automation are changing our relationship to the planet and each other, I made a conscious decision to seek out stillness and quiet. I walk my 5 acres of land and give my attention to the smallest details. I watch the sky, I listen to bird song, watch spiders spin webs, wait for the fox to show itself at the edge of the woods—-and then I return to my studio where I read, listen to the news of the day, connect with the world and create these curious recordings of a day in the life– cognitive maps of a wandering, wondering earthling. Through the process of layering images and impressions, scratching them away again and adding new ones, I create palimpsestic documents —representations of my embodied knowledge and the time and space and thought processes that I have occupied. Through this conjuring of memories and the alchemical process of recording experiences through photography, drawing and collage, I have woven these stories of a place in time.
Curriculum Vitae
(selected exhibitions, awards and publications)
2021
Beyond the Brambly Thicket, Solo exhibition at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Hunstville Alabama (Forthcoming January 2021)
2020
Tales from the Brambly Thicket Solo exhibition at Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden, Alabama (Forthcoming in October/November 2020)
2019
Madwoman in the Woods Solo exhibition at PaperWorkers Local in Birmingham, Alabama.
A Sense of Place, 39th Annual National Juried Competition Juror: Anne Marchand. Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, Georgia.
MINT Summer Invitational at the MET, Curator Jessica Helfrecht, MINT Gallery, Atlanta Georgia.
Unbound: A Juried Member Exhibition with Alabama Women’s Caucus for Art at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment. Juror: Maria Spies, director of the ceramic arts program at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, Alabama.
Connections curated by Ty Smith of Department of Art & Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham at Ground Floor Contemporary Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
2018
Making Room: Stories about Ghosts with Ashley Wingo and Emily Rice, Ground Floor Contemporary Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama (September 2018).
Poustinia, a permanent site specific art installation at The Red Mountain Community School in Birmingham, Alabama.
Water of Alabama, PaperWorkers Local’s second annual juried exhibition, Birmingham, Alabama. First place winner. Juror: Graham C. Boettcher, PhD, the R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art.
B18: Wiregrass Biennial, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama Jurors: Elizabet Elliott, Curator of Programs at the Mobile Museum of Art, and Jackie Clay, Director of the Coleman Center for the Arts in York, Alabama. (July-September 2018).
Night Festival, Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve, Birmingham, Alabama (July 2018)
A Look at Us: a juried exhibition, Juror: Sara Garden Armstrong, Daisie Hoitsma and Miriam Omura, Ground Floor Contemporary Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.
2017
Ink Only, Juror: Katie Baldwin, Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, UAB Project Space hosted by Paperworkers Local, Birmingham, Alabama
Night Festival: A Nocturnal Celebration of the Natural World, Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve. Curator Jon Wooley.
Prelude Calavera Invitational, Naked Art Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Moss Rock Festival, Featured Artist, Birmingham, Alabama.
2016
Vespertine, solo exhibition by Tracie Noles-Ross, Naked Art Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Prelude Calavera Invitational, Naked Art Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Winner of Silvertron Tour de Loo for “Haiku Islands” mixed media installation. Birmingham, Alabama.
2013
The Brambly Thicket, New Works by Tracie Noles-Ross, Bridgestreet Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
From Black and White to a World of Color, at the Alabama Power Archives Museum. Curator: Dan Bynum.
Noles-Ross illustrates the book entitled The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild by award winning author and naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt (from Little, Brown in fall, 2013).
2012
Reflections of Food in Alabama Art, Art Folk Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama. Curator: John Lytle Wilson.
2011
Alabama Signatures: Contemporary Expressions, Alabama Artists Gallery at the Alabama State Council on the Arts in Montgomery. Curator: Georgine Clarke.
Farewells and Introductions, New Orleans, Louisiana. Curator: John Fields. Prospect 1.5.
The Milkweed Project, a collaborative installation. The Eclipse Gallery, Algoma, WI. Project Architect: Shan Bryan-Hanson.
2010
Heads Up Alabama, traveling exhibition, a public art project of the Alabama Psychological Association Foundation.
Birmingham Biennial 3. Juror: Dan Cameron of Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans and creator of Project 1
2016-2010
Dia de las Muertos, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama
2009
Honey in My Eye, New Works by Tracie Noles-Ross and Wendi Flowers, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
2006
New Works by Tracie Noles-Ross and Wendi Flowers, Bare Hands Gallery,Birmingham, Alabama.
2004
Calliope’s Moon New Works by Tracie Noles-Ross, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
2003
Electra, Alabama Power Juried Exhibition, Birmingham, Alabama.
2002
Allegory of the Senses, Sensational New Works by Tracie Noles-Ross and Olsen Ross, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham.
The Gift Project, Plattsburgh, New York, Plattsburgh State University. Curator: Diane Fine.
Dwelling, invitational, Opelika Art Association, Opelika Alabama. Curator: Allyson Comstock.
