New Exhibitions Include O.M. Norling’s Artifacts of a Fate That Never Was
Paintings by O.M. Norling that invite viewers into a world where memory, instinct, and imagination coexist headline the exhibitions this fall at the Albany Museum of Art. Four exhibitions, including three comprising works from the museum’s permanent collection, debut at an opening reception on Thursday, Sept 17.
“O.M. Norling’s Artifacts of a Fate That Never Was uncovers the mysterious exchange between our waking and dreaming selves,” AMA Executive Director Andrew James Wulf, Ph.D., said. “Our collection also will be on the center stage this season. New York Origins will remind us how boldly this museum began, and the stories in our African textiles will speak through material and skill in Woven, Dyed, Sewn. Finally, Twenty Portraits will present a selection of works from the 19th and 20th centuries.”
The reception starts at 5:30 pm on Thursday. Admission to the reception is free for AMA donors at the Reciprocal Level or higher, $10 for Artist Guild donors, and $15 for the general public. Tickets are available HERE.
Jay Wilson, the self-taught Decatur artist who paints under the name O.M. Norling—a tribute to his great-great-grandfather Olaf Magnus Norling—is scheduled to attend the reception, Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard said.
“His meticulously rendered compositions appear to belong to the tradition of still life, yet they resist conventions of the genre,” Dillard said. “Tigers recline on silk Victorian settees, dueling ibex are ensnared with teapots and bicycles, a moose balances atop a delicate Regency-era bench, while wolves, manatees, foxes, rhinoceroses, and mallards occupy carefully staged environments filled with furniture, domestic objects, and relics from another era.
“These elements combine to form visual riddles that ask not to be solved, but experienced. Rather than illustrating a singular narrative, each painting becomes an open-ended meditation on the complexity of being human.”
Artifacts of a Fate That Never Was will be in the East and Hodges Galleries, while New York Origins will be on display in the Haley Gallery. That exhibition focuses on the ambitious efforts in the 1980s and 1990s to build the AMA permanent collection.
“Long before these artworks found a home here in Southwest Georgia, they were part of the vibrant ecosystem of New York galleries that shaped contemporary American art,” Dillard said. “New York Origins: Building a Collection tells the story of a formative chapter in the AMA’s history that connected this institution to the center of the contemporary art world. These acquisitions reflected the belief that a regional museum could participate in conversations taking place on a national stage.”
The upstairs McCormack Gallery will host Woven, Dyed, Sewn: Textiles from the Sub-Saharan African Collection.
“Textiles are more than objects of adornment,” Dillard said. “They are records of knowledge, identity, history, and cultural expression. This exhibition explores the remarkable diversity of textile traditions represented within the collection, highlighting the artistry, labor, and technical expertise required to transform natural fibers into works of visual and cultural significance.
Spanning regions including Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia, it reveals the many ways textiles communicate social status, community identity, spirituality, and artistic innovation.”
Twenty Portraits in the West Gallery reveals the many ways artists have interpreted the people around them, Dillard said, noting they range from realistic depictions to expressive works that approach abstraction.
“A portrait reflects a relationship between artist and subject, between observation and interpretation,” she said. “It can reveal how individuals wished to be seen, how artists perceived their subjects, and how viewers connect with the images before them. They invite us to consider not only who is represented, but what these images reveal about identity, perspective, and the ways we see ourselves and others.”
The exhibitions Artifacts of a Fate That Never Was, New York Origins, and Woven, Dyed, Sewn will be open through Saturday, Jan 2, 2027. Twenty Portraits in the West Gallery will close earlier on Oct 24 to make way for the 3rd annual Southwest Georgia Student Art Exhibition, which opens on Oct 30 and continues through Jan 2, 2027.
