Stephen Towns: Loud as the Rolling Sea

Lecture and Reception

March 4, 2025, 5:30-6:30 pm (Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall)

The Rice Workers, 2021. Natural and synthetic fabric, polyester and cotton thread, crystal glass beads, resin, metal and wooden buttons, 49.5 inx 58 inches.

About the Exhibition

Stephen Towns’s work examines the historical narratives of Black Americans, focusing on the everyday tasks of the everyman and prompting viewers to contemplate individuals whose work and existence may have been forgotten. By posing the question, “What is American history?” Towns encourages reflection on people and contributions overlooked. His exhibition, Loud As The Rolling Sea, features Towns’s fiber works, which delve into quiet, contemplative moments to underscore the significance of Black American history.

Stephen Towns was born in 1980 in Lincolnville, SC, and lives and works in Baltimore, MD. He trained as a painter with a BFA in studio art from the University of South Carolina and has also developed a rigorous, self-taught quilting practice. In 2018 the Baltimore Museum of Art presented his first museum exhibition, Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning. His work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Artforum, the Washington Post, Hyperallergic, Cultured, Forbes, AFROPUNK, and American Craft. Towns’s work is in the permanent collections of many institutions including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Boise Museum of Art, the City of Charleston, the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, MI, the Rockwell Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

View the artist’s website.

This exhibition is made possible by the support of the DeLaney Center and the Departments of History, Sociology, and Anthropology.