Augusta, Georgia, January 2, 2026 – The Morris Museum of Art presents Gail Wegodsky: Recent Paintings, on exhibit January 10 through April 12, 2026. The exhibition features an impressive body of photo-realistic paintings by Gail Wegodsky that centers on libraries as architectural spaces and cultural sanctuaries. Known for her extraordinary attention to detail and psychologically resonant interiors, Wegodsky portrays libraries as places of quiet reflection and accumulated knowledge in an increasingly fast-paced digital world.

Often depicting solitary figures absorbed in reading or contemplation, Wegodsky’s paintings invite viewers to slow down and consider the enduring role libraries play as guardians of shared wisdom. Her meticulous, time-intensive process mirrors the values embodied by these spaces, patience, focus, and sustained attention, transforming libraries into visual meditations on inwardness, learning, and calm amid contemporary noise.

Planning Details:

What:    Paintings of Gail Wegodsky

When:   January 10, 2026 through April 12, 2026

Where: The Morris Museum of Art; Augusta, Georgia

Born in 1955 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Gail Wegodsky earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 1979 and a master of fine arts degree from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1982. She was a winner in New American Paintings’ Open Studios Competition in 2025, received an Individual Artist’s Grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts (1996), and was honored as one of Artist’s Magazine’s Artists of the Month with an accompanying Competition Spotlight article (2006). She was the recipient of the Art Renewal Center’s Chairman’s Choice Award in the 2023 Salon. Wegodsky’s work is included in the permanent collections of the LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, Georgia; the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, Evansville, Indiana; the Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia; the law offices of King & Spalding, Atlanta; and the Morris Museum of Art. Her paintings have been featured in one-person exhibitions at the LaGrange Art Museum; Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina.

She is an inquisitive person by nature, and her startlingly realistic, photo-informed, and richly detailed paintings often depict situations and include details whose strangeness piques the viewer’s curiosity—figures standing at a distant window, a solitary woman holding a letter, or subtle reflections in a soap bubble that lead the viewer to wonder, “What’s going on here?” Her most recent series of paintings, featuring books and libraries as the principal subject, are influenced by her eager openness to learning and the delights offered by reading. The knowledge found within books and periodicals scratches her itch to understand how the world works. In this age, when truth seems so elastic that it can be stretched to include any belief no matter how implausible, libraries are quiet, protected islands of calm, guarding humanity’s shared wisdom. Wegodsky’s extraordinary patience and her employment of a demanding and meticulous painting technique are enhanced by her close observation of the world around her. 

Wegodsky, who lives and works in Atlanta, is represented by the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte. Both the artist and her gallery have been extraordinarily helpful and generous with their time and ideas in the coordination of this exhibition.