South Carolina artist Leo Twiggs’ paintings in Charleston

The world premiere of “Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs” spans six decades of work by the nationally acclaimed artist and is the first major retrospective exhibition in his home state of South Carolina. On view at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston from January 30 through May 3, 2026, with more than 40 works created by Twiggs between 1961 and 2020, this exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Twiggs’ landmark solo show at the Gibbes in 1976 (during the bicentennial year).

A half-century later, this new exhibition comes at a national crossroads as America commemorates its 250th anniversary. Twiggs was born in 1934, just 45 miles from Charleston, and will be celebrating his 92nd birthday during the run of the exhibition.

The award-winning artist has created an indelible impact on American art in unprecedented ways. Most of the works on view are emblematic of the artist’s signature prowess in batik artmaking, a multi-layered and arduous wax-resist dyeing process. The deep saturation of colors onto cotton reflects his subject matter’s gravity and historic undertones, often intertwined with his prevailing messages of hope.

“At this 250th anniversary, when we have come so far together in this country, this retrospective is not just about me — it’s about us, our shared American experience,” Twiggs said. “I like to create questions with my work, which weaves in and out of this American narrative. You cannot pass through the 250 years of American history without passing through Charleston. Forty percent of the slaves that came into this country arrived through Charleston, and 70% of African Americans can trace their roots back to Charleston.”

The museum has created a robust series of programs surrounding this exhibition, for the public to enjoy. View the schedule of programming and events at: www.gibbesmuseum.org/programs-events.

The Gibbes Museum invited Dr. Frank Martin to guest-curate the exhibition, working in tandem with Sara Arnold, the Gibbes Museum’s Director of Curatorial Affairs and the curatorial team. Dr. Martin is an art historian, educator, writer and curator who has written extensively about Twiggs’ work.

“Through talent, faith, ambition, intelligence and hard work, Leo Twiggs has emerged from the challenging obscurity of his early life in a small, segregated community to become one of the South’s most nationally significant and innovative visual artists,” Martin said. “His singular creativity has transformed not only his life, but by his teaching and public service, has served as a beacon for thousands of students, fellow artists, and friends.”

This retrospective is the first time since 2016 that all nine paintings from the series Requiem for Mother Emanuel are exhibited together in Charleston. Twiggs created this chilling series in the aftermath of one of our country’s most brutal hate crimes. In 2015, nine churchgoers were murdered by a mass shooter who attended their Bible study meeting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), located less than a mile from the Gibbes Museum.

The church is affectionately known as “Mother Emmanuel” because it is one of the oldest Black churches in the South, formed in 1816. It is legendary for coming back from the ashes in 1822 when an angry mob burned it down, and 35 churchgoers were hanged, for their role in an attempted slave revolt. The shooting in 2015 occurred on the anniversary of the thwarted slave uprising. The murderer, an Aryan supremacist, targeted members of this church because of its history and status.

The worshippers had unknowingly welcomed the shooter when he arrived, and invited him to join them. He sat with them through the entire Bible study, and when it was over, as the group was holding hands in a prayer circle, he fired 70 rounds at them. The massacre shocked the nation. In response to this horrific tragedy, Twiggs created the series of nine works as a commemorative tribute to the nine victims.

“The artist’s powerful realignment of signs and symbols — tied inextricably to hate and to hope — drive a narrative of resilience, opening doors for each of us to reflect on the past,” Dr. H. Alexander Rich, the President and CEO of the Gibbes Museum of Art, said. “Fifty years ago, the Gibbes presented his landmark solo museum exhibition, and our museum team is thrilled to now be part of this first-ever career retrospective in his home state of South Carolina. This is a privilege and an honor for us at the Gibbes, and long overdue for Leo Twiggs. We can all only imagine what the world will say about his art fifty years from now.”

The exhibition is not organized chronologically. Instead, museumgoers will experience five thematic sections — Marooned, Awakenings, Transitions, Transformation, and Revelations — that are meant to explore Twiggs’ artistic evolution over time via aesthetic and thematic relationships. The museum show includes some of Twiggs’ few oil paintings (rarely seen, from his early phases) including two portraits of his wife, Rosa.

“I painted her portraits the first summer after we got married. You can see I had stars in my eyes. I have never exhibited these before,” says Twiggs.

In the early 1960s, when Twiggs was studying in New York at NYU, he painted abstracts.

“These two abstract paintings have never left my house before,” says Twiggs. “When I was studying in New York, abstraction was the most prominent art movement at the time. But for me, abstraction was too ambiguous to communicate the ideas that I wanted to share through my paintings. I could not get away from expressing stories to my viewers.”

Through his masterful use of imagery and iconography associated with the South, Twiggs brings to light an awareness of cultural issues that goes beyond regional nuances. In the exhibition catalogue, Dr. Martin writes about how the artist has thoughtfully interrogated the implications of celebrated motifs of Southern culture: variations of the Confederate flag, railroad crossing signs that symbolize migration of people to the North, target symbols, and more. Dr. Martin writes about how Twiggs’ artworks are rich with symbols dating back to the American Revolution, the Civil War, through aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, and into 21st century issues we are all facing today.

Twiggs was the eldest of seven children, and his father died when he was in the tenth grade. To help his mother make ends meet, he worked six days a week as the projectionist at the local movie theater in his hometown of Saint Stephen. The shows would end late at night, after 11:00 p.m. As a young African American man in a rural town in the Deep South, Twiggs recalls his mother’s concern.

“I had to walk home on a long and lonely street, and after I passed the last white household, that was where the last streetlight was, and I would be plunged into darkness for the rest of my walk home,” Twiggs said. “My mother always stayed up until I got home, and she would leave the light on so I could see the light from our home across the field. So many Black mothers across America would wait for their sons to get home, and sometimes they didn’t.”

About the Artist

Dr. Leo Twiggs was in born in 1934 in Saint Stephen, South Carolina. The nationally acclaimed artist and educator was his family’s first college graduate; the first African American student to receive a Doctorate from the University of Georgia; and the first visual artist to receive the Governor’s Trophy for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts in South Carolina (the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award).

He has presented more than seventy-five solo exhibitions, and his work has been featured in numerous group shows nationally and internationally, including U.S. Embassies in Rome, Dakar, and Switzerland, among other venues.

His many accolades include: the Order of the Palmetto (South Carolina’s highest civilian honor); the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art/Gibbes Museum of Art; and was inducted in 2020 into the South Carolina Hall of Fame.

At South Carolina State University he taught from 1973 until 1998. During his tenure at the university, he started the Art Department and was instrumental in opening and directing the I. P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium on campus. Twiggs was named professor emeritus in 2000.

Twiggs received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Claflin University in 1956 (summa cum laude with majors in art, history, and English); studied at the Art Institute of Chicago; his Master of Arts degree from NYU in 1964; and earned his Doctor of Education from the University of Georgia in 1970. He retired from teaching in 1998 but retains the position of Distinguished Artist in Residence at Claflin University.