Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art is thrilled to present a solo exhibition by Detroit-based, multidisciplinary artist Andrew Wilson. 

Andrew Wilson is a 2020 McColl Center alumnus Artist-in-Residence, whose return to Charlotte, North Carolina also signals the return of several works of art that originated here in the Queen City during his residency and the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-progress at that time, these profound works have since been completed and will be presented in ‘After the After’ alongside other newly created pieces. 

“The absorbent quality of quilts enable them to hold trauma and joy – sometimes simultaneously. The nature of a quilt as a useful heirloom promises that intergenerational care derived from the past will continue to exist in our future.”

                                                                            –          Jess Bailey, Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Stories of Radical Quilting

What do we call the moment after the burial… after the dirt has covered the grave and the family has dispersed? How do we name the moment after the wound has healed, but the scar and weakness remain? What is the moment after the disaster and its physical repair, when the check-in phone calls come with less frequency?

Through cyanotype and textile, quilts and garments, After the After finds the quiet moments we tuck behind our elbows as we hold ourselves. This exhibition explores the liminal space where myth meets reality— where tenderness, care, and vulnerability live. It seeks to hold the complexities of identities and histories that live in our bodies and, in turn, the objects we hold close.

Utilizing care as a primary tool, these works connect the viewer to the histories of the prints, my late Grandmother, my Mother, and my family. The things that make me, made these objects and, in-turn, are reflected in them – almost like a trans-dimensional gateway.

If we treat After the After as an archive and each object as a point of reference, where are we headed and how do we get there? And how can we use our pasts as reference points as we imagine a future centered in care?

Workshop with the Artist
The McColl Center for Art + Innovation will host Andrew Wilson for an interactive workshop, offering a hands-on approach to cyanotype.