With visual arts experience spanning nearly two decades, curator, artist, and educator Brian Holcombe joins the Moss Arts Center as its curator, leading the center's year-round program of art exhibitions and related educational and engagement activities in its galleries and public spaces.

In 2002 Holcombe founded Saltworks, a groundbreaking contemporary art gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and served as the gallery's director and curator for 12 years. Saltworks quickly established itself as a preeminent gallery for emerging to mid-career interdisciplinary artists in the Southeast and served as an inclusive platform that introduced global perspectives to the Atlanta community through curatorial collaborations and initiatives. Collaborative highlights include “Embodiments,” 2005, a solo exhibition by Lalla Essaydi curated by Isolde Brielmaier; “Gimme Shelter,” 2005, co-organized with Franklin Sirmans; and group exhibitions curated by artist William Cordova, “Paradise City,” 2003, and “Cumanana,” 2009. 

"We are thrilled to have Brian joining the Moss Arts Center at this time," said Ruth Waalkes, Virginia Tech’s associate provost for the arts and executive director of the Moss Arts Center. "With his experience and networks in the field, we will build on the exceptional record of visual arts programming already established here, and forge new relationships with and among Virginia Tech faculty, students, artists, and our wider community. I'm looking forward to working with Brian to increase the presence and impact of the arts across the campus, beyond the Moss Arts Center's walls, in new and exciting ways." 

The center’s visual arts programming combines national and international visiting artists and exhibitions, state and regional artists and community arts programs, and projects involving Virginia Tech faculty and students with diverse voices and perspectives at its core. Its galleries—the Ruth C. Horton Gallery, Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery, Sherwood Payne Quillen '71 Reception Gallery, and Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor—are capable of exhibiting a wide range of traditional and trans-media works and installations.

"I am delighted to join the Moss Arts Center, an institution that embraces high-caliber arts and innovative programming while remaining accessible to the local community and beyond,” said Holcombe. “It's especially thrilling to curate the visual arts galleries and the four-story experimental Cube in an environment that fosters creativity and embraces cutting-edge technologies. I look forward to building upon the artistic excellence that the Moss Arts Center has already achieved and to further the institution's visionary goals in partnership with Ruth Waalkes; the center's leadership, staff, and volunteers; and the Virginia Tech community."

Holcombe served as a board member of the Atlanta-based international art magazine Art Papers from 2014–2020 and was a founding member of the Atlanta Westside Arts District from 2009-2012. Holcombe holds a master of fine arts from Florida State University, a master of industrial design from Georgia Tech, and a bachelor of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Holcombe's debut exhibitions at the Moss Art Center open Jan. 27, 2022, and will feature solo exhibitions by artists Shin-il Kim and Namwon Choi.

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