The Reece Museum at East Tennessee State University is pleased to present Through the Light: Sculptural Works by artist, Molly Sawyer, Jan. 20 through April 2, 2026. The exhibition by cross-disciplinary artist Molly Sawyer weighs the ominous nature of the human dilemma against that of peaceful, and sometimes playful, intention. A reception with the artist will be held on Friday, Feb. 13 from 5-8 p.m. The Reece Museum is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Sawyer’s contemporary works combining salvaged with artist-made materials bridge sculpture and installation art with works on paper. The artist’s chosen materials and methods used for combining such pull the past into the present, emphasizing Sawyer’s concern with global changes, both ecological and humanitarian. She blends her disparate materials in a contemporary manner using versions of traditionally craft-based techniques of stitching, embroidery, knitting, felting, and piecing, among others. These combinations emblematize a convergence of the historical with the current, illustrating conceptual narratives relating to universal concerns. As these investigations are metaphor describing the balance of forces in nature with the human condition, Sawyer states, “By collecting materials which have had one or more lives already, I am giving credence to their narratives, which have been developed through handling, weathering and age.”