440 Gallery is pleased to present “Let This Be America,” a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Trish Townes. This is Townes’s first show at the gallery and includes work from 2017 and 2018. The show runs from January 3, 2019 through February 3, 2019. The opening reception is on Sunday, January 6 from 6PM -8PM. An Artist Talk will take place on Sunday, January 27 at 4:40pm, and the closing party is on February 3 from 5-7PM.

Townes’s paintings are based on designs culled from various world cultures with a presence in the USA. She was inspired to start on this path by an exhibition she saw in her home state of North Carolina in the summer of 2001. That show was of art and artifacts from Islamic cultures. Townes explains, “I began with designs from the Arabic and Islamic worlds because of the beauty and wealth of art from these groups, and because Arabic and Islamic peoples have been ostracized of late.” The works are on transparent mylar sheets. Both sides are painted with designs, and one side is at least partially painted in the red, white, and blue of the American flag.

In this show she includes designs based on Islamic, Chinese, Tibetan, East Indian, Nigerian, and Malian cultures. Her hope is that showing harmonious composition of the different designs may inspire people to work and live peacefully together as well.

An MFA graduate of UNC-Greensboro, Townes currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She has participated in several artist residencies, including those at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Fine Arts Work Center, and an upcoming residency at MASS MoCA in the winter of 2019. When she is not searching through design books, she paints figurative works of her friends and family.