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August Issue 2005
Wilkes Art Gallery in North Wilkesboro, NC, Offers New Exhibits for the Summer
The Wilkes Art Gallery in North Wilkesboro, NC, is presenting several exhibits including: New Works, featuring works by Andy Andrews, Dan Allegrucci, Ashley Lathe and Jon Tarleton, and Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, featuring dolls by Gail McNeill. Both exhibitions are on view through Sept. 10, 2005.
The exhibit, New Works, will include a variety of prints and etchings as well as watercolor and acrylic paintings. Each of the featured artists are residents of the Charlotte, NC, area and has ties to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Andy Andrews is a perpetual student, and is currently finishing a BFA in printmaking at the UNC-Charlotte. He is a printmaker, painter, ceramicist, tile maker and installer, who also is game for about any media he runs into. Of his work, Andrews writes, "Some of the work is designed to evoke personal emotional responses through the use of symbols, color, or the lack of it, and archetypal characters. These works are narrative and suggest stories that may be common to us all. Andrews and his wife, Jan, live in Concord, NC, with their daughter, son, and a bunch of pets.
Dan Allegrucci earned his BFA in printmaking in 1998 for UNC-Charlotte and pursued graduate studies in Wichita, KS. In addition to being a fine art printmaker, he has worked professionally as a flexographic press operator, pre-press technician and web designer. Allegrucci comments, "Primarily, I enjoy reducing imagery to it essential elements. Printmaking is the perfect medium for this kind of reduction, as most of its techniques favor visual simplicity." He currently lives and works in Charlotte, NC.
Ashley Lathe is a working artist living in Charlotte with his wife and son. He graduated from East Carolina University in 1992 in graphic design and worked for the next few years within that field. Today, he teaches classes in art and spends his time producing his own works. Of his works, Lathe says, "I try to impart the 'of the moment' quality through brevity and gesture, best created for me through drawing and painting. My serigraphic works are essentially drawings applied to screens then printed, building layers of gestural drawing to realize the image. The medium of watercolor is made for spontaneity and is the perfect vehicle for realizing my goals."
Jon Tarleton lives in Charlotte. He earned a degree in anthropology at Davidson College in 1990, and a BFA, concentrating in printmaking, at UNC-Charlotte in 2003. Of his art, Tarleton writes, "I work quite structurally, hoping to connect with the viewer on a common-sense, 'this looks correct' level. The structure is visual and intellectual, compositional and conceptual." Lathe's wife and baby daughter, along with the desire to make art, are and will remain the driving forces of his life.
Gail McNeill was born in Louisiana, grew up in Mississippi and came to North Carolina to graduate school at Chapel Hill. After studying in France, she taught at Wake Forest and UNC-Greensboro. Thirty six years ago she married into a Wilkes County family. McNeill has two grown sons and a daughter-in-law. In writing about her dolls, McNeill says, "My professional training has been in French language and literature; many of my dolls explore these themes. I want my dolls to be more than dolls; I want my dolls to call to mind persons (real or fictional) or stories from my past - such as my mother's story of getting caught on a picket fence - or from literature - such as Shakespeare's sister (who really wrote all those plays) or Signora Psyche Zenobia from E.A. Poe."
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 336/667-2841 or at (www.wilkesartgallery.org).
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