Vernon Pratt: All The Possibilities of Sixteen

Opening Reception 

October 11th 2018, 6pm

Gregg Museum of Art and Design

1903 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh 27607

The opening reception will feature an introduction by Scott Laird of the NC School of Science and Math, and remarks by William Dodge, founder of The Vernon Pratt Project, and Rich Holly, Executive Director of ArtsNCState. The exhibition also features an original composition by Mr Holly, based on Pratt’s examinations of jazz music and mathematics.

The exhibition is the first complete showing of a massive 256-panel work centering around Pratt’s interest in systems and the variations, permutations, and the rhythms and harmonies within. At 18 feet high and 110 feet wide, it is the largest and most complex work of Pratt’s ever exhibited, and has been called his “magnum opus” by Gregg Museum director Roger Manley. Never assembled before, it has been hidden for 36 years and is presented only now for the very first time.

Vernon Pratt studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, then later founded the Duke Arts in New York program, taught painting there, and was a well-known jazz improvisational artist on the saxophone. The Gregg Museum has been gifted several of his works by Pratt’s children, which will be on display in the future.