The Grid Project is VAE’s pop-up initiative for artist-driven exhibitions across Raleigh. It connects creatives with spaces, provides support when possible, and sparks visibility, dialogue, and engagement through art in unexpected places.
Current Exhibition(s)
Streetframe
an exhibition of Lee Nisbet & Renzo Ortega
Join us on Friday, November 7th as we celebrate VAE’s latest venture to bring more art and beauty to the streets of Raleigh, featuring the vibrant work of Lee Nisbet and Renzo Ortega.
All of this wouldn’t be possible without our community. Big thanks to Artsplosure for the walls, Empire Properties for the use of space, and to Thomas Sayre & Joan Ellen-Deck for sponsoring this project.
The event is from 6:00 - 7:00 pm and is accessibly located outside on the sidewalk at 200 Fayetteville St.
We hope to see you there!
Exhibition Runs through December of 2025
Past Exhibitions
Birdland Gallery is pleased to present Echoes of Modernism, an exhibition that brings together the work of Amba Sayal-Bennett, Daniel Rich, Frances Lightbound, and Sam van Strien, four artists who examine how modernist architecture continues to shape our political, social, and economic lives. Whether considering the monumental scale of urban grids or the façades of corporate buildings, modernist architecture is far from neutral or placeless; they emerge instead as sites of memory, contestation, and lived experience. Through painting, printmaking, and drawing, these artists trace the ways we can engage with, document, and re-imagine the built environment, exposing both its utopian ambitions and its legacies.
Together, their work invites us to see how modernism’s material and symbolic forms are never static: they move, transform, and are reinterpreted across time, geography, and ideology. By interrogating architecture’s capacity to embody power, the exhibition positions modernism not as a closed historical chapter but as a living framework that continues to inform our contemporary experiences.
Opened, October 4th 3:00 - 6:0pm
Oct. 4th - October 25th
Strange Attractors
Martha Thorn and Mike Geary
Birdland | 706 Mountford Ave., Raleigh, NC 27601
The concept of strange attractors - enigmatic points in chaos theory where seemingly random paths converge into patterns of order - informs our exhibition. Though each of us works independently, presenting our paintings together in Strange Attractors creates an environment charged with potential connections. Our distinct visual vocabularies, shaped by unique histories and impulses, orbit common themes while maintaining their own identities.
Events
Opened: Saturday, September 6th, 3:00 - 6:00
Boylan Arts District Tour *VAE sponsored trolley
Sunday, September 28th, 2:00 - 5:00