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Cecil Norris makes paintings and drawings that draw on the canon and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of race, masculinity, sexuality, and trauma through the act of portraiture. Norris’s paintings disrupt the tropes of classical portraiture through the juxtaposition of black culture. Examining the urban fabric, Norris aims to blur the lines of realism and abstraction to reveal something that has been lost from history and investigate the ambiguity and perplexity of black identity.

 

Cecil Norris was born in 1995 in Shelby, North Carolina, where he currently lives and works. Norris received a BoA from the School of Architecture at UNC at Charlotte. He is now an art teacher at Crest High School, where he hopes to cultivate a new age of artists. 

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Solo Exhibitions

2022

“Chaos or…” - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

“Chaos or…” - Brown Gallery, Duke University, Durham, NC.

 

2021

“UN·EXAMINED” - Jeanne Rauch Gallery, Gastonia, NC.

“UN·EXAMINED” - The Lost Dog Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana.

 

Group Exhibitions

2023

Carolina Roots Exhibition- Raleigh, NC.

Annual Juried Competition - Artist Collective Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC.

Cleveland County Artist Competition - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

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2022

Shut In - Gaston Museum, Dallas, NC.

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2021

DAG 67th Annual Juried Exhibition - Durham Art Guild, Durham, NC.

Annual Juried Competition - Artist Collective Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC.

Printed - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

Figurative Show- 311 Gallery, Raleigh, NC.

Variance- online exhibition, I like your work podcast.

Student Art Exhibition- Gaston College, Gastonia, NC.

Student Art Exhibition- Fayetteville Technical Community College, Fayetteville, NC.

Head and Sentiment: Dreams of an Artist - Milostka Exhibition Center

Cleveland County Artist Competition - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

“#NotASterotype” - The London House Center, Athens, Georgia.

“Virtual Show” - Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.

“I Am Woman” - Southern Art Society, Kings Mountain, NC.

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2020

“I Am Woman” - Southern Art Society, Kings Mountain, NC.

Cleveland County Artist Competition - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

“Perspectives” - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC. 

“The McColl Center Benefit Art Sale” - The McColl Center, Charlotte, NC. 

 

2019

Cleveland County Artist Competition - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby, NC.

 

Awards

2021

Third Place- “Annual Juried Competition,” Artist Collective Spartanburg 

Second Place- “Student Art Exhibition,” Gaston College 

First Place- “I Am Woman,” Southern Art Society 

2020

First Place- “I Am Woman,” Southern Art Society 

Honorable Mention - Cleveland County Arts Council

Selected for Black Art Rising Competition - LIFE WTR

2019

Honorable Mention- Gaston Community College 

 

Commissions

2021

Public Art Commission, Mural, 10 x 40ft, Cleveland County Arts Council  

2020

Public Art Commission, Mural, 10 x 20ft, Arise 

Public Art Commission, Mural, 5 x 10ft, Shelby Intermediate School 

2019

Public Art Commission, Mural, 10 x 30ft, Lifting Lab

 

Representation

 2021

Horn, Pack, Brown & Dow Gallery, Shelby, NC. 

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