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June Issue 2004
Upstairs Gallery in Tryon, NC, Reopens with Three Exhibits
The Upstairs Gallery, Tryon, NC's esteemed contemporary art gallery, has reopened in a handsome new facility at 49 S. Trade Street next to the Tryon movie theater. The gallery recently completed a total renovation of one of Tryon's historic main street buildings, providing the non-profit institution with three distinct galleries and more than 3000 square feet of exhibition space.
"In our 26 years of operation the Upstairs has never had room to offer more than one exhibit at a time," says Nancy Holmes, executive director. "The spacious new gallery gives us flexibility and the chance to showcase many more artists."
The Street Gallery, a large gallery on the top floor, contains Organic Visions, with new works by artists Dusty Benedict, Page Davis, Michael Newman and Preston Orr, on view through June 26, 2004.
Benedict is a well-known painter from Swannanoa, NC, where he teaches art at Warren Wilson College. His large canvases are a delicious flow and swirl of sensuous colors evocative of a tropical rain forest. Benedict is in the permanent collections of the Asheville Art Museum and the Andrew Ritchie Collection, New Canaan, CT.
Davis, who lives in Tryon, has an MA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design and is represented by the Solomon Fine Art Gallery in Seattle. Like Benedict, Davis draws inspiration from nature but her lines are more whimsical, almost naive, and her sense of color is very "hip". This is her first major exhibit in the Carolinas.
Newman works with steel and fabric to create large interactive sculpture that is both indoor and outdoor. He is a practicing architect who divides time between Greensboro, NC, and Charleston, SC.
Orr is a Savannah, GA, artist who works on fiberglass with collage and paint to make densely layered paintings which often appear translucent. For creative effect he favors odd materials such as caviar, hay and dirt. Orr has exhibited at Hodges-Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC.
At the front of the Upstairs Gallery is an intimate space, the Small Works Gallery, designed for art and craft of diminutive dimensions. Artists featured here for the opening are Guntram Gersch and Joel Wilkinson, painting; Jennifer Gilomen, encaustic; Sharon Tesche, ceramic art; Patricia Samuels, fiber art; as well as Benedict and Davis. These works will be on view through June 26, 2004.
A large staircase descends from the top floor to the commodious Stage Gallery which artist Janet Orselli has filled with her riveting installation, Visceral Realities. Specializing in installation work, Orselli likes to juxtapose natural and manmade objects in startling ways to encourage the viewer to see line, texture, form and meaning with the eyes of a child. For example, a bed's mattress is made of birds' nests; a set of carving knives has feathers for blades. The Columbia, SC, resident has exhibited widely in South Carolina and Georgia. The exhibit will continue through June 26, 2004.
The Upstairs Gallery had humble beginnings in 1978 when young artist Craig Pleasants saw the need for a contemporary art gallery in North Carolina to support talented emerging artists. He opened the Upstairs in the upstairs bedrooms of his rented home near downtown Tryon. Many of the artists he exhibited in the early years went on to fame and fortune - artists like Jenny Holzer and David Sedaris.
After two more "upstairs" locations during the early 1980s, the gallery moved into a ground-floor space next to Tryon's police department. By then the gallery was highly respected throughout the region for innovative exhibits of experimental art, so the name "upstairs" was retained.
Throughout the 1990s the gallery grew in many ways, including the number of annual exhibits, a full calendar of art-related programming, extended business hours, a healthy membership and a vision to take the gallery to a level of national recognition.
"The move to the new facility is a quantum leap," says Paul Johansson, president of the board of directors. "We intend to be a world-class gallery and a destination for all people who love and appreciate excellence in contemporary art and craft."
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/859-2828 or at (www.upstairsgallery.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.