RADICAL CHIMERAS: A Multidisciplinary Exhibition By Rob Mazurek Opening 2/28
In partnership with the Big Ears Festival. The UT Downtown Gallery is proud to be a free Big Ears venue. All exhibition dates and musical performances at the Downtown Gallery are free and open to the public.
FEBRUARY 28 – APRIL 4, 2026
Artist and composer Rob Mazurek presents a new body of work with an exhibition of paintings, sound generated animations, large-format sound prints and sculpture that converge into hybrid visual forms of one another. Timed to coincide with the visionary Big Ears Festival, the exhibition extends the festival’s spirit of innovation into the visual realm, offering attendees and the Knoxville community an immersive encounter with Mazurek’s interdisciplinary practice. Light, motion, and form carry the imprint of sound’s structure and energy. The moving chimeras, captured stills, painted surfaces complete a cyclical process of transformation. The chimera, a creature composed of three or more disparate parts, creates something new. For Mazurek, the chimera becomes a model for radical creation and refraction. His work is, fundamentally, about sound, even when no sound is heard. Sound becomes an organizing force, a pulse inside visual language. In Radical Chimeras, sonic vibration is translated into movement, modulation, and spatial structure. The work invites viewers to experience the visual behavior of sound rather than its acoustic form. The result is an environment of silent resonance, of images that move and evolve. Moving within layers of light, form and color, viewers experience the visual architecture of sound. Radical Chimeras extends the adventurous ethos of Big Ears to the visual arts by presenting a project in which sound becomes a structural and conceptual force. Gallery and festival attendees will encounter the work as a quiet zone of visual resonance.
FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTIONS
March 6, 2026
April 3, 2026
5-9PM | UT Downtown Gallery
We hope to see you at one or both of our First Friday events! First Friday events are free and open to the public.
EXTENDED BIG EARS HOURS
Thursday | March 26, 12-9PM
Friday | March 27, 12-9PM
Saturday | March 28, 12-9PM
Sunday | March 29, 12-6PM
THE RADICAL CHIMERA SESSIONS
On Friday and Saturday a unique ensemble — featuring Mazurek, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Victor Vieira-Branco will perform in the exhibition.
Friday | March 27, 6PM
Rob Mazurek | trumpets, bells, voice
Mikel Patrick Avery | drums, percussion
Victor Vieira-Branco | vibraphone
Saturday | March 28, 6PM
Rob Mazurek | trumpets, bells, voice
Mikel Patrick Avery | drums, percussion
Victor Vieira-Branco | vibraphone
