Ochre & Oxide: Unearthing Chattanooga’s 250-Year Redemptive Arc
Ochre & Oxide
Six artists · One palette drawn from the earth
Chattanooga, Tennessee
October 2–3, 2026
105 Frazier Avenue · Chattanooga’s North Shore
Free and open to the public
Friday, October 2
6:00 PM — Exhibition viewing and refreshments
6:30–7:00 PM — Artist Panel & Q&A
7:00–8:00 PM — Exhibition viewing and artist meet-and-greet
Saturday, October 3
4:00 PM — Doors and exhibition viewing
4:15 PM — Welcome and brief art presentation
4:30–5:30 PM — Four Bridges String Quartet
5:30–6:30 PM — Exhibition viewing and gathering
From the Ground
Ochre & Oxide brings together six Chattanooga artists, each invited to create a new work using a shared palette of earth pigments prepared by artist and pigment researcher Amanda Brazier from materials gathered throughout the region.
The exhibition begins with a simple fact: the ground beneath us is not merely a setting for human life, but the material from which we live and make. Chattanooga’s landscape bears evidence of both beauty and damage, cultivation and neglect, degradation and renewal.
By making art with the earth itself, these artists invite us to look again at the place we inhabit—at what we have inherited, what we have changed, and what it might mean to care well for what has been entrusted to us.
A Shared Palette
The colors connecting these six works began as earth and mineral materials gathered from the landscape. Brazier processed these materials into a shared palette of pigments, which each artist then incorporated into their own medium and practice. The resulting works are connected by more than a common theme: each contains material drawn from the ground of the region they share and explore.
Six Artists, One Palette
Six distinct practices, connected by a common material.
Sharing the Process
The project also extends beyond the artists’ studios through community engagement with Splash Youth Arts, introducing young artists to the process of transforming gathered earth and mineral materials into usable color.
A SHIFT IN SIGHT
The materials in Ochre & Oxide ask us to notice what is easy to overlook. Soil, stone, mineral, and oxide become color; familiar ground becomes material for making. Through six different artistic practices, the exhibition offers six ways of looking again at the landscape we share.
Follow the Project
Stay connected to Ochre & Oxide
Ochre & Oxide begins with this exhibition, but the conversation will continue. Join my mailing list for occasional updates on the exhibition, new work, and what comes next.
Acknowledgments
Ochre & Oxide was supported by an ArtsBuild United We Create: America 250 grant, made possible through support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Splash Youth Arts serves as fiscal sponsor for the project.
With thanks to North Shore Fellowship for hosting the exhibition at 105 Frazier Avenue.