July 2011

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, Features Works by Alison Overton and Jenny Eggleston

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, will present the exhibit, Sweets From a Stranger, featuring photography by Alison Overton, on view in the Artspace Lobby from July 9 through Aug. 27, 2011, and Blind Eye, featuring works by Jenny Eggleston, on view in the Upfront Gallery, from July 9 through Aug. 27, 2011. A reception for both exhibits will be held on Aug. 5, from 6-10pm.

Created in 2010 and 2011, Sweets from a Stranger is a series of forty small artworks showcasing NC artist Alison Overton’s continuing exploration of the digital photography medium. All of the dolls and other curious objects in the photographs are items that Overton found over the past three years while clearing out her childhood home in Vance County, NC.

Overton has posed the dolls with local plants and flowers, along with non-threatening deceased animals to visually communicate her ideas of long-ago children quietly playing, daydreaming, imagining, and manifesting their personal toy-worlds. Overton believes that children, uninfluenced by adults’ fears and ideas, possess free and fearless imaginations, and are unafraid of what adults judge to be forbidden.

A native of NC and life-long artist, Overton has been photographing since 1980. She is a 1982 graduate of North Carolina State University with a bachelor degree in environmental design. She was awarded Regional Artists Project Grants for 2002, 2004, and 2008 from the NC Arts Council, the Sarah Toy Everett scholarship to study at the Penland School of Crafts, and was a finalist for the 2008 North Carolina Arts Fellowship.

Overton’s work has been exhibited in NY, MA, MD, IN, CO, CA, VA, WV, SC, VT, PA, TX, and NC. Collections include Gregg Museum of Art & Design, NCSU; Louisburg College; Saks Fifth Avenue; SAS Industries; Dr. Lucy Daniels; The City of Raleigh; and Credit Suisse Bank Boston.

Jenny Eggleston notes that our world is a complex interrelated system of calculated risks, where the dominate carbon life form fuels their culture on the primordial sludge of their past. In an oil-spill-induced effort to understand this crazy yin-yang, love-hate dance we have with the carbon molecule, Eggleston’s drawings of the natural world are drawn in carbon graphite, and then fired up by rocket fuel. Others are smeared or besmirched by this valuable goo that fuels our collective addiction.

For her exhibition, Carbon Load, Eggleston took some seriously calculated risks with her drawings. She invited Matthew Stromberg to use his choice of petroleum based fuels to “dance” with her graphite drawings. The drawings will become products of alteration and could be destroyed. The artists are not sure what will happen until the dust settles. Further due to the nature of the process, the images will continue to change over time, similarly “to the coastline of Louisiana,” as noted by Eggleston.

Eggleston has been creating surrealistic drawings based on the natural world both in its pristine and damaged (or destroyed) condition.

Eggleston received a BA from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, and did graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. She also studied abroad in Cortona, Italy through the University of Georgia. Eggleston is the owner of Egg in Nest Art Studio, providing instruction in drawing, painting, and art appreciation. She has recently exhibited at the Weatherspoon Museum’s ART on Paper Exhibition, Greensboro, NC, and has a show this fall at the Block Gallery, Raleigh, NC.

Artspace, a thriving visual art center located in downtown Raleigh, brings the creative process to life through inspiring and engaging education and community outreach programming, a dynamic environment of over 30 professional artists studios, and nationally acclaimed exhibitions. Approximately 95 artists hold professional memberships in the Artspace Artists Association. Thirty-five of these artists have studios located at Artspace, Artspace is located in Historic City Market in Raleigh at the corner of Blount and Davie Streets.

Artspace is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, the Raleigh Arts Commission, individuals, corporations, and private foundations.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call Artspace at 919/821-2787 or visit (www.artspacenc.org).

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