Main Gallery Exhibition
February 7, 2025 – March 26, 2025
opening Reception:
Friday, February 7, 2024
From 6 — 9 PM
“Concrete Realities: Reflections on Loss & America” features the works of Johanna Warwick, Whitney Lea Sage, unified by their distinct examinations on America’s physical landscapes. The exhibition delves into themes of loss and resilience, offering a compelling reflection on the complexities of urban American experiences.
Whitney Lea Sage’s intricate ink drawings chronicle the struggles of America’s middle class, capturing the decline of urban centers while critiquing the stereotypes and narratives tied to those depictions. Johanna Warwick’s photography investigates the legacies of segregation, gentrification, and industrial decline, tracing how geography and infrastructure—such as the placement of interstate highways—shape societal inequities and environmental depletion.
Together, their work form a powerful dialogue on the tangible and intangible losses that highlights urban American stories, inviting viewers to consider what it means to endure, remember, and rebuild. Concrete Realities offers a deeply resonant meditation on the nation’s ever-shifting identity.
ARTISTS INFORMATION
Johanna Warwick
Biography
Johanna Warwick is an Associate Professor of Photography & Art at Louisiana State University. She is a British born, Canadian raised artist who completed her BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), Toronto and her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston.
In her work, she is interested in the history of representation, and how that shapes our society. She explores these themes through the making of new images, using camera-less darkroom processes and re-contextualizing archival images to unfold histories.
Whitney Lea Sage
Biography
Whitney Lea Sage is a multidisciplinary artist and educator originally from metro-Detroit currently serving as Assistant Professor of Art at North Central College in Naperville, IL. Whitney earned an MFA in Studio Art from the Sam Fox School of Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis in May, 2011.
Whitney also earned a BFA in Studio Art: Painting and a BS in Art Education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Whitney’s work, which includes practices of painting, drawing, sculpture, fibers and installation, has previously been featured in recent solo exhibitions at Buckham Gallery, the College of Southern Nevada, Indiana University East, Pump House Arts Center, Workhouse Arts Center, ROY G BIV and Ripon College. A selection of Sage’s recent work has been featured in notable group exhibitions at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, the Painting Center, Superfront LA Gallery, the Lexington Art League, the Muskegon Museum of Art, the Kennedy Art Museum and the Dennos Museum Center.
Whitney has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, Studios Midwest, AIR Studio Paducah, Wave Pool, Millimetre Press and Popp’s Packing. Whitney’s creative work has been featured in a number of publications including Manifest Gallery’s INDA 14, Refract Journal, Hour Detroit
Magazine, WomanArts Quarterly Journal, Newfound Journal, Maake Magazine, and the Post-Industrial Complex catalog, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit as a survey of makers in the Detroit area.
For more information about Whitney and her work, visit www.whitneysage.com or follow her on
instagram @wlsagestudio.
View & Purchase Artworks from the Exhibition
Please note, the original artwork by Whitney Lea Sage, currently on display in the Main Gallery at GCCA, are not available for purchase. However, a limited selection of giclée prints is available for sale in this online gallery and will be shipped directly from the artist.
Johanna Warwick’s artwork are originals will be available for pickup or delivery following the conclusion of the exhibition.
For any inquiries, please contact Ben Tarcson, Gallery Director.
Generous support is provided by media sponsor
