Fresh from the COOP: New Members’ Exhibition
Dec 6 – Dec 20 | Opening Reception December 6, 1pm–9pm
Things I Touch Everyday, Sarah Bogdal, Block print on paper, 2025
COOP Gallery is pleased to present Fresh from the COOP, this year’s New Members’ Exhibition. The show features work by eight new Artist-Members and opens Saturday, December 6, from 1–9pm in conjunction with the WeHo Art Crawl, closing Saturday, December 20. Featuring painting, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, and new media, the exhibition reflects the creative breadth of our newest members. As Nashville’s oldest artist-run gallery, COOP remains committed to presenting diverse contemporary practices. To learn more about our current members, visit www.coopgallery.org/members.
More about the Artists
Sarah Bogdal is a printmaker living and working in Nashville, Tennessee. Her practice is shaped by the joy of the process: every linoleum block is a visual puzzle of light, texture, and space. She pulls inspiration from books, music, podcasts, or whatever rabbit hole she’s most recently fallen into. Sarah earned her BFA from Watkins College of Art in 2018 and has since exhibited her work in 16 states, tabled at dozens of art markets across the Southeast, and regularly hosts workshops to recruit others into the cult that is print. Her goal is for each print to lie just shy of disorienting— visually dense enough to require a second look, rewarding those who let themselves linger.
Ter Carter is a self-taught, Nashville-based visual artist originally from southern Nevada. When they are not working on American traditional, illustrative tattoo flash, they are primarily working with acrylic, gouache, ink, and fabric. They enjoy making surreal, confrontational pieces and feel they accomplish that by way of fabric; applying fabric to canvas allows their art to enter the third dimension and into the personal space of the viewer. Carter strives to embody the feeling of attempting to assimilate a nonbinary body into a binary world: finding the balance of blending in, begging to be seen, and the violence committed against self in the process.
Téa Chura is a Creative Producer and Promotional Strategist who supports artists, designers, and galleries through video production, podcast production, social content, and communications materials such as catalogs, portfolios, newsletters and press. She’s helped artists promote exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles, secure features in podcasts and publications including American Theatre and produce projects like video installations and documentary-style work. Téa’s approach is human-centered, amplifying artists’ voices while growing audiences and opening doors to new opportunities. Based in Nashville, she works with clients in Los Angeles and New York. In her spare time, she explores singing, acting, sculpture, and sewing.
Brandi Coates is a Nashville native, self-taught artist, and arts advocate. She holds a BFA in Art and Design from Cumberland University and a Master’s in Education in Instructional Leadership from Tennessee State University. With nearly seven years in nonprofit arts education, Brandi has worked at the Frist Art Museum and the National Museum of African American Music, creating programs that inspire and connect communities. Now at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, she supports local charities and creative initiatives. Her art focuses on dry media while also exploring acrylic and watercolor. Brandi’s work reflects her dedication to fostering creativity, education, and access to the arts for all.
Courtney Gatewood is a mother of three, a wife, a visual artist, educator, and researcher, who often finds priorities shifting among these roles. Originally from a small town in Northwest Tennessee, she has lived in various places, but truly felt at home upon her return. Now in Middle Tennessee, she reconnects with her childhood and embraces her identity as a woman. Courtney’s artwork reflects her tumultuous past, combining aspirational imagery that represents femininity and explores the female psyche, along with floral motifs that resonate with her spiritual beliefs. Her faith, which she discovered later in life, is essential to her, providing stability and fostering compassion for others.
John Holmes is a media artist whose work investigates how technological systems shape intimacy and perception, exploring how desire collides with the conditions of alienation. His multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, video, collage, and performance, creating immersive environments that treat light, sound, and software as sculptural materials and invite participants into spaces of play and reflection. He is also the founder of New Media Nashville, an emerging studio using experiential art to help communities navigate the challenges of digital life. By uniting creativity, education, and social dialogue, NMN provides meaningful ways to invest in cultural resilience, digital literacy, and the future of human connection.
Paz Suay is a visual artist based in Nashville, TN, originally from Valencia, Spain. She grew up in an environment where painting and architecture naturally intersected, which led her to pursue studies in Architecture, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, and Illustration. In 2015, she established the art program at Valencia Montessori School—an experience that deepened her interest in abstraction and process-oriented practices grounded in the same elements and principles of art she taught her young students. Painting and collage are recurring languages through which she explores life’s dualities and connects with the surrounding culture.
Bailey Walters is a Nashville-based painter at heart, but whether through visual art, branding, or collaborative projects, she’s drawn to anything that offers space for meaningful expression. She believes the world would be a bleak place without artists and creatives — and champions spaces that celebrate their voices. She uses emotion as a driving force in her work. Attempting to capture fleeting feelings in tangible form. Raised in South Mississippi, she carries a strong connection to Southern culture and seeks to honor its richness and complexity in a world that often misrepresents it. She has spent years cultivating relationships in Tennessee, and is passionate about helping others visually express who they are.