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July Issue 2005
Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, Features Works by Rene Culler, Todd Drake, and Landscape Artists
The Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, is presenting several exhibitions including: Rene Culler: High Fire, featuring kiln-transformed glass by Rene Culler in theWoodson and Osborne Galleries, on view through Aug. 27, 2005; Todd Drake: Et al, featuring paintings by Todd Drake in the Young People's Gallery, on view through Aug. 24, 2005; and Uplands: Landscape Interpretations, featuring a juried show of diverse media in the Norvell Gallery, on view through Aug. 27, 2005.
Rene Culler of Cleveland, OH, creates sculpture by designing, blowing, and casting glass objects. Her glass work includes chalices, seen as adaptations of the Holy Grail in her Grail Variations series, geometric shapes, and wall pieces, all of which are the artist's interpretations of the legendary journey in search of the Holy Grail.
Within Culler's overall Grail theme, each type, or grouping, of work represents a different element of the journey. For instance, as the artist explains, "the Grail Variations series is based on my research into Grail mythology, early glass history, and medieval esoteric philosophy, all (of which are) linked to the Tarot and initially inspired by the poetry of William Butler Yeats," whereas her Grail Geometry group is "based on the geometry of the Grail myth, disorder within order." In addition to delving into the mythologies and themes of the Grail, Culler also examines more concrete and immediate cultural issues that exist today, such as those that concern women.
Culler has exhibited her work professionally since 1993 in nearly one dozen states and internationally, including as a participant in an invitational show at The Montcada Taller in Barcelona, Spain. Since earning her MFA in glass from Kent State, OH, in the mid-1990s, she has received five awards for her work, including two Individual Artist's Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, the Emerging Artist of the Year Award from the Southern Florida Collector's Alliance, and two Professional Development Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, one of which allowed her to travel to Spain and France where she was able to cultivate her talents as an artist.
Culler has also been commissioned by numerous organizations and businesses since 1997 to create original glass works, including current works-in-progress installations in Grand Rapids, MI, Philadelphia, PA, and San Diego,CA.
Uplands: Landscape Interpretations is Waterworks' first regional juried show in several years. Entries were to focus on the subject of landscape, to explore the artist's relationship to the natural world as a sense of place and visual aesthetic. Artists were given the freedom to use any media of their choice to express their personal perceptions and interpretations of a landscape. Juror Ron Platt of Asheville, NC, selected a total of thirty-two (32) pieces for the show, with the media including watercolor, pastel, graphite, monoprint/plexi, encaustic print, oil paint, photography, acrylic paint, oil pastel, and mixed media artwork.
Twenty (20) artists from across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are represented in this exhibition. These artists include Kelly Adams, Robert Bailey, Carolyn Blalock, Sue Moser Boggs, Henry Fagen, Andrea Gomez, Chris Ippolito, Jan Kinslowe, Tulla Lightfoot, Soni Martin, Tim McMahon, Lou Murphy, Karen Parker, James O. Phelps, Cara Reische, Nancy Rogers, Walter Shroyer, Dan Smith, Pat Spainhour, and Adele Wayman.
Greensboro, NC, artist Todd Drake's Et al series is collaborative, employing the help of others, including exotic dancers, Alzheimer patients, cashiers, etc., in the initial creation of each piece. Drake asks them to "contribute doodles which I use as beginning points in each work. Some contributed elements remain throughout the painting process while others are consumed or evolve into new elements." While this method is unusual and unique, the purpose behind it is poignant.
Drake explains that the process of inviting others to, in a way, lay the foundation for his artwork, "makes visible the profound moments when one person meets another and (both) are forever affected by that meeting. I believe it is these meetings, both long lasting and brief, that most profoundly shape who we become as humans." The process of creation of his artwork, as well as the end result, captures those moments of often subconscious psychological and emotional evolution and brings them to the surface for all to see, exposing that which resonates inside us as individuals to the rest of the world.
Drake earned his BA in biology from UNC-Chapel Hill and his MFA in painting from UNC-Greensboro. He has exhibited his work professionally since 1997 in both solo and group exhibitions and has been the recipient of several awards, grants, and honors, including, most recently, the Rockefeller Fellowship at the University for International Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill for 2004-2005.
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Waterworks Visual Arts Center's funded by individual memberships, corporations and businesses, foundations, the City of Salisbury, Rowan County, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities, supports the Waterworks Visual Arts Center.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at
704/636-1882 or at (www.waterworks.org).
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