June 2011

Black Mountain Center for the Arts in Black Mountain, NC, Features Works byBette Bates & Karen Roberson Powell

Black Mountain Center for the Arts in Black Mountain, NC, will present the exhibit, Figurative Works in 2D and 3D, featuring works by Warren Wilson College art professors, Bette Bates and Karen Roberson Powell, on view from June 28 through July 29, 2011. A reception will be held on July 8, from 6-8pm.

This pair of artists who work in very different mediums find they have similar expressions of their work in content, color, and visual impact. They will bring together these compositions in this show.

Bates, who resides in Black Mountain, teaches drawing and printmaking at the nearby college. A graduate of Stephens College with an MFA from East Carolina University, she has also taught at Vermont College of Fine Arts, UNC-Asheville, and Eastern New Mexico University. Her art is in various collections including the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Asheville Art Museum, and Bank of America. Bates has been the recipient of arts grants from the North Carolina Arts Council Visual Fellowship, Asheville Area Arts Council Artist Project Grant, and Ucross Foundation Residency Grant (WY).

Bates expresses her interest artistically in the ways our lives are shaped by images from mythology and religion. The powerful tools of myth, religion and folk tales can be used to create meaning combining dream-like creativity with reality.

Bates writes, “I am especially attracted to the mystery evoked by images of the human face, eyes, and masks. For a number of years I have explored the archetypal image of Eve. In working with this subject I have come to have tremendous respect for the power of an image to influence the lives of millions of people for thousands of years. I don’t believe art is a luxury or on the periphery of our lives, but is, in reality, at the heart of our existence.”

Powell, who resides in Madison County, teaches Sculpture I and II, Figure Modeling, Bronze Casting and Stone Carving at Warren Wilson. She taught as a graduate student assistant while completing her MFA at UNC-Greensboro, and has taught at the University of Texas, Tyler, Salem College, and High Point College. She has been the recipient of the Howard Scholarship in Art, a Purchase Award at the Lamar Dodd Art Center, and the North Carolina Regional Artists Project Grant. In addition to her studies in this country she has studied abroad in Italy, Great Britain and Wales. Powell is currently represented at the Lindstrum-Matre Gallery in Atlanta, GA, and the Elder Art Gallery in Charlotte, NC.

Powell’s works may include from the tradition of mythology such images as “Persephone,” “Personas,” and “Odyssey,” along with universal themes as diverse as ghosts and the circus.

The exhibit will consist of drawings by Bates and bronze sculptures by Powell, showing both the juxtaposition between the two mediums and the compatibility of the subject matter.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 828/669-0930 or visit (www.blackmountainarts.org).

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