Spring Exhibitions

Crosstown Arts presents three exhibitions: Shades of Heritage by Wiley Henry, A Rabbit With a Gun by Lawrence Matthews, and Club Walrus, Fluvial Effluvia, and Know No Now by Karl Erickson. The exhibitions bring together three distinct artistic practices that explore themes of heritage, perception, identity, and humanity’s relationship with the wider world. On view through June 7, 2026, the exhibitions highlight artists working across painting, drawing, animation, installation, and multimedia forms, each approaching the act of representation from a unique perspective. Shades of Heritage — Wiley Henry In Shades of Heritage, Wiley Henry presents a selection of paintings and drawings centered on the human figure and the formative influence of personal history. Through traditional realist techniques, Henry explores how heritage shapes identity and artistic expression. The exhibition reflects Henry’s belief that his work emerges directly from the experiences that shaped him. As the artist explains, the works collectively “reflect my identity, artistic perspective, and creative approach,” emphasizing the role heritage plays in both subject and meaning. Henry’s fascination with the human form allows him to depict figures with ease and emotional immediacy. He describes this connection as inseparable from his upbringing and the environment that formed him: “I am who I am because of my heritage.” Although the exhibition is not explicitly religious, Henry notes that spiritual themes often surface within his work. In several pieces he depicts gatherings of Black angels and children in celestial settings, continuing a long tradition of artists who have portrayed angelic figures throughout history. Henry is a Memphis-born artist whose work has been widely reproduced and commissioned for portraits of prominent individuals, including judges, actors, politicians, and community leaders. A graduate of the Memphis College of Art, he has built a career rooted in traditional realism and a distinctive ability to capture what he describes as the “essence of the human spirit.” A Rabbit With a Gun — Lawrence Matthews Lawrence Matthews’ A Rabbit With a Gun explores the unsettling feeling that reality itself may be unstable. The exhibition grew out of the artist’s immersion in media and ideas about altered perception and the uncanny nature of everyday life. Matthews describes his recent years as a period spent grappling with the feeling that something about existence feels “off”—that space, time, and social interactions sometimes behave in strange or unpredictable ways. “People are confusing,” he writes. “Time moves in ways which it shouldn’t. Months zoom past in hours.” In this body of work, Matthews imagines what might happen if one actively pushes against those familiar routines and expectations. He describes venturing “further and further into spaces off the path—in the world, in my past and in my own head.” The works become attempts to share those moments whe...