| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
October Issue
2009
North Carolina
Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, Features Works by Fred
Johnston and Carol Gentithes
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, will present the exhibit, To Prey or Not to Prey, featuring works by Fred Johnston and Carol Gentithes, co-owners of Johnston and Gentithes Studios in Seagrove, NC, on view at Museum's Nature Art Gallery from Oct. 2 through Nov. 1, 2009.
When talking to the artists about their work they both describe it in terms of storytelling and refer to a visual "language" that they each employ, albeit with startlingly different results. If they are using the same language it is with different dialects. Growing up in the rural South gave Johnston unfettered access to its rich history and colorful characters. Cross fertilize that with a fascination with Greek, Korean, Chinese and Pre-Columbian cultures and you get a playful mix of motifs and artistic styles. His origins in clay are rooted in the Southern folk pottery tradition and he is always striving to extend that tradition. Johnston's pots tell stories in his personal language of the forms and motifs he has developed by exploring paintings, architecture, literature and sculpture. "I rely on intuition, spontaneity and what is visceral as a mode of creating, and believe that a pot truly reveals itself over time and use," says Johnston. "Only through deep investigation can one begin to internalize their ideas into a growing personal vision."
Gentithes is best known for her unique sculptures, which she hand builds using clay coils to make animal forms that she then decorates with image transfers. There is often a narrative thread to her work that can veer into satire about subjects ranging from nature to humankind to politics. "To me art is a visual language. The origins of my artistic language emanate from life's experiences, readings of literature and mythology, and visual interpretations of art history," says Gentithes. "I leave it with the viewer to derive their personal interpretations."
Though their work differs markedly from one another there is considerable overlap in their respective resumes. Both have earned degrees from Alfred University's prestigious College of Ceramics. Both have exhibited separately or together at the Gregg Museum, (North Carolina State University in Raleigh), Mint Museum Potters Market, (Charlotte, NC), SECCA (Winston-Salem, NC), Blue Spiral 1 (Asheville, NC) and the Smithsonian Craft Exhibition, (Washington, DC). Charlotte Brown featured the duo in her book, The Remarkable Potters of Seagrove and the City of Greensboro commissioned each of them for work to go in the new City Center Park.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call 919/733-7450,
ext. 360 or visit (http://www.naturalsciences.org/museum-store/nature-art-gallery).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2009 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2009 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.