Works by K. Orr Ambrose on Display at the Museum

The inventive work of Charlotte artist K. Orr Ambrose will be on display at the Gaston County Museum of Art & History beginning Friday, September 5, 2025 through January 3, 2026, in the Jeanne Rauch Art Gallery on the Museum’s third floor.

Ms. Ambrose’s work is a mix of acrylic and oil paint, layered with intention to create a painting, she says, that “is a unique, open story created by a random or subconscious combination of disparate images pulled from both old and new photographs, social media, friends, family and daily life.

“My figures are often found in surreal circumstances and dreamlike, abstracted landscapes which point to the subjectivity of perception. I like to think I am constructing stories that both do and do not belong to any specific person, but embrace the plurality of realities and encourage us, if only for a moment, to step out of the story and into the song.”

Ms. Ambrose grew up in the foothills of South Carolina. Her early art education began at 8 years old with drawing classes at The Greenville County Museum of Art. She attended the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, where she studied under acclaimed artist Charles Hinman. She earned her BFA with a double major in Painting and Ceramics and was awarded a 3-year residency at Odyssey Center in Asheville, NC. She has been exhibiting in group and solo shows for 30 years. Most recently, her work has been shown at York County Arts' Dalton Gallery, Rock Hill, SC; McColl Center, Charlotte, NC; CPCC’s Ross Gallery, Charlotte, NC; Converse College, Spartanburg, SC; The Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC; The Umstead Hotel, Cary, NC; and the Museum of Life and Science, Durham, NC. She has lived in Charlotte since 2012.

Admission to the Museum is free. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm and Saturday 11:00am – 4:00pm. For more information, visit www.gastoncountymuseum.org.