UPCOMING
EXHIBITS
Element 6 – Carbon, Drawing Life
Main Gallery
August 8 – October 10, 2020
Element 6 features the work of three graphite and charcoal artists Chris Blackmon, Chelsie Murfee, and Kim Taggart. In their work, they pay homage to traditional studio skills but build upon them with their own innovative techniques. The exhibit explores fundamental drawing, with a slow and painstaking understanding of form, values, and light. The sixth element, Carbon, is the element that binds us together, and carefully constructs life on the page through the delicate layering and blending of values.
Blackmon is a hyperrealism, charcoal pencil artist. He enjoys his art form (realism) because in the process of recreating an image on paper, he also experiences the thoughts and feelings experienced in the moment, while inspiring new ones as well in the viewer. Murfee’s work explores the human connection, the story of life and love, through realism. The process begins by capturing time, isolating the story hidden inside a second. The work deconstructs the moment, quietly understand it, and then gently maps the light cascading around each form.
Taggart has an enthusiasm for graphite medium above all. Her discoveries of new graphite tools led her to take pencil to a whole new level, defned as “Extreme Graphite.” She developed a technique of smooth, precisionist saturation of tones influenced by modern American artists from the late 1920s and 1930s.
Angel Brame: Repurpose, Reengineer, Relocate
Main Gallery
August 8 – October 10, 2020
Artist Angel Brame explains her upcoming exhibit in the Upstairs Gallery:
“The premise is to take regular objects, typically vintage, that have been tossed aside and have critters ‘MacGyver’ them as a means of escaping their current habitats. As much as possible I make each piece from clay. I am predominately a wheel thrower and tend to start my planning processes in the round. I will add whatever is necessary to make the found object move, i.e. wheels, wings, turbos, propellers, etc. I started with a goal of 26 pieces, each named or titled for every letter of the alphabet. This is a way to show progression from the first piece to the last. The project is a direct result of my 2017 challenge of creating one piece per day, every day, for one year. Some of the pieces from the 2017 challenge had legs, wheels, wings, etc. While that initial challenge revolved around functional pieces, the logical next step was to push those pieces in new directions on a bigger scale with less boundaries. The result is a series of sculptures inspired by teapots with wheels and oil cans with tentacles.”
Family Secrets: The Storytelling Art of Steve Head
Regional Gallery
August 8 – October 10, 2020
“Few would disagree that life can be hard and this world can be cruel. Many of us bear inward scars (and sometimes unhealed spiritual wounds) that can go a lifetime – unseen by the rest of the world. I believe we ALL have an untold story. This exhibit represents a few of those stories! Many come from my own family history and from my own personal experiences. I am hopeful that my art can not only inspire conversations about hard to talk about issues, but give you permission to tell your own story as well.”
– Steve Head, Artist
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