ABOUT

Fried Fruit Art Space is an artist-run gallery. We are committed to education and freedom of expression. Housed in a retired cargo container, our space functions as a storefront. Fried Fruit is in the growing Cargo District, surrounded by small businesses, entrepreneurs and local restaurants. Day or night, anyone can approach the floor-to-ceiling glass window and view our exhibitions. 

Fried Fruit’s footprint is a mere 150 square feet. The smallness is appealing and unintimidating, allowing exhibiting artists to conceptualize and execute an idea freely. Fried Fruit Art Space serves as a great jumping-off point to realize long-thought-about projects. Past collaborators have used this cargo container to push their practice to explore processes and concepts formerly out of reach. These unique exhibitions function as a proof of concept that allows an artist to propose future shows to larger establishments.

gallery layout

MISSION STATEMENT

Fried Fruit is a space for artists, curators, educators, and students to explore and experiment.  Our focus is to showcase conceptual art, championing work that breaks away from traditional expectations of what art should be. We want viewers to think deeply about the artists’ motivation behind their work. Fried Fruit serves as an educational tool, offering the community access to lectures from visiting artists of all backgrounds. The gallery highlights a range of disciplines in hopes of expanding our community’s understanding of what art can be. Art is research, process, material, emotion, storytelling . . . 

CONNECT

︎ friedfruitart@gmail.com
︎ friedfruitartgallery
︎ friedfruitartspace.substack


︎ freshAF

NEWSLETTER

Stay in the know about upcoming shows and events!

Land Acknowledgement:

Fried Fruit Art Space is located in Wilmington, NC. We acknowledge that the land we occupy was that of the Waccamaw and the Cape Fear People, known now as the Skarure Woccon, who lived in this area from as early as 10,000 BC. The Waccamaw’s land stretched along North and South Carolina, living along the Cape Fear, Pee Dee, and Waccamaw Rivers. 

In 1749, war erupted between the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe and the state of South Carolina. This assault forced the Waccamaw Siouan people to relocate from an area near Charleston, SC. They currently reside 37 miles from Wilmington, NC. The Waccamaw Siouan Tribe celebrates culture, art, language, and community. The non-profit organization Waccamaw Siouan Tribe, Inc. works towards solutions to problems affecting the welfare of the Waccamaw Siouan people. Waccamaw Siouan Tribe, Inc. also allocates financial assistance from government resources to improve the livelihood of Tribal members.

The Skarure People were a small, coastal tribe who lived along the Cape Fear River. Their lands ranged from the piedmont region of North Carolina, all the way to what is now New Hanover County. British colonizers documented encounters with the Skarure People as early as 1662. The local population suffered many hardships at the hands of these invaders, including an outbreak of smallpox that decimated the native population, from an estimated 1,000 to just 206. After the war of Tuscarora from 1711-1713, the remaining Skarure were split, absorbed into neighboring tribes. The descendants of those who stayed behind stand strong together, still living in the swamp lands of North Carolina. 

Fried Fruit shares this brief synopsis in the hopes of spreading awareness to the history of the land we occupy. None of our lives here would be possible without the sacrifice and hardship endured by the indigenous populations of what is now the United States. 

“It is important to understand the longstanding history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation.” - Northwestern University

Below are resources on the history and current practices of the Waccamaw Siouan and Skarure Woccon. We encourage our readers to perform their due diligence and educate themselves on the history of the land we occupy.