2001
Award of Excellence awarded by The University of Alabama at Birmingham Women’s Studies Program for curating Firsts: The Personal and the Historical, an exhibition honoring Women’s History Month sponsored by the UAB Women’s Studies Program, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Visual Conversations: Three Alabama Artists, Alabama State Council on the Arts Alabama Artists Gallery, Montgomery, Alabama. Curated by Georgine Clarke.
Letters Home sculpture installed in the Regiment of Columns at the Alabama Veterans Memorial. Honoring Alabama Veterans of the 20th Century.
Milk to Mud: The Recrudescence of Self, solo exhibition, The University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
Breaking Up Winter, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Women of Taste, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, California.
Behind the Yellow Door curated by Derek Cracco, 21st Street Studios Birmingham, Alabama.
Art’s Alive, Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, Florence, Alabama.
Recycled Art, Nonesuch Gallery, Huntsville, Alabama.2001
Firsts: The Personal and The Historical, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
2000
Heroines in Troubled Fields, installation, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Art’s Alive, Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, Florence Alabama.
1999
The Rock Beneath the Sand, solo exhibition, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
Artist’s Grant, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado
1998
La Architectura del Nido, solo exhibition, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
The Fourth Floor, A collaborative painting with Olsen Ross at The Ferguson Art Gallery at The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.
1997
Shrines: The Sacred and Secular in Contemporary Southern Art, Lenox Square, Atlanta,Georgia
Triumvirate, A Collaborative Installation with Olsen Ross and Arthur Price at Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama.
1996
The Infamous and The Remarkable, solo exhibition, Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham.
Arts Alive, The Kennedy Douglas Center for the Arts Juried Exhibition, Florence, Alabama. Juror: Georgine Clark.
1995
Ten Book Artists: One of a Kind Artists Books, Maralyn Wilson Gallery Birmingham.
Traveler’s Feast, The Dr. Pepper Complex. Birmingham. February-March.
The Distance Between Two Hearts, A Collaborative Installation with Marcia Bacon Connolly, The Birmingham Art Association.
The Distance Between Two Hearts, A Collaborative Installation with Marcia Bacon Connolly, The Ferguson Art Gallery at The University of Alabama.
Ardor and Faith, solo exhibition Artomotive, Birmingham.
1994
Babies on the Moon, solo exhibition, Birmingham Art Association.
1993
To Be… The Kentler International Drawing Space, New York. Curated by Florence Neal.
Somalia Benefit, A group exhibition of 7 Birmingham artists for International relief, Miyagi Ken, Japan.
1992
Favorable Bed: A Study in Paradoxical Personae, A collaborative installation with Olsen Ross at The Fifth Gate Arts Center
Winner of Regional Artists Project Grant, The Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans for the exhibition Favorable Bed: A study in Paradoxical Personae.
We Live in a Political World, The Fifth Gate Arts Center. Birmingham. October.
Superstition and Personal Ritual, Curated and Exhibited. The Fifth Gate Arts Center.Birmingham. February 7-28.
Sanctuary as Canvas, An FMC Installation at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Birmingham.
1991
Filling The Dream Organ, An FMC Installation, The Fifth Gate Arts Center.
The Age Of Nimbus Monsters, An FMC Installation, Converted Birmingham storefront.
1990
The Second Annual Flood and Mystic Chamber Salon, 10.2.4 Gallery, Birmingham.
1990-1995
Co-founder of The Fifth Gate Arts Center Exhibition and Artist Studio Co-op. Curator of exhibitions and organizer of studio co-operative.
1989
The First Annual Flood and Mystic Chamber Salon, SoMo Gallery, Birmingham.
1988
The Other Side, a collaborative installation with Olsen Ross at Space One Eleven.
1987
The Eaten Ones, a group exhibition with Olsen Ross and Douglas Baulos at The University of Alabama at Birmingham Visual Arts Gallery.
Cofounder and member of The Flood and Mystic Chamber Salon, a group of artists that exhibited together annually creating installations in alternative and traditional artists spaces.
Publications
Reynolds, Michelle. “Making Art With Needle and Thread.” Two artists combine textiles and storytelling, HGTV, Jan. 2019, www.hgtv.com/design/make-and-celebrate/handmade/embroidering-stories–making-art-with-needle-and-thread-pictures.
“I Create Birmingham: Tracie Noles-Ross.” Create Birmingham, 8 Nov. 2017, createbirmingham.org/i-create-
Massouleh, Tara. “Moss Rock Festival Featured Artist Uses Nature and Women as Inspiration in Art.” AL.com, AL.com, 1 Nov. 2017, www.al.com/bhammag/2017/11/moss_rock_festival_featured_ar.html.
Reed, Emily “Weaving The Everyday Into Art” Hoover’s Magazine, 24 Oct. 2017,www.hooversmagazine.com/why-tracie-noles-ross-was-chosen-as-2017s-featured-artist-of-moss-rock/.
Walden, Rebecca. “Artist Tracie Noles-Ross and Her Family Are Living and Learning from the Land.” B-Metro Magazine., b-metro.com/into-the-woods/4809/.