Clarksville, TN – The New Gallery at Austin Peay State University and the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) are welcoming back artist-in-residence Soulaf Abas for two free public events.
On September 25th, 2025, at 6:00pm Abas will discuss her exhibition New Beginnings in the Sara and Mike Gotcher Theatre (Trahern Building Room 220). At noon on September 26th, Abas will present a gallery talk in The New Gallery.
As The New Gallery’s first artist-in-residence, Abas worked live on campus from July 14th through August 9th, and many of the works in her exhibition were created during her stay.
Located on the first floor of the APSU Art + Design Building, The New Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 9:00am – 4:00pm, following Austin Peay State University’s academic calendar and inclement weather policy. Curator-guided tours of exhibitions are available upon request.
About the Artist Soulaf Abas
Soulaf Abas was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. In 2008, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana State University. Then she returned to Syria and taught art at the Arab European University. In 2010, Abas returned to Indiana State University to get her master’s degree. After she received her MFA in painting in 2013, she taught part-time at Indiana State University.
Abas went back to visit her family in Damascus, Syria, in the summer of 2012, a year after the uprising began. Her visit changed her outlook on what home means forever. Upon her return from Syria, she started creating images in painting and printmaking that depicted what she’d experienced. Over the years, her work evolved to portray the effects of loss on how we see the world and the many undetectable ways in which grief can change us. Her current work is a translation of internal landscapes to communicate her experiences.
Abas’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She received numerous residencies and awards for her work like the Social Justice Residency in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Luxor International Painting Symposium in Egypt, and multiple ELCE Grants from Indiana State University.
In 2017, Abas was hired to be the first tenure-track professor of art at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (est. 1874). She started a full art program at the private engineering institute and created a wide range of art classes like drawing and printmaking, as well as multidisciplinary courses like art & math and material science in art. Abas lives and works in Terre Haute, Indiana with her partner, dogs, cat, and many, many plants.
To learn more about the New Gallery, contact Professor Barry Jones at jonestb@apsu.edu. To learn more about the Department of Art + Design and its opportunities for students, contact department chair McLean Fahnestock at fahnestockm@apsu.edu. For more information regarding the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, contact Dr. Andrea Spofford at spofforda@apsu.edu.
About the New Gallery
The New Gallery at Austin Peay State University is a 1,500-square-foot white cube contemporary gallery with 120 linear feet of wall space and 36 feet of movable wall space. Located in the APSU Art + Design Building, The New Gallery hosts nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists for exhibitions, lectures, workshops, class visits, and studio visits with students. Exhibitions in the gallery are free and open to the public.
You can learn more about the New Gallery by visiting www.apsu.edu/thenewgallery/index.php.
About the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
Since 1985, the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA, or “seek-ah”) has been providing students, the Clarksville community, and the Middle Tennessee region with engaging experiences through the Art + Design, Music, Theatre & Dance, and Creative Writing programs at APSU.
CECA brings as many as 85 guest artists to Clarksville each year and presents up to 100 public arts & culture events annually, including concerts, exhibitions, artist lectures, master classes, artist residencies, and more. In addition, CECA provides the arts faculty at APSU with research opportunities to enhance their professional growth as well as numerous student scholarships each year to support APSU’s own emerging artists.
