February 2014

Costello’s Piano Bar in Wilmington, NC, Offers Works by Janette K Hopper

Costello’s Piano Bar in Wilmington, NC, will present Dancing through my Blogosphere, a three part exhibition of works by Janette K Hopper.

The show takes you on a trip through Hopper’s visual blog. This exhibition will consist of three chapters: 1) Medieval nastygrams - the foibles of man, 2) Nature, the killer app, and 3) To the Cloud! Vaporware. Each portion of the trip through Hopper’s artistic Blogosphere will last for two months, with the entire trip lasting six months. You are invited to join us for the entire trip, or only part of the journey. The first chapter will open on Feb. 14, 2014, Valentine Day, with the reception held on Saturday, Feb. 15, from 6 to 9pm. Chapter One will close and the Second Chapter will open on Apr. 11, while the Third Chapter will open on June 12, and close Aug. 15.

The first chapter of this journey entitled Medieval nastygrams will feature seven large linoleum prints. These depictions of the nasty results of mankind’s weaknesses are interpretations of how a medieval printer would be struck by our society in the context of his understanding of the Seven Deadly Sins. These prints illuminate the societal ills of contemporary life and yet tie us back through time to all mankind.

In one of the prints, entitled Red Hot Lust, printed in 2012, the medieval framework shifts to form a heart, the universal symbol of love, or its darker side, lust. Stereotypes of lust are imbedded throughout the print juxtaposed with images borrowed from contemporary male fashion ads and classical art images of Goya and Rodin. Woven into the lace around the edge of the print are the symbols for man and woman. The “nastygram” part is that the punishment for lust is to burn in hellfire and brimstone. Viewing this print takes the viewer on a trip back through time, as it did for the artist as she was hand carving, rubbing and pulling this print. All of these medieval nastygrams show that life was not pretty if one is on the wrong side.

Janette K. Hopper is an active painter and printmaker living in Wilmington who was raised in Idaho in an active outdoor family. During college, she served two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Maria la Baja, Columbia, SA, and afterward was a partner running a ranch in Idaho. As a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship she spent a year teaching in Denmark, where she began to have European one-person exhibits starting in Copenhagen with a prestigious grant from Danish Fulbright. She has also taught in Germany and the United States at Columbia Basin College, WA, Central Michigan University and, as the Art Department Chair, at the University of North Carolina Pembroke.

Hopper’s paintings and prints were included in a Fulbright juried retrospective in Washington, DC, and also with New York artists in the Lincoln Center and in many other juried exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her work has been shown and collected extensively in museums, public venues, colleges and universities and in private galleries nationally and internationally including Germany, France, The Netherlands, Canada, Bulgaria, Italy and Denmark.

Located in downtown Wilmington, at 211 Princess Street, Costello’s provides a friendly venue for artists and their patrons to enjoy art and music seven days a week.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call 910/362-9666.

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