EXPANDED REALITIES
William C. Harrington & Genesis Chapman
OPENS MAY 16TH RECEPTION 5-8PM
One Mile Gallery proudly presents Expanded Realities, a compelling two-person exhibition bringing together the visionary and deeply felt work of William C. Harrington (1942–2020) and the multidisciplinary practice of Genesis Chapman. This exhibition juxtaposes two distinct artistic voices shaped by personal history, material investigation, and a rooted sense of place. One Mile is honored to present this landmark exhibition of Harrington’s work featuring an expansive selection of works created over five decades. This exhibition marks one of the most comprehensive public presentations of Harrington’s art to date, offering audiences a rare opportunity to engage with a body of work that has, until now, remained largely unseen outside select local settings.
William C. Harrington was an American artist whose inventive, emotionally charged body of work spans more than five decades. Born on the South Side of Chicago and trained in sculpture, Harrington’s career was dramatically shaped by his service as leader of the Vietnam Combat Artists Team VII, where he created drawing and painting on the front lines. His later paintings and sculptural assemblages confront themes of memory, conflict, loss, and resilience, incorporating industrial materials and narrative allusions that resonate with both historical and psychological depth. Harrington’s work was notable for its ability to interweave personal experience with broader cultural critique, creating a distinctly expressive visual language that continues to engage contemporary audiences.
Genesis Chapman offers a multifaceted practice that bridges painting, woodworking, and fine craft, grounded in both formal rigor and a deep connection to place. A native of Bent Mountain, Virginia, Chapman earned his BFA from the Art Institute of Kansas City and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. He was recognized by Oxford American Magazine as one of the Top 100 Emerging Southern Artists. Chapman’s work has been exhibited throughout Virginia, including at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, 1708 Gallery in Richmond, the Taubman Museum of Fine Art in Roanoke, and the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University. His practice draws on the natural landscape of his home region and the artisanal traditions of woodworking inherited from his father, resulting in works that are at once tactile, introspective, and formally inventive.
Expanded Realities invites visitors to explore how these two artists — one shaped by the crucible of conflict and introspection, the other by material craft and regional identity — approach form, memory, and materiality. Harrington’s expressive assemblages and paintings resonate with emotional urgency, while Chapman’s work offers a dialogue between the handcrafted and the painterly, reflecting on environment, community, and craft traditions.
