Chattanooga African American Museum Art ShowTennessee artist, James McKissic, is having a solo art show entitled, Root Workers and Railroad Tracks, at the Chattanooga African American Museum (CAAM). The CAAM is located at 200 East Martin Luther King Blvd in Chattanooga, TN.

McKissic, a 2007 recipient of the Four Bridges Art Festival Emerging Artist Scholarship, is exhibiting 17 paintings. Most recently he has exhibited his work at UNUM Corporate Headquarters and WTCI PBS Studios as part of the Association for Visual Artists Corporate Lending Program. He also shows regularly at the Fine Line Gallery in Atlanta’s Grant Park and Outloud Books in Nashville, TN. Mckissic has show his work at Nashville Black Pride as well and sells to collectors throught the region.

“With this show at the Chattanooga African American Museum, I want to let people see what I’ve been doing over the past couple of years. I chose the title Root Workers and Railroad Tracks because so much of my work and my aesthetic are based on my experiences as a southern, African American, gay man.”

Three of the large scale paintings in the show celebrate the lives of Michael Sandy, Lawrence King and Ronnie Paris, three youth of color who were victims of hate crimes; others are inspired by the writings of African American LGBT writers Audre Lorde and Richard Bruce Nugent.

The exhibit runs from Friday, August 22 to October 31. The CAAM is open Monday – Friday 10:00 – 5:00. For more information, call the CAAM at 423-266-8658 or visit www.jhmckissic.artistportfolio.net or www.caamhistory.com. To bring the exhibit to your own community, e-mail James McKissic at jhmckissic@gmail.com.