CCS Thesis Exhibitions
Hite Institute of Art + Design
The Hite Institute of Art + Design’s MA Program with a concentration in Critical & Curatorial Studies (CCS) integrates critical theory, contemporary art history, exhibition history, and practical exhibition experience. As part of their graduation requirements, CCS students curate an exhibition aligning with their research and showcasing their expanded understanding of exhibition curation and development.
For 2026, five Hite CCS Students, highlighted here, are presenting their Thesis Exhibitions to the public in galleries + museums across Louisville, KY. Learn more about the Hite’s MA Program with a concentration in Critical & Curatorial Studies on our website.
Images:
Cover Top: Jo Morecraft, Strings Attached, Pigment Inkjet Print, 8 x 10 inches (to be presented in Life is Elsewhere exhibition)
Cover Bottom: Edward Weston, Pepper No. 30 1971, Gelatain Silver, 7.25” x 9.25” (to be presented in Between Flesh and Matter)
Right: Tom Pfannerstill, Sardines, 2023, Acrylic on Pannel, 48” x 40.5”
After Precarity
21c Hotel Museum, 700 W Main St Louisville, KY
January 17-June 1, 2026
Curated by Kathryn Brooks
After Precarity features the work of Louisville-based artists; Mitch Eckert, Albertus Gorman, Lori Larusso, and Tom Pfannerstill. Each of whom find their muse, and often their material of choice, to be the discarded articles of consumer goods found in trash receptacles, along riverbanks, and on roadsides. These artists engage the refuse they encounter as both a readymade and something in need of being remade. Whether crafting reproductions (Larusso and Pfannerstill) or working with found objects (Gorman and Eckert), all four artists reimagine the abandoned commodities they confront.
Life is Elsewhere: Social Surrealism in Kentucky Photography
ArtPortal, 1535 Lytle St Louisville, KY
March 5 - May 7, 2026 | Reception March 5, 6-8pm
Curated by Chenoa Buster
Life is Elsewhere: Social Surrealism in Kentucky
Photography examines how historic and contemporary Kentucky photographs use surrealist strategies to critique their social environments. The exhibition centers on themes of alienation, drawing its title from the 1968 protest slogan La vie est ailleurs to express social disruption and psychological distance. Against Kentucky’s unique backdrop between rural and urban life, the exhibition positions social surrealism as a lens for understanding lived realities.
Additional Programing:
Poetry Reading: 3/25/36
Coffee & Art Tour: 4/11/26
Images: Top: Carey Neal Gough, Tango and the Cancer Moon, Archival Pigment Print, 20 x 30 inches; Right: Gabrielle Garland, Untitled (#30593), 2023, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches.
A House that Watches Back
Schneider Hall Galleries | Gallery X + Covi Gallery
University of Louisville
May 7 - July 31, 2026 | Reception May 7, 4-6pm
Curated by Jacob Grant
A House that Watches Back examines the suburban home as both a place of refuge and a mechanism of control. Once conceived as a peripheral escape from urban congestion, the suburban ideal has become haunted by the “good life” fantasies of Americana. Rooted in promises of ownership and autonomy, it persists as a system fractured by spatial politics, social engineering, and economic control. Featuring photographic and visual artwork from local and nationally recognized artists, each approaches the home through a hauntological lens, reading domestic space as a charged site where memory, power, and ideology linger, repeat, and refuse resolution.
Between Flesh & Matter: Biomorphism in Analog Photography
Schneider Hall Galleries | Belknap Gallery
University of Louisville
May 7 - July 31, 2026 | Reception May 7, 4-6pm
Curated by Amulya Priya Ankem
Between Flesh and Matter: Biomorphism in Analog
Photography unites the fine art photography from University of Louisville Photographic Archives. Through the biomorphic qualities of the black-and-white photography, the exhibition explores the extension of the male gaze and its projection onto inanimate matter. Photographs like Edward Weston’s Two Shells and Pepper No. 30 and Ashley Gallahar’s Untitled are courted with intimate compositions of the feminine body. The exhibition invites us to question how cultural frameworks shape our interpretations of flesh and matter.
Images:
Top: Ashley Gallahar, Untitled, 1994, Gelatin Silver, 5 3/8” x 7.75” Daisy Slucher, As Close to Worship As We’ll Ever Get, 2023, Oil and acrylic on wood panel, 30” x 24”
Over Yonder: Queer Rural Utopias
Cressman Center for Visual Arts
100 E Main St Louisville, KY
July 10-August 29, 2026 | Reception: July 10 | 5-7pm
Curated by Gray Koesters
Placing Appalachia center stage, Over Yonder: Queer Rural Utopias brings together contemporary artists and poets, alongside archival ephemera from the FaulknerMorgan Archive, who lean into the inherent queerness of rural spaces. A multi-media show, this exhibition highlights moments of queer potentiality past and present, exploring the ways queer folks are finding joy in spaces commonly seen through a one-sided view of hostility. From handwritten poems and 1990’s archival photography, to abstract pastel drawings and quilted wall hangings, the work presented in Over Yonder give viewers glimpses of personal utopias found in small towns and hollers, showing that the grass is not always greener on the other side, but instead can be found in one’s own backyard.
Exhibition Calendar
After Precarity
21c Hotel Museum, 700 W Main St
Louisville, KY
January 17-June 1, 2026
Curated by Kathryn Brooks
Life is Elsewhere: Social Surrealism in Kentucky Photography
ArtPortal, 1535 Lytle St Louisville, KY
March 5 - May 7, 2026
Curated by Chenoa Buster
A House that Watches Back
Schneider Hall Galleries | Gallery X + Covi Gallery
University of Louisville
May 7 - July 31, 2026
Curated by Jacob Grant
Between Flesh & Matter: Biomorphism in Analog Photography
Schneider Hall Galleries | Belknap Gallery
University of Louisville
May 7 - July 31, 2026
Curated by Amulya Priya Ankem
Over Yonder: Queer Rural Utopias
Cressman Center for Visual Arts
100 E Main St Louisville, KY
July 10-August 29, 2026
Curated by Gray Koesters
