Known for creating large-scale immersive installations with found objects, Abigail DeVille is developing a new exhibition for the Harnett Museum of Art. The exhibition, A Mourning, reconstructs the death of DeVille’s great grandfather Luther Wilson at Central State Hospital in 1938. Central State Hospital was founded in 1870 for the treatment of “colored persons of unsound mind” and operated at a former Confederate hospital at Howard’s Grove. In 1885, the hospital moved to a new building in Petersberg, VA, where it continues to operate today. The exhibition aims to distill some of the vapors of alleged abuse at the facility and the development of black mental health care.

Abigail DeVille: A Mourning is organized by the University of Richmond Museums in collaboration with the Department of Art & Art History, University of Richmond as part of the annual Tucker Boatwright Festival. The exhibition is curated by Orianna Cacchione, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions. Major support for the exhibition is graciously provided by the Tucker Boatwright Festival and the Booth Endowment for the Arts.

About the Artist

Abigail DeVille (Born New York, NY, 1981) received her Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in 2011 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007. Recent exhibitions of her work include Brand New Heavies at Pioneer Works, New York (2021), and The American Future at PICA, Portland (2021). DeVille’s work has also been exhibited at The Whitney, Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New Museum in New York, the Punta Della Dogana in Venice, Italy, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. DeVille has designed sets for theatrical productions at venues such as the Stratford Festival, directed by Peter Sellers; and at the Harlem Stage; La Mama; and Joe’s Pub, all for productions directed by Charlotte Braithwaite. She has received honors fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, is a Creative Capital grantee; received an OBIE for design; and has been nominated for The Future Generation Art Prize in the 55th Biennale di Venezia. DeVille was the Chuck Close/Henry W. and Marion T. Mitchell Rome Prize fellow at the American Academy in 2017–2018. She teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art and is a critic at the Yale School of Art.