Event | UVA Arts

This exhibition reveals Wright’s fascination with photography’s capacity to both capture and confuse human forms of communication.

Wright taught photography at UVA for sixteen years (1984-2000). During that time, she also helped shape the photography collection of The Fralin Museum of Art. This is her first solo exhibition at the museum. Vanity draws upon works created mostly during her teaching career and features selections from three series of works: Final Portraits, Vanity, and Poetry. Together these reveal Wright’s fascination with photography’s capacity to both capture and confuse human forms of communication—be it speech, the work of one’s hand, or posing for the camera—and her command of scale and the subtle tonalities of black and white film.

Image: Holly Wright, American, born 1941. Final Portrait: Charles and Holly Wright, 1980. Silver gelatin on canvas, 75 1/2 x 47 1/2 in. (191.8 x 120.7 cm). On loan from the artist, IL.2024.5.4. © Holly Wright