LIVINGSTON, Ala.—Two of Alabama’s foremost artists, Tut Altman Riddick and Charles Smith, will come together for an exhibition at The University of West Alabama titled “Kindred Spirits: Thirty Years of Friendship, Thirty Years of Art.”  The exhibit represents new, vintage and collaborative works rarely displayed in public. It is also the first ever exhibit of the artists’ collaborative work in clay and written word.

The opening reception for “Kindred Spirits” on Thursday, Sept. 15 from 2-4 p.m. in the Webb Hall Parlor on UWA’s campus is open to the public and will allow guests the chance to meet the artists. The exhibit will run from Sept. 9 to Dec. 16.

Tut Altman Riddick, a native of York, Ala., expresses herself through mosaics, paintings, drawings, sculpture, silk-screens, photographs and books which celebrate life, relationships and survival following confrontation. A 1991 recipient of the Governor’s Art Award, Riddick has worked tirelessly to promote the fine arts and encourage other artists throughout Alabama and the Southeast. Her works have been exhibited at the Mobile Museum of Fine Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Eastern Shore Art Association, the University of South Alabama, the University of West Alabama, the World Print Exhibition in Boston, the Coleman Center in York, Ala. and in galleries in New Orleans, Birmingham, Pensacola, Mobile and Penland, N.C. Riddick is a passionate supporter of the city of York and the Coleman Center of Art and Culture.

Since 1978, Mobile potter Charles Smith has won over 30 First Place or Best of Show awards for his art. His work was included in the traveling exhibit “Uncommon Beauty in Common Objects: The Legacy of African American Craft Art.” Smith’s work has also been exhibited in a number of museums, including the National Museum of American Art in the Smithsonian Institution. Several of Smith’s pieces are displayed as part of the permanent collections at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans and the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Mobile Museum of Art and the American Craft Museum in New York City.     

The two artists have recently collaborated on one-hundred pots. With Smith throwing the pots, Riddick carved a line from one of her poems in the wet clay and both artists experimented on the glaze. Several of these joint efforts will be on display at the upcoming exhibition.

The works of Riddick and Smith are brought together by the University of West Alabama, which serves the west central Alabama area through educational opportunity, academic research and public outreach.