Art by Alumni

To celebrate 30 years of the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center, works by alumni artists have been selected for exhibition from the Van/Every Smith Galleries’s collection. Works presented here span from the 1960s to the 2010s and represent a diverse breadth of themes and media including oil paintings, silver gelatin photography, cast bronze, and more.

Kenneth Freed ’73 was one of the first art majors at Davidson College. He then went on to earn an MA from the State University of New York, and an MFA from Western Michigan University. He has been a professor at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art for over 30 years. This work depicting a female body is an etching and aquatint,
a printmaking process involving acid eating into the metal printing plate which produces tonal effects on the printing plate.

Herb Jackson ’67 is both an alum and professor emerita of art at Davidson College. After graduating from Davidson, he studied at the Philipps-Universitat Marburg in West Germany, and then received an MFA from UNC Chapel Hill. Jackson has had more than 150 solo exhibitions in the United States, England, Peru, Portugal, and Canada, and his work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions. Jackson’s usual process includes building up many layers of paint, which are then scraped off as they are being applied. Shapes and marks come and go as the painting develops to a hundred or more layers. The outcome is the result of a process of discovery similar to the life experience itself.

Roger Manley ’74 has worked as a photographer, folklorist, filmmaker, curator, and writer. His photographs include factory workers, Indigenous people, incarcerated individuals, Palestinians, "outsider" artists, and more. He is a recipient of the NEA Artists Fellowship and NEH Scholars Fellowship, as well as several other honors. He has authored many books about artists and their environments including Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Arts Environments, co-authored with Mark Sloan. In the summer of 2023, Manley retired from the role of director and curator of North Carolina State University’s Gregg Museum of Art & Design. where he worked for 13 years. This photograph by Manley shows a man lying by a car; with his hand on his head, and eyes closed, the man lays his hat on his chest in exhaustion.

Raymond Grubb ’74 has mostly photographed in black and white, capturing his photos using the platinum printing process. Grubb began photographing himself and his partner of over 35 years, artist Tom Thoune during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the midst of their new daily practices of meditation, yoga, and several-mile walks. Inspired by nature and a pursuit of quiet peace, Grubb composed this image of himself and Thoune with an entanglement of sticks placed between their heads. This intimate portrait provides access to the couple’s life during a time of seclusion and meditation.

William R. Ferris ‘64 is an American author and scholar born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Ferris's work focuses on Southern and African American folklore and culture. He earned his BA in English Literature from Davidson College in 1964, his MA in English Literature from Northwestern University in 1965, and a PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. He was selected by President Bill Clinton to be the Chair of the National Endowment of the Humanities, a position which he held from 1997 to 2001. Ferris, the Joel R. Williamson eminent professor emeritus of history at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has written fiction, poetry, and reviews of books and films. A two-time Grammy award winner, Ferris captured this image of two seemingly unwelcoming chairs.

Mike Jarmon ‘88 is an American independent filmmaker, cinematographer, and director based in Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated Cum Laude from Davidson College, with coursework in studio art, art history, and philosophy. He went on to receive a Master's in time arts, film, and media and critical studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993. This huge work, referencing the Prophet Moses’ staff turning into a snake, is painted in multimedia on a large canvas.

Alice Grant ’08 currently works as an associate church rector in Cary, NC. This bronze work is a cast hand with vegetation growing on it. The different growths have been patinated, giving the hand an aged appearance.

Annie Temmink ’11 utilizes recycled materials, often cardboard and fabric, to create costumes, headwear, and accessories, often with the goal of movement through performance. This humorous work shows a pair of elongated pants made from panty hose. After graduating from Davidson, she was awarded a Watson Fellowship to study weaving, natural dyeing, and bark clothing making around the world. Her work Blue Beast was featured in an alumni exhibition at Davidson College celebrating 25 years of the Visual Arts Center.

-Brown Payne ’24 and Caroline Sillars ‘24