Mary Lou Higgins: Sibylline Faces” will be on view from June 7 through Nov. 15 in the Schaefer Gallery of the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM).
This exhibition presents a selection of ceramic works and drawings by Mary Lou Higgins (1926–2012), an artist active in North Carolina throughout her career.
Best known for her illustrative approach to ceramics, Higgins worked across multiple media, creating a body of work defined by intricate draftsmanship and a focus on the female figure.
Higgins filled the surfaces of her vessels and forms with an evolving repertory of female faces and figures, rendered with baroque embellishment and a distinct physicality.
Often gilded and highly ornamented, these works foreground the female visage, as do the elongated or voluptuous silhouettes of the forms themselves. Her drawing practice extended beyond ceramics into works on paper, canvas, and handmade furniture, where her dense, gestural approach to line and composition further reveals her interest in stylized figuration.
Higgins often collaborated with her husband, Edward Higgins, who at times constructed the ceramic forms she adorned. The figures that populate her work have been compared to the Sibyls—prophetesses of ancient Greece who were believed to articulate divine revelations in rhythmic verse while in a trance.
The exaggerated features and expressive gestures of her figures also recall the stylized bodies of late 16th-century Italian, or Mannerist painting, suggesting an engagement with historical representations of the feminine form.
This exhibition highlights a recent gift to BRAHM, forming the foundation of a growing collection of Higgins’ work. The included pieces demonstrate her sustained engagement with surface, figuration, and narrative, offering insight into an artist whose practice was shaped by both technical experimentation and a fascination with mythic and historical imagery.
In addition to presenting this body of work, BRAHM is actively working to expand the record of Mary Lou Higgins’ life and career.