November 2011

Flood Gallery & Fine Arts Center in Asheville, NC, Features Exhibit of Contemporary Artists of WNC

In an important collaborative effort, Flood Gallery & Fine Arts Center, located at Phil Mechanic Studios in Asheville, NC, and Bold Life Magazine bring together nine outstanding contemporary artists from Western North Carolina. Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Polk, and Transylvania counties all put forth their best in cutting edge, contemporary art. The exhibit, Uncharted Waters, will be on view in the Flood Gallery, from Nov. 6 - 30, 2011. A reception will be held on Nov. 5, from 7-10pm.

Werner Haker was born in Hamburg, Germany. He spent his childhood in New York City. And at age 17, he apprenticed as draftsman with Manuel Pauli, a leading architectural firm in Zurich, Switzerland. Between 1965 and 1972, Haker served internships with Philip Johnson, Architect, New York City, and with various Zurich firms. And between 1970 and 1974, he traveled extensively, studying art and architecture in Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Japan and Brazil. Haker has been living in Brevard, North Carolina since 1995 where he has established residence. For the last decade, Haker has worked full time as an artist.

Margaret Curtis was represented for 10 years by P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York City. Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. She was included in The Figure: Another Side of Modernism at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Bad Girls at The New Museum in New York and other major group shows. She has also shown at Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, The Huntington Beach Art Center in California, and Salama Caro Gallery of London. She taught painting at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Curtis is the recipient of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale Summer School of Art and the Predmore Award from Duke University. Curtis currently lives with her family, in Tryon, NC.

Timothy Jacobs was born in Canton, NC. He earned a full scholarship and an undergraduate and Masters degree in Art from Western Carolina University. Jacobs spent the next three decades working for the University. He opened Chelsea Gallery at WCU, where he was Director of the University Center. Jacobs has shown his work regionally, and with the Spring Mills Juried Traveling Exhibition during which his work was exhibited in 15 galleries across the country. His work is in the permanent collection of Western Carolina University, Spring Mills, Inc., and the University of North Texas. Jacobs currently lives in WNC.

Melissa Terrezza is an undergraduate research scholar from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She has shown work regionally, as well as with Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, AL; and Iron and Ice, Vail, CO. As a visiting artist, Terrezza has lectured at the Odyssey School in Asheville, has performed at the Black Mountain College Museum’s popular Re-Happening, and was a recipient of the Arrowmont Scholarship. She has also been a model for Lark Books. She currently works from her studio in the Phil Mechanic Studios Building in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Laszlo Hamori was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1963. At the age of seventeen he fled Communist Hungary and lived in Italy, immigrating to Toronto, Canada, and eventually, to Hendersonville, NC. He studied Architectural Technology & Visual Art at George Brown and Seneca Colleges in Toronto. He later studied at the International Academy of Art & Design, completing his program in Interior Design. He moved to North Carolina in 1999. Hamori’s work has been exhibited at the Circle Gallery, Toronto, Canada; Art 4 AIDS Benefit, Toronto, Canada; Dinner with the Stars for F.A.C.E. Aids, Toronto, Canada; Museum of Modern Art, Miami, USA; and the National Museum of Art, Budapest, Hungary.

Daniel Smith grew up travelling with his father who was in the Air Force. A self-taught artist, Smith spent twenty-five years in graphic design and design production. After visiting a friend at Penland, he moved to Hendersonville and became a full time artist. He has been a featured artist for the Appalachian Artisan Society and has exhibited his work at the Cazbah in Greenville, SC; the Anderson Arts Center; The Urban Loft, Asheville; and the Greenville, SC, Art In The Park. Smith currently works from his studio in Hendersonville.

Sean Pace holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina. His work has been shown at the Miami Art Basel, at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts in Winston Salem, NC, and at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, to name a few. Pace has lectured at the University of Colorado and Perdue University. He also was accepted at the Rhode Island School of Design, and respectfully declined, and most recently received an invitation to bring his work to the Florence Biennale. Pace works from one of his studios at the Phil Mechanic Studios building in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Jimmy O’Neal holds a Masters in Fine Arts Degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He recently completed a large-scale commissioned installation at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, GA, entitled The Nine Muses. Along with O’Neal’s multiple group and solo exhibitions with the Bill Lowe Gallery in both Atlanta and Santa Monica, CA, he has exhibited widely throughout the East Coast at such respected institutions as the Nexus Center for Contemporary Art, the South East Center for Contemporary Art and the Rose Art Museum in Waltham, MA. O’Neal currently works from his studio in Madison County, North Carolina.

Nathan Green is a classically trained cabinet-maker, designer and self-taught artist, working in mediums ranging from wood to Plexiglas. Over the past fifteen years, Green has completed hundreds of commissioned works and installations for clients across the Southeast. After attending Georgia State University, where he pursued a degree in philosophy, he moved to Asheville in 1997 to apprentice with well renowned cabinet-maker Carl Giesenschlag at Wildwood Studios. His current works include commissioned furniture, etchings in wood, polycarbonate, Corian as well as collaborative installations. Green is currently adapting a vacant school in Alexander into studios, exhibition and performance space and resides on a small farm in Madison County, NC, with his wife and children.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 828/255-0066 or visit (www.philmechanicstudios.com).

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