The ETSU Department of Art & Design and Slocumb Galleries in partnership with Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies and ETSU Student Activities Allocations Committee (SAAC) proudly present ‘Seven Stages’ sculptures and installation by Alexandra Mavrikis from August 19 to September 24, 2026. The public is invited to meet the artist during the closing reception and gallery speak on September 4, First Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Slocumb Galleries.

Seven Stages explores grief through furniture and wall assemblages, sculptor Alexandra Mavrikis asks “What does it feel like to be in communion with grief?” She responds with the creation of objects as carriers of memory as she ponders on alternative perspectives to loss as not only “purely tragic, the work approaches grief with both sincerity and humor, recognizing that mourning is often as absurd and uncomfortable as it is painful.” Mavrikis’ uncanny pairing of sculptural furniture with familiar domestic items presented in absurd ways, she disrupts the familiar, thus, inviting viewers to “reconsider how ordinary things become both repositories of love, absence, and remembrance, as well as vessels for our anger, frustration, and sadness.”

The exhibition and community engagement activities are supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts and Arts Fund from East Tennessee Foundation. All events are open to the public, free of charge. The Slocumb Galleries are located at Ernest C. Ball Hall, 232 Sherrod Drive, ETSU campus, Johnson City. Gallery hours are weekdays from 9am to 5 pm with extended hours during receptions and by appointments. For more information email Karlota Contreras-Koterbay via contrera@etsu.edu or text 423.483.3179.