Virginia Derryberry
“Virginia Derryberry's current work includes large scale oil on canvas figure narrative paintings along with fabric/costume constructions that blend narrative elements from mythology and alchemy, the forerunner of modern science. The intent is to suggest multiple interpretations rather than straightforward illustration of a specific narrative. She has also been using multiple panels as another way to break up traditional narrative sequences and raise questions in the viewer's mind about what is being conveyed. At first glance, it seems that a “real” space is being defined, but in fact, the painted images are constructed from multiple viewpoints and lighting systems. Passages of volumetric rendering set next to more abstract, painterly areas result in the creation of a virtual, shifting world where nothing is quite what it seems.”
In 2023, Derryberry received a North Carolina Artist Support Grant award to support her explorations into the concept of "rebis": dual or double matter set in opposition in order to reach dialogue rather than conflict, a fitting process in these days of violent divisiveness in our culture. Derryberry’s work is shown regularly in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, and her paintings have been written about in an extensive list of publications including exhibition catalogs, New American Paintings magazine and Oxford American Magazine. Her solo exhibition of work from her "Private Domain" series, first shown in February, 2016, at UNC Asheville, has traveled during the past 6 years to venues in Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Pennsylvania. Upcoming in fall, 2023, it will be shown at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. "Fabrication", a group exhibition by artists who combine painting and fabric/sewing traveled to over 10 locations across the country, 2014-2018.
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