The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibit, “Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist,” will be on view Oct. 21 to April 28, 2024. Admission will be free.

The exhibit, a retrospective of the photographer and painter’s 60-year career, follows the VMFA’s recent acquisition of more than 230 photographs and 10 paintings and her extensive archives, according to VMFA.

“Many of these works will be included in the upcoming exhibition Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist, the artist’s first career retrospective at a major art museum.” said VMFA’s director and CEO Alex Nyerges.

Born in 1924 and raised in Richmond, Ms. Wright attended the College of William & Mary, where she audited art classes while pursuing a degree in psychology. Although she exhibited a few paintings as a student, Ms. Wright did not pursue art seriously until 1960, when she — by then a married mother of three — enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program at the Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University). While initially focused on making paintings, serigraphs and drawings, Ms. Wright shifted mediums to pinhole photography in 1972.

Curated by Dr. Sarah Kennel, VMFA’s Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center, Willie Anne Wright: Artist and Alchemist shines a light on the artist’s contributions to Pop Art and as a pioneer in alternative photographic processes and the use of pinhole photography.

VMFA is located at 200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond. For more information about this and other exhibitions and programs at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, please visit www.vmfa.museum.