Vernon Pratt: All the Possibilities of Sixteen

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Photo courtesy of the Gregg Museum

Vernon Pratt at work

The Gregg is revealing a never-before-seen posthumous exhibit by the inimitable Durham art teacher, jazz musician, and mathematical abstractionist Vernon Pratt (1940–2000), whose white granite block sculpture you’ve likely sat on in the Durham Arts Council courtyard. In All the Possibilities of Sixteen, 256 panels of jazzy geometric abstraction compose a massive piece, more than one hundred feet wide and eighteen feet high, assembled in its entirety here for the first time. Gregg director Roger Manley calls it Pratt’s magnum opus, and to celebrate it, he also commissioned an original composition by Rich Holly, further amplifying Pratt’s unique sweet spot between music and math. The exhibit runs through February 10 after this opening reception, which features an introduction by Scott Laird of the N.C. School of Science and Math. free —Brian Howe