A welded steel sculpture, Fly Away, by UA BFA alumna Martha Markline Hopkins, has been installed by the Fairhope City Council at the H. L. “Sonny” Callahan Airport in Fairhope, Alabama. The council provided a base for the sculpture that was donated by Hopkins. The graceful shapes that Hopkins created in her welded steel tube artwork reflect the “airborne” theme of the sculpture’s new home.
Another work by Hopkins, Square Study (also known as Stairstep Cube) was installed in the Eastern Shore Art Center’s outdoor sculpture collection in Fairhope in 2015. Now a bright red cubic shape, the welded square tubing sculpture stands on Oak Avenue near North Bancroft Street. Hopkins had a sculpture juried into the MSA Select Exhibition, a collaboration of Mid-South Sculpture Alliance and Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, in October and November. She also has a painting on display in Eastern Shore Art Association’s Annual Members’ Open Show, November 4 – December 30, 2022.
Martha Hopkins’ sculptures have been selected for numerous national and international juried exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, as well as locations around the South including Meridian, Mississippi; Johnson City, Tennessee; Montgomery, Alabama; and Tuscaloosa. Hopkins’ work is in public and private collections, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts (Gadsden, Alabama), Eastern Shore Art Center, City of Fairhope. She studied sculpture with Professor Craig Wedderspoon at UA where she received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art with a concentration in sculpture in 2004. Hopkins also holds bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and business from the University of Southern Mississippi and in art from the University of Montevallo. Her website is here.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.