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November Issue 2005
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, Features Works by Takaaki Iwabu, Mary Shannon Johnstone, Alison Overton, Leni Newell, Randy Hinson and Its Members
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, is presenting several new exhibitions including: Fact, Family, Fantasy, Artspace Artists Association Biennial Juried Exhibition on view in Gallery 1 from Nov. 12, 2005 through Jan. 14, 2006. The exhibit features works by Takaaki Iwabu, Mary Shannon Johnstone, and Alison Overton. the show is curated by Tom Stanley, Director, Winthrop University Galleries, Rock Hill, SC; Holiday Hallway Exhibition, on view in the Artspace Hallways and Artists' Studios from Nov. 1, 2005, through Jan. 20, 2006; Building Peace featuring works by Leni Newell in the Upfront Gallery from Nov. 4 - 26, 2005; and Color Relief Prints by Randy Hinson will be on view in the Lobby from Nov. 4 - 26, 2005.
The Artspace Artists Association Biennial Exhibition features the work of three exceptional artists, Takaaki Iwabu, Shannon Johnstone, and Alison Overton. Each artist has produced clear visual statements in well-conceived bodies of work. Though all three artists have relied on photography as a chosen art form, each artist has stretched the medium in his or her own way and produced distinct artistic voices. Their images have captured momentary glimpses into the real worlds of contemporary life, family, and fantasy. This Biennial is about power of image and the ability of these artists to magnify our awareness.
Takaaki Iwabu's Drive-by America photographs are taken from a moving vehicle. During his daily drives, Iwabu will photograph fleeting views of the roadside scenery without stopping his car or even looking through the viewfinder. Iwabu aims to capture images that appeal to people's collective memory of the American landscape and re-examine the environment in which we immerse ourselves everyday.
Iwabu has been a newspaper photographer for the last ten years. A native of Yokohama, Japan, he came to the United States in 1991 for his graduate study. After earning an MA in journalism from Marshall University, he worked for The Niagara Gazette in Niagara Falls, NY (where he was often mistaken as a tourist) and The State in Columbia, SC (where he was named the state's Newspaper Photographer of the Year twice). In 2004, he moved to Raleigh, to join the staff of The News & Observer.
Mary Shannon Johnstone
Silent Home is a magnified family album full of tense, discarded exchanges between relatives, as recorded by Mary Shannon Johnstone. The series captures the emotional turmoil during the separation of her parents. Johnstone combines contemporary digital imaging with traditional format photography. By using a combination of old and new media, Johnstone references the old practice of creating a family album with a new twist - recording a history that some would rather forget.
Born in Milwaukee, WI, Johnstone holds an MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Johnstone has won several awards in group exhibitions across the country, and had solo exhibitions in Chicago, Rochester, and Raleigh. She is currently an assistant professor of art at Meredith College in Raleigh.
The inspiration for Alison Overton's most recent body of work, The Ghost Garden, came to her while viewing images of 18th century mourning jewelry. The landscapes of stately trees and exotic urns depicted on these wearable memorials to lost loved ones evoked wistful and yearning feelings in Overton - feelings which she then wished to translate into the medium of photography. This past summer, with the mourning jewelry images in mind, Overton photographed appropriate landscapes in France, England, and Wales. She then over painted the gelatin silver prints with transparent oil paints in order to further enhance their expressionistic quality.
Overton earned a degree in Environmental Design from NCSU in 1982. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, Colorado, West Virginia, South Carolina and in over sixty exhibits in North Carolina. Overton has received two Regional Artist Project Grants from the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County and her work is held in several corporate collections, including SAS Institute, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the City of Raleigh.
Exhibition curator, Tom Stanley, is a visual artist and the director of Winthrop University Galleries, in Rock Hill, SC. Stanley received an MFA in Painting and an MA in Applied Art History from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Stanley's curatorial projects have included New South Old South Somewhere In Between for Winthrop and the Levine Museum of the New South; Still Worth Keeping at the South Carolina State Museum; Portraits et Personnages in collaboration with the Collection de l'Art Brut; and, upcoming, Edge to Edge, an exhibition that focuses on the 1960s for Bank of America's Charlotte and San Francisco galleries. His own work was recently in Homegrown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary and at Gallery twenty-four in Berlin.
This past year Stanley's Floating series was exhibited at the South Carolina State Museum's Triennial and in 2004 at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. In 2002-03 he exhibited at La Galerie du Marché in Lausanne, Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre in Paris and the Halsey Gallery in Charleston.
Currently in Charlotte's Gallery at Carillon he will exhibit his latest series entitled The Neighborhood. He will also open an exhibition at Raleigh's Glance Gallery in May. His paintings have been published in New American Painting 28 and 46; The Carolinas Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Geneviève Roulin; and The Drama.
The Artspace Artists Association invites the public to visit Artspace's Holiday Exhibition. This exhibition features works by over 45 members of the Artspace Artists Association. Resident artists will present special exhibitions in their studios and non-resident members will fill the hallways with their most recent works - all unique holiday gifts! This exhibition includes a great diversity of media, from sculpture, fiber art, collage, mixed media, acrylics, oils, metalwork, ceramics and photography.
Leni Newell
Building Peace is an exploration of the basic human requirements necessary to build a peaceful coexistence, such as respect, tolerance, and cooperation. Leni Newell employs a unifying grid structure in each work, focusing on the commonalities found among all peoples, nations, and religions, rather than on the divisiveness exacerbated by our preoccupation with the subtle differences. By using vaguely discernable, subtle layers, Newell stacks up visual thoughts that invite the viewer to intimately examine the richly textured surfaces and find truths that resonate within each of us. The use of discarded bits of metal and other man made resources bring an urban feel to Newell's work that reflects her concern for the mounting chaos of industrial detritus and the need to reuse these materials.
Newell is an award winning, innovative abstract collage artist from Raleigh. Recent exhibitions include Artists of North Carolina, Fayetteville Museum of Art, Fayetteville, NC and Best Art of the Triangle, Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, NC. Newell is a recipient of a Regional Artist Project Grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County. Her work can be found in corporate collections and galleries across the United States.
Randy Hinson
Randy Hinson has always been fascinated with transparent color and the wonderful effects achieved by layering on various surfaces. Color relief printmaking both satisfies and challenges this fascination. Hinson's woodcuts are often hand pulled, producing unique variations in color. Most recently, Hinson has been juxtaposing digital images of landscapes with layers of transparent inks.
A native of Raleigh, Hinson is known primarily for his work in clay over the last 35 years. Prior to that, he was a painter and has explored a variety of other media including metals, fused glass, and fibers. Over the last five years he has explored color relief printmaking (woodcuts) fusing elements of traditional block printing with more contemporary materials. He is a full time artist and teacher and shares his studio with his silky terrier, Simon.
Artspace is a non-profit visual art center dedicated to presenting quality exhibitions and education programs in an open-studio environment. Artspace is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts; by the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, with funds from the United Arts campaign and the Grassroots Arts Program of the North Carolina Arts Council; by the City of Raleigh based on recommendations of the Raleigh Arts Commission; and by individuals; businesses; corporations; and private foundations.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call Artspace at 919/821-2787 or at (www.artspacenc.org).
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