October 2013

Lark & Key Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Features Group Exhibition

Lark & Key Gallery and Boutique in Charlotte, NC, presents Rooted: Perspectives Of The Natural World, on view from Oct. 4 through Nov. 30, 2013.

Rooted is a mixed-media exhibition featuring works by Vicki Essig, Lotta Helleberg, Duy Huynh, Michael Kline, Sawyer Rose and Angie Renfro. The idea of being ‘rooted’ is expressed through references and use of natural elements, as well as origins and connection to place.

Vicki Essig is fascinated with light and translucency, the contrast between the fragile, and the strong. The Asheville, NC, based artist creates fine hand-woven fiber weavings that incorporate small found objects. Her approach to composition, texture and presentation shows the small and delicate as the powerful and significant. Essig hopes that the viewer may “become lost in the discovery of the minute, the quiet of repetition, and the beauty of nature and pattern.”

Lotta Helleberg is a Swedish born artist and designer currently living in Charlottesville, VA. After a career as a graphic artist she began experimenting with textile printing. Her current work focuses on documenting nature from her immediate surroundings. Helleberg uses local plants for fabric dyes and also includes them in natural printing techniques such as leaf and eco printing. The resulting impressions are incorporated into art quilts, textile collages and other objects. Rooted will feature a collection of Helleberg’s handmade artist books.

Charlotte, NC, painter Duy Huynh has an ongoing interest in the symbolism and natural narratives of trees and plant-life. From limbs aspiring to touch the skies to roots holding their ground, the familiar image of the tree offers a multitude of metaphorical storylines that evoke a sense of history and introspection.

Michael Kline is a full time studio pottery from Bakersville, NC. Kline fires his stoneware pots in a kiln designed to fire exclusively with remainder/waste wood from local lumber mills. The local stoneware he uses features botanical themes as well as traditional glass “runs” and alkaline ash glaze.

A transplant from Charlotte, NC, Sawyer Rose currently lives in Fairfax, CA. The diversity and beauty of the landscape inspired her to begin her ‘Native’ series, mixed media light boxes and metalworks that pay homage to naturally occurring plant species of the area. For this exhibit Rose has returned to her roots, creating artwork that focuses on plants native to North Carolina and South Carolina.

Chicago, IL, based artist Angie Renfro chooses subject matter, such as her life-sized weed series that explores the ordinary and often overlooked. Working in an often-subdued palette and a deliberately blurred style, Renfro captures the spirit of her subjects and challenges the notion of what is considered beautiful.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/334-4616 or visit (www.larkandkey.com).

[ | October 2013 | Feature Articles | Download Carolina Arts' Current Issue | Carolina Arts Unleashed | Home | ]