Material Archive: Individual and Collaborative Works by Amanda Britton and Johanna Norry
August 23 – September 28, 2025
Curated by Sara Hess and Marcella Vlahos
Artists’ Talk and Reception: Saturday, August 23, 4-6 PM, 2025
ATHICA’s Fall 2025 exhibition, Material Archive, showcases the work of collaborating textile artists, Amanda Britton and Johanna Norry. Britton and Norry weave material, color, and memory—their practices attend to the act of collection as an organic accumulation of materials and recalled memories. The exhibition includes both individual and collaborative works, united through fiber arts and both traditional and contemporary techniques and materials. The collective archive of materials and methods is layered and engaging, inviting deep examination.
The artists and curators will take part in a conversation about the exhibition followed by a reception starting at 4:00 PM on Saturday, August 23, 2025. All are invited to attend.
The exhibition results from ATHICA’s Annual Call for Entries, which provides opportunities for individual artists and curators to exhibit their work at ATHICA and its satellite location, ATHICA@Ciné.
About the Artists
Amanda Britton | Conway, South Carolina
Amanda Britton is a textile artist, educator and curator residing in South Carolina. Currently, she is the director of galleries and community engagement at Coastal Carolina University. She earned a BFA in Fibers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2012 and an MFA in Fabric Design from the University of Georgia in 2019. With her art practice and research, she is interested in the perpetuation of relationships between people and the exploration of families, place, narrative and language. Concerned with documentation, preservation and materiality, Britton’s work is unabashedly personal in concept, yet quirky and humorous in delivery. Utilizing unconventional materials including paper, vellum, resin and plexiglass, she makes intricate fabrics, “woven” with a variety of techniques, colors and constructions. Britton has exhibited across the Southeast, with work at Whitespace, Marcia Wood Gallery, Lyndon House Arts Center, Westobou, Berry College, Rowe Galleries and the Mint Museum. Most recently, her work has been published online at textileartist.org as well as printed in Wilder Roam Magazine.
CV: ABRITTON CV | website: www.abrittonstudio.com | IG: @abrittonstudio
Johanna Norry | Avondale Estates, Georgia
Johanna Norry is a fiber artist and assistant professor of textiles at Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Georgia. She received an MFA from the University of Georgia, a BFA from Georgia State University, and a BA in Anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has been featured in juried exhibitions and group shows in New York City, New Jersey, New Mexico, Kentucky, Texas, Victoria, BC., London, England and in Georgia at The Georgia Museum of Art, Lyndon House, Marcia Wood Gallery, The Bakery, Reeves House, and MINT, as well as in Cut Me Up, and Photo Trouvée Magazine. Since 2023, her new woven collage work has been featured in duo shows with Amanda Britton, at the Moon Gallery at Berry College, Westobou in Augusta, GA and Athica in Athens, GA. In June 2025, Johanna was interviewed on the web show, Textiles and Tea, and TextileArtist.org published an interview with Johanna and Amanda in 2024 about their collaborative art-making practice.
CV: Johanna Norry CV 2025 | website: www.johannanorry.com | IG: @johanna.norry
About the Curators
Sara Hess | Athens, Georgia
Sara Hess is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Athens, GA. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College and co-founder of Two Parts Press, an Athens-based printmaking studio and artist collaboration. Her studio practice engages painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Through her work and relationship to images, materials, and people, she endeavors to listen deeply.
Sara earned an MFA from The Ohio State University, where she was awarded a University Fellowship, and a BFA from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. She has exhibited work regionally and nationally at whitespace in Atlanta GA, Stove Works in Chattanooga TN, Urban Arts Space in Columbus OH, Erie Art Museum in Erie PA, and Print Center New York. Previous residencies include In Cahoots in Petaluma CA, Chautauqua Visual Arts in Chautauqua NY, and Officina Stamperia del Notaio in Tusa, Sicily.
Marcella Vlahos | Athens, Georgia
Marcella Vlahos is a visual artist based in Athens, Georgia, where she is pursuing a BFA in Drawing and Painting at the University of Georgia. She has been involved with ATHICA for over a year and currently serves on its Board of Directors. In this role, she has served as a Co-Curator and as part of the Exhibitions Curating Committee. She also co-leads the Internship and Staffing Committee, contributes to sponsorship and fundraising efforts, and helps coordinate exhibitions at the ATHICA and ATHICA@Ciné Galleries. A passionate member of the Athens art community, Marcella is committed to helping shape the kind of art world she wants to be part of. In addition to her work with ATHICA, she shows and sells her work at regional exhibitions and fine art markets, serves as a Lamar Dodd School of Art Ambassador and works as a Curatorial Assistant and Box Office Student Leader and at the UGA Performing Arts Center.
Material Archive is sponsored in part by The James E. and Betty J. Huffer Foundation, The Georgia Council for the Arts, and The National Endowment for the Arts.
Press Release: https://mailchi.mp/athica/material_archive
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