Familiar Strangers, the second annual art exhibition founded by Chattanooga-based artist Robert Schoolfield, will take place Friday, Sep. 23 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 7616 Lee Highway.
The exhibition celebrates the creator in each of us and will feature works by Schoolfield alongside friends and collaborators Jet Smith, Matthew Cook and Landon Marshall.
“There is a force being expressed in everything I encounter. It’s a feeling, a knowing — of greatness, goodness, creativity, connection, God, love,” explained Schoolfield. “It’s like meeting a familiar stranger.”
Schoolfield and Smith began collaborating through music in 2017, and in July 2021, they produced the inaugural Familiar Strangers show. This year, in the spirit of friends of friends are friends, Cook and Marshall joined the show roster. The creative quartet’s intention for the 2022 show is to bring people together and to inspire them to awaken their inner creator, especially when life feels taxing.
“This show is about being vulnerable and showing ourselves in progress, in the raw — no expectations, no limitations, just the art,” said Schoolfield.
Attendees can expect to meet familiar strangers as they take in varied styles of work. Schoolfield’s mixed media pieces are known for their rawness, while Smith’s paintings are piercing. Cook’s work is a visual memoir of his meditations on the balance between love and fear. Marshall’s selection is intended to encourage unplugged, independent thought. Also, local musician Jack Endelouz will perform throughout the evening.
Chattanooga’s arts community is not a young bird. The amount of artistic excellence from this pocket of paradise spans generations. The Familiar Strangers exhibition is a continuation — a wholly homegrown response to the mental load and breakneck pendulum swings of living and creating in the present moment.
"It will be interesting to see how this edition of Familiar Strangers initiates the evolution of the show moving forward,” added Smith. “I'm very excited for that moment when I get to stand back on show night and witness the development that Robert and I have gone through over the last year as artists."