Dr. Leo Twiggs
The world premiere of Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs, a major retrospective spanning six decades of work by the nationally acclaimed artist, will be on view at the Gibbes Museum of Art from Jan. 30 through May 3, 2026.
The exhibition marks the first comprehensive retrospective of Twiggs’ work in his home state of South Carolina and coincides with the 50th anniversary of his landmark solo exhibition at the Gibbes in 1976. It arrives as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Featuring more than 40 works created between 1961 and 2020, the exhibition traces Twiggs’ artistic evolution through five thematic sections — Marooned, Awakenings, Transitions, Transformation and Revelations — rather than a chronological timeline.
Twiggs, who was born in 1934 just 45 miles from Charleston, will celebrate his 92nd birthday during the run of the exhibition.
“The whole point is that we are all on this boat together,” Twiggs said. “We either sink, or we swim by making this experiment work. This retrospective is not just about me — it’s about us, our shared American experience.”
"The Swing," by Leo Twiggs (1970) batik on cotton
Twiggs is widely recognized for his mastery of batik, a labor-intensive wax-resist dyeing technique that produces deeply saturated color on cotton. His work often confronts racism, violence and historical trauma while weaving in themes of resilience and hope.
“You cannot pass through 250 years of American history without passing through Charleston,” Twiggs said. “Forty percent of the enslaved people brought to this country arrived through Charleston, and 70 percent of African Americans can trace their roots here.”
The exhibition is guest-curated by Dr. Frank Martin, an art historian and longtime scholar of Twiggs’ work, in collaboration with Sara Arnold, the Gibbes’ director of curatorial affairs.
“Through talent, faith, ambition, intelligence and hard work, Leo Twiggs has emerged to become one of the South’s most significant and innovative visual artists,” Martin said.
A centerpiece of the exhibition is Conversation, which Martin intentionally placed as the final work visitors encounter.
“It raises the question of discourse we are failing to have as a country,” Martin said. “This work reminds us that even when we come from very different experiences, art can create shared openings — emotional, aesthetic and humane.”
"We Have Known Rivers: Masks, Tree and Moon," by Leo Twiggs (1992) batik and paint on cotton mounted on board.
The retrospective also reunites all nine paintings from Twiggs’ Requiem for Mother Emanuel series for the first time in Charleston since 2016. Created in response to the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the series honors the nine churchgoers killed during a Bible study and stands as one of Twiggs’ most powerful commemorative works.
“The paintings are objects of lament,” Martin wrote in the exhibition catalogue, “icons that call us to weep, but also to find kinship in shared suffering.”
The exhibition includes rare early oil paintings, including two previously unexhibited portraits of Twiggs’ wife, Rosa, as well as abstract works created while he studied at New York University in the early 1960s.
“I had stars in my eyes,” Twiggs said of the portraits. “I’ve never exhibited these before.”
Dr. H. Alexander Rich, president and CEO of the Gibbes Museum of Art, called the exhibition “long overdue.”
“The artist’s powerful realignment of signs and symbols — tied to hate and to hope — opens doors for reflection,” Rich said. “We can only imagine what the world will say about his art fifty years from now.”
A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition, and the museum has organized a robust slate of public programs and events. A full schedule is available at gibbesmuseum.org.