The Mint Museum announces solo exhibition by contemporary artist Corey Pemberton
- Michele Huggins
- Aug 14
- 4 min read
Corey Pemberton: Living Well on view September 19, 2026–January 31, 2027 at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts
The Mint Museum is pleased to present Corey Pemberton: Living Well, a solo exhibition featuring over 70 works by Los Angeles-based contemporary artist Corey Pemberton, on view September 19, 2026–January 31, 2027 at Mint Museum Uptown.
At age 36, Pemberton has quickly emerged as one of the leading voices in Contemporary Art, earning a 2026 United States Artists Fellowship while placing work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, Corning Museum of Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
A central thread of Living Well is the idea that a meaningful life is built through connection—to family, friends, community, and the spaces we share. The exhibition also considers whose stories and experiences are represented within art and cultural institutions.
Through paintings, mixed-media collages, quilts, blown and kiln-formed glass sculptures, and basketweaving, Pemberton explores themes of home, community, identity, family, and belonging. Layering color and materials, his paintings explore highly designed and welcoming living spaces inhabited by people of color, LGBTQ+, and nonbinary individuals, reflecting themes of respite, personality, memories, and ambitions.
The exhibition includes Pemberton’s glasswork, for which he initially became known. This includes replicas of everyday objects found in domestic settings—such as a liter of Coca-Cola—as well as vessels that integrate glass techniques with craft references, such as Murano glass traditions that merge with face jugs and quilt patterns from the United States, South African Zulu ukhamba baskets, and contemporary artists MacArthur Binion, Richard Marquis, and Yoichi Ohira, highlighting African American history and culture within international, ancient traditions.
Curated by the Mint's Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art, Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Corey Pemberton: Living Well is presented alongside the first catalogue dedicated to his work.
“Corey and I have been working on this show for the last four years, and while it reflects his expansion as an artist and central concerns of his work—showing people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals in private moments of repose and community—it also illustrates an evolution in how we think about personal space,” says Sudul Edwards. “The essential sanctuary these spaces create, especially for Black, brown and queer people under increased public scrutiny, is very much reflected in the galleries and in the catalogue essays. Anyone visiting the show will return home with a new appreciation for the coffee mug, the rug, the books on the bedside table that they might not have recognized as comfort objects embedded with meaning and memories.”
Living Well coincides with you're here with us, a joint solo exhibition between SOCO Gallery and TFA Gallery + Advisory, and Pemberton's residency at the McColl Center in Charlotte during fall 2026.
Corey Pemberton: Living Well is generously presented by PNC with additional support from the Ford Foundation for the exhibition catalogue and the Windgate Foundation for opening day events. Individual sponsorship is kindly provided by Marty and Weston Andress, and Lauren Harkey.
OPENING DAY CELEBRATION
“Better Together” Opening Day CelebrationSeptember 19, 10 AM–4 PM
Levine Avenue of the Arts + Mint Museum Uptown
FREE
To celebrate the opening of Corey Pemberton: Living Well, The Mint Museum will host a vendor market, public workshops, demonstrations, and a panel discussion September 19 along Levine Avenue of the Arts and at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts in uptown Charlotte. Events are scheduled from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
Artists Corey Pemberton and Cedric Mitchell will participate in a panel discussion at 1 p.m. titled Making a way. What does it take to build a creative life? Through candid conversation, the panel will examine artistic labor, entrepreneurship, cultural identity, and the unique realities of working as an artist of color in America.
Admission to Mint Museum Uptown will be free September 19. The day’s events are organized by Crafting the Future —the nonprofit organization led by Pemberton and dedicated to increasing access to education and opportunities for artists of color in the fields of visual art, craft, and design—and DUPP&SWAT. The opening event is generously supported by a grant from Windgate Foundation.
Community Quilt House
Corey Pemberton: Living Well includes a Community Quilt House, created in collaboration with more than 20 quilters from the nonprofit arts organization Quilting for Community (Q4C) in Chatsworth, California. Q4C offers free quilting workshops to beginners and donates quilts to individuals in hospice care.
Through the run of the exhibition, the Mint will host a community conversations series, “Stitched Together,” in the Community Quilt House. Sessions will feature community storytellers, artists, nonprofit leaders, healthcare professionals, and/or advocates sharing personal experiences and guiding conversations around topics that touch everyday lives. Participants can explore what it means to "live well" through life's challenges and how the arts can strengthen health, belonging, and quality of life.
"Community Quilt House welcomes all to come together in a place of love and support to celebrate teamwork, friendship, home, and safety," Pemberton says.
About Corey Pemberton
Born in Reston, Virginia, in 1990, Corey Pemberton earned a BFA in craft and material studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012. His interdisciplinary work spans glass, mixed media, painting, and fiber arts. Pemberton has held solo exhibitions at the Center for Visual Art in Denver, the Asheville Art Museum, and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; and the Chrysler Museum of Art, Virginia. He has received grants and residencies from institutions such as the Penland School of Craft, Pilchuck Glass School, and Pittsburgh Glass Center.
Pemberton also serves as the executive director of Crafting the Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to education and opportunities for artists of color in the fields of visual art, craft, and design.
Ticket Information
Admission to The Mint Museum is free for members, youths 18 and younger, and colleg e art students; $15 for adults; and $10 for college students with ID, seniors ages 65 and older, and teachers. For museum hours, visit mintmuseum.org.
ABOUT THE MINT MUSEUM
The Mint Museum, established in 1936, is North Carolina’s first art museum. With locations in Uptown Charlotte and Randolph Road, it offers a diverse range of exhibitions and educational programs, aiming to inspire and engage the community through art.
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