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May Issue 2004
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, Features New Round of Exhibitions
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, is presenting three exhibitions including: In the Midst, featuring works by Kathy Ammon in the Upfront Gallery from May 7 - 29, 2004; Circumventing the Pigment, featuring works by André Leon Gray in Artspaces' Lobby, from May 7 - 29, 2004; and, Killing Modern, featuring works by Scott Eagle in Gallery 1, from May 7 - June 26, 2004.
In the uncertain world in which we live, with its increasingly frantic pace, there is a need for restoration of the soul; a desire to slow down and reconnect to one another; a longing for a new perspective. Over the past several years, Kathy Ammon has been on a personal quest to seek out a deeper, more spiritual life. On this search she has experienced a renewal of faith that has inspired many of her paintings. This new work is Ammon's reflection on love and spirituality.
Ammon was born in Spartanburg, SC. Growing up in the south, in a large and supportive family, she gives credit to her childhood for her passion for creating work that expresses the importance of love and relationships. She studied the visual arts with a focus on painting and printmaking through combined studies at the University of South Carolina and the University of Texas at Dallas. After graduation in 1983, Ammon mentored with Frits van Eeden, a renowned artist from The Hague, Netherlands, for several years.
Since 1988, Ammon has been working as a professional artist, exhibiting and selling her work through private galleries and exhibitions. She moved to Raleigh in 1994 and was juried into Artspace in 1997 where she currently maintains a studio. Her work is included in many corporate and private collections, including the NC High School Athletic Association, Walt Disney World International, Xavier Roberts, SAS Institute, Glenview Corporation, Canada, and The Alliance for Children Everywhere, Africa.
André Leon Gray is a self-taught artist, born and raised in Raleigh. He has been exhibiting his mixed media assemblages and installations for seven years throughout the Carolinas, including at the Rocky Mount Arts Center, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, Duke University, the Allcott Gallery, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Hyman Fine Arts Center, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC.
Gray was awarded a Regional Artist Project Grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, and was the inaugural artist in the six-month Regional Emerging Artist-In-Residence Program at Artspace. He also participated in the Raleigh Red Wolf Ramble public art project, and in 2003 received an Indies Triangle Arts Award from the Independent Weekly for his contribution to the local art community.
In 2003 Gray was selected by Eleanor Heartney, a New York art critic and curator, as one of 54 southeastern artists to exhibit in Thresholds: Expressions of Art & Spiritual Life, which opened in Charleston, SC, and will travel to Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida until Spring 2006. Gray's work is in many public collections, including the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, Duke University, and the Four Sisters Gallery Permanent Collection of Contemporary Self-taught Art, NC Wesleyan College, Rocky Mount, NC.
Killing Modern, features paintings drawings, prints and mixed media work by Scott Eagle. The explores issues of personal spirituality and psychology through symbolic imagery derived from dreams, mythology, artistic masterworks, and universal archetypes. Eagle's works are tangible responses to life itself; each work consists of his thoughts, emotions, and expressions. He uses metaphor, allegory, dream content, art history, comic books, doodles, trash, ashes, and blood. Eagle notes that "anything that enters life may enter my work."
Eagle is an Assistant Professor of Painting
and Drawing at East Carolina University. His artwork and illustrations
have been exhibited and reproduced internationally. Recent exhibitions
include the Durham Arts Guild 45th Annual Juried Show (selected
for a solo exhibition by juror Fay Gold), The Florida International
2003/Combined Talents Juried Arts Competition, Florida State
University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, (Honorable Mention),
and the 18th Biennial Exhibition/Contemporary Works of Faith,
The Schumacher Gallery, Capital University, Columbus, OH (Special
Merit Commendations). In 2002 Eagle was selected by Sean Kelly,
director of Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO, as one of "twenty-three
of North Carolina's most innovative artists." His work was
exhibited in a show Kelly curated at the Green Hill Center for
North Carolina Art, Greensboro, NC. In 1999 Elizabeth Armstrong,
Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego
selected him for the North Carolina Artist's Exhibition at the
North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.
Artspace is a non-profit visual art center dedicated to presenting
quality exhibitions and education programs in an open-studio environment.
Guided tours of exhibitions and artist studios are available for
groups of 10 or more. Artspace is fully handicap accessible to
persons with disabilities. Needs will be accommodated upon request.
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 919/821-2787 or at (www.artspacenc.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 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© 2004 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.