Alena Mehić
Assistant Professor
Painting + Drawing
Department of Art
Alena Mehić (b. 1995, Zavidovići, Bosnia & Herzegovina) examines utopia, nation-building, and the archive within the expanded field of painting. She relies on elements of print media, cinema, design history, surrealism, and folklore to evoke parallel universes, investigating the disconnect between past projected futures and reality through altered and imagined space. Her interest in post-communist perception and the politics of memory lends itself to ambiguous images and hypnotic, dreamlike compositions that oscillate between flatness and true representation, further emphasizing a silent but steady descent into entropy and euphoria.
Mehić received her MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2021 and her BFA from Middle Tennessee State University in 2017. Select exhibitions include STATE Gallery at The Forge, Nashville, TN (2024); Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC (2023); and Zeitgeist, Nashville, TN (2022). She is a past artist in residence at The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY (2023); Loghaven, Knoxville, TN (2023); and The Forge, Nashville, TN (2023-2024). She was a recipient of the 2021-2022 Master of Fine Art Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture from the Dedalus Foundation in New York and was featured in the 2022 MFA Annual Issue of New American Paintings.
Contact
Education
MFA (Studio Art) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 2021
BFA (Studio Art) Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 2017
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL (current)
Assistant Professor of Art, Cumberland University, Lebanon, TN, 2022-25
Lecturer of Painting and Drawing, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, 2021-22
Instructor of Record, Color Theory, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2021
Instructor of Record, Printmaking I, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2021
Art Space Director, Morrison Art Studio, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2019-20
Lecturers, Demonstrations & Interviews
Where Are We? Skill Share, Begonia Labs, Nashville, TN, 2025
Dolina Artist Talk, The Forge, Nashville, TN, 2024
Lithography demonstration, Printshop Open House, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 2024
Common Ground Artist Lecture Series: Alena Mehić, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 2022
Micro/Macro: MFA Artists’ Conversation, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC, 2021
Studio Art Alum Lecture Series: Alena Mehić, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 2021
Alena Mehić – Bosnian American Artist, Next Door Neighbors series, Nashville Public Television, Nashville, TN, 2018
Awards & Grants
Dedalus Foundation Award for Past Fellows, New York, NY, 2024
Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture, New York, NY, 2021-22
Morrison Fellowship Award, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2019-20
Professional Development Support Grant, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, TN, 2018
Press & Publications
John Felix Arnold, The Coastal Post, “The Hum, a solo exhibition from Alena Mehic, curated by Raj Bunnag,” March 8, 2023
New American Paintings, No. 159, MFA Annual Issue, The Open Studios Press, Boston, MA, 2022
Solo And Two-Person Exhibitions
Dolina, The Forge, Nashville, TN, 2024
The Hum, Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, 2023
Dark Humor, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN, 2022
Between a Waiting Room, a Built Utopia, and its Void, Wedge Building, Nashville, TN Works by Alena Mehić, Blend Studio, Nashville, TN, 2021
Group Exhibitions
Where Are We?, Begonia Labs, Nashville, TN Hot Stove League, The Arcade, Nashville, TN A Penny in Your Pocket, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, 2025
Kinhouse, Kinhouse Gallery, Fort Wayne, IN NUMBER: INC Art of the South 2024, Stove Works, Chattanooga, TN Fuse, Haley Gallery, Nashville, TN Art Between the Avenues, The Arcade, Nashville, TN Come Together, David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, TN, 2024
Community Art Show, Artville Visual Arts Festival, Nashville, TN, 2023
Dialogue in Analog, Open Gallery, Nashville, TN, 2022
Pleasant Terminal, Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD 2C/Community Collective MTSU Alumni Print Show, MTSU Todd Art Gallery, Murfreesboro, TN Micro/Macro, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2021
Domestic Incantations, Private Practice, Durham, NC Diffi cult Attachments, Feminisms Here & Now, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Earth Works for The End of The World, Hanes Art Center, Chapel Hill, NC, 2019
9th Annual Drawing Discourse Exhibition, Asheville, NC, 2018
Residencies
Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, 2023
STATE Scholarship Residency at The Forge, Nashville, TN, 2023
Loghaven Artist Residency, Knoxville, TN, 2023
Belgrade Arts Studio Residency, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Lazuli Artist Residency, Corinth, VT, 2018