The All in Everything, Ink on paper, 3.3 x 7', 2025 © Image courtesy of the artist.
We are pleased to share that the North Carolina Museum of Art at Winston-Salem is going to hold FQM artist Brandon Sadler’s solo exhibition “Brandon Sadler: The Path of Totality” from July 10th to Dec. 27th, 2025, at Potter Gallery. An opening reception will be held Thursday, July 10th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with remarks at 6:30 p.m. A curator tour through Sadler’s exhibition led by curator Maya Brooks will also be held on October 9th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Gallery, with tickets included with exhibition admission.
© Image courtesy of the artist.
The Path of Totality is an ongoing episodic narrative series made up of figurative and calligraphic works that reflect Sadler's diverse passion for storytelling and East Asian art forms.
With his unique adaptation of calligraphy, Sadler transforms the exhibition space into an immersive journey of mastering ink through the Three Perfections: poetry, painting, and calligraphy, valued by ancient Chinese literati as a crucial process of culminating one’s inner spirit. Emerged from his Single Word Character system of calligraphy, Sadler’s method for this series is embedded in his background in American graffiti, text design, and meticulous research into Chinese calligraphy. For each Single Word Character, the artist restructures the English letters into the format of Chinese script and then translates them into the positional logic of brushstrokes, resulting in a semiotic system capable in multiple writing styles to express tone and emotion. Such a method sees an evolving index in the calligraphic pieces in this exhibition.
© Image courtesy of the artist.
Sadler’s world-building for The Path of Totality combines calligraphy with figurative painting––the series explores a mythical universe inhabited by beings who can cultivate cosmic energy and create realities via written language. Each character in The Path of Totality mythos possesses a distinctive calligraphy style that reflects their origins, identity, and their ability to shape reality.
The Laws of Light, Ink on paper, 7 x 5', 2025 © Image courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition at NCMA Winston Salem features the first installment of The Path of Totality series–– Chapter One: Bathed in Shadow. The exhibition introduces a primordial memory of a world suspended in total solar eclipse. In this realm, the cosmic Laws of Light are born from darkness. The thematic core of this chapter is supreme love; an all-pervading, transcendent force that brings the beings of this world into existence. Quotes from literature, music, and film—reinterpreted through Single Word Character calligraphy—anchor each painting with emotional and thematic resonance.
© Image courtesy of the artist.
Brandon Sadler is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his BFA in illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Sadler is renowned for his calligraphy, public murals, installations, and performance art. In February 2025, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art hosted his first solo exhibition in New York “Along the Way: Transforming the Traditional” which responded to the global intermingling of tradition and innovation. In addition to contributing to fine arts institutions, he has partnered with several major brands and commercial ventures, including multiple features in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther series.
