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Step into the Mary M. Torggler Fine Arts Center this fall and experience two new and powerful artistic journeys: Gateways, a sweeping survey of African American art from the collection of Smithfield, Virginia, native Eric Key, and Transcendence, a glimpse into the new works of Norfolk, Virginia, artist Luisa Adelfio.
GATEWAYS: African American Art from the Key Collection
When Key began collecting art in the early 1990s, he recalls the journey began with the question, “Who am I?”
“It was the arts, art history, and the history of people of African descent that began to give shape to my question,” he said.
Key spent the ensuing decades collecting an array of African American art, which then evolved into a focus on preservation, advocacy, and community building. His collection reflects the dual purpose of both exploring his own identity as a Black man in America, while also providing critical financial support to artists. In essence, Key’s actions opened “gateways” for artists, for African Americans and for conversations about race and identity in America.
The resulting collection reflects the powerful history, prodigious talent, and passionate vision of Black artists, featuring paintings and sculpture by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Catlett, among other celebrated artists. Presenting works that range from the self-taught to the sophisticated, and from secular to sacred, Mr. Key’s collection is as diverse, rich, and complex as the community that has inspired his collecting.
In addition to being an avid curator, investor, and collector, Key has served in many leadership roles in the arts community. Now, his vast collection, Gateways: African American Art from the Key Collection, is on view in the Anne Noland Edwards Gallery at the Torggler from Sept. 13 through Dec. 28. The exhibition is organized and toured by International Arts & Artists (IA&A), a Washington, D.C. based non-profit dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding through exhibitions and programs.
Luisa Adelfio: Transcendence
Adelfio has worked as an artist since 1984 in places ranging from her current home in Norfolk to her family home in Palermo, Italy. Her works on view in Transcendence, presented in both the Anne Noland Edwards Gallery and the William M. Grace Community Gallery, offer an additional perspective on identity and history through paintings, drawings, and sculptures created between 2020-2025. Adelfio imbues her work with references to Classical architecture, Renaissance panel painting, and Surrealism. With an emphasis on form, color, and materiality, she juxtaposes celestial cycles with daily life in a calibrated and compelling equilibrium. Her Corona Chronicles series, presented in the Grace Gallery, portrays domestic objects, rendered in pastel on newspaper, in dialogue with the jarring headlines during the global pandemic.
“We are thrilled to offer two very different and powerful exhibitions this fall,” said Holly Koons, Executive Director of the Torggler Fine Arts Center. “We invite visitors to explore Gateways to engage with more than a century of exceptional African American art, and Transcendence to be inspired by the recent works and sublime vision of Luisa Adelfio.”
As always, all exhibitions at the Mary M.Torggler Fine Arts Center are free and open to the public.