Barbara Campbell Thomas
Education
MFA University of California, Berkeley, 2000
BFA Pennsylvania State University, 1998
Biography
Barbara Campbell Thomas, Professor of Art, is currently Director of the School of Art.
Barbara Campbell Thomas has spent her professional life balancing a deep commitment to education and art. This equal determination to be excellent in the classroom and studio stems from the fact that Campbell Thomas’s life has been transformed by art and education. While at UNCG, she has been Director of the Gatewood Gallery as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She served as a School of Art Faculty Senator from 2020-2023. She was 2024-2025 Fellow with the National Council of Arts Administrators.
Barbara Campbell Thomas is also a nationally recognized painter with an active record of solo and group exhibitions. Her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States, including the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Hidell Brooks Gallery, The Painting Center, the Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Barbara Campbell Thomas is a 2018 recipient of a North Carolina Artists Fellowship, and her studio practice was featured in Art of The State: Celebrating the Visual Art of North Carolina, published by UNC Press. She is a Fellow of the Yale Summer School of Music and Art.
Barbara Campbell Thomas has recently been interviewed on the following podcasts: Sound and Vision, Seamside, Studio Break and the Artist/Mother Podcast.
“Photo by Lissa Gotwals, first published in Art of The State: Celebrating the Visual Art of North Carolina, published by UNC Press, 2022”
Subjects Taught
- Painting and Drawing
Scholarly Creative/Research Activity
Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2025
Circling a Square, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
Painting for a Space, Kinhouse Gallery, Fort Wayne, Indiana (two-person, Katie Davis)
2024
Heart of Space, Studio Break Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Influence + Conversation, Les Yeux Du Monde, Charlottesville, Virginia (two-person, Isabelle Abbot)
Painting for a Space, Beeler Gallery, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, Ohio. (two-person, Katie Davis)
Geochroma, James May Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (two-person, Amy Sacksteder)
2023
Edna’s Diamonds, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2021
Rhythms for Transport, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2020
Pneuma, Ruffin Gallery, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Needle and Thread: Contemporary Textiles at Play, TAG Gallery, High Point, North Carolina
Summer Lovin’, Wavelength Space, Chattanooga, Tennessee
2023
Tightly Knit, Loose Fit, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
Elemental Edifices, Wavelength Space, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Charm Phase, Maake Projects, State College, Pennsylvania
18, Janice Charach Gallery, Detroit, Michigan
25th Anniversary Exhibition, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2022
Painting at Night, Collar Works, Troy, New York
Still, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, Tennessee
Crop of Kismet, I Like Your Work Podcast, online exhibition (Curator: Will Hutnick)
2021
Amplify, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, Virginia
INTRO 8, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
The Printmakers Left: Catalog, Cressman Center for Visual Arts, University of Louisville,Louisville, Kentucky
The Growing Edge, Casa Otro, Mesilla, New Mexico
2020
Front Burner: Highlights in Contemporary North Carolina Painting, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
Escapes and Revelations: NC Artists Fellows Exhibit, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina