September 2011

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, Features Four New Exhibitions

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, will present several new exhibits including: Red and White and Black, featuring works by Tom Stanley, on view in Gallery 1, from Sept. 10 through Nov. 5, 2011; Memory, Myth, & Meaning, featuring works by Lauren Schiller, Jane Terry, and Susan Watson, on view in Gallery Two from Sept. 17 through Oct. 29, 2011 (these two exhibits will have a reception on Oct. 7, from 6-10pm); Art Forms in Nature, featuring works by Megan Clark and Anna Podris, on view in the Upfront Gallery, from Sept. 2 through Oct. 1, 2011; and flock, featuring works by former Artspace Regional Emerging Artist-in-Residence Janelle Howington, on view in the Lobby Gallery, from Sept. 2 through Oct. 1, 2011 (these two exhibits will have a reception on Sept. 1, from 6-10pm).

Red and White and Black features recent works by Tom Stanley that illustrate the artist’s ongoing interests in a limited palette, a process employing mechanical drawing techniques, the use of expressive brush, and sgraphito (scratching into the top layer of paint to reveal previous layers).

Stanley is an artist and chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC. Born in Fort Hood, Stanley grew up in Concord, NC. His images often rely on personal memory as well as folk art and architectural imagery.

In recent years his work has been exhibited at Barbara Archer Gallery, Atlanta, GA, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, and Gallery twenty-four, Berlin, Germany. His Floating series was exhibited at the South Carolina State Museum’s Triennial Exhibition, Columbia, and at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, LA. He has exhibited at La Galerie du Marché in Lausanne, Switzerland, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC, Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, and the Halsey Gallery, Charleston, SC.

In 2006, Stanley had a solo exhibition in the Gallery at Carillon with his series entitled The Neighborhood. Over the past few years Stanley has teamed with colleague-artist Shaun Cassidy on a number of collaborative projects including the exhibition Collaboration of Fragments at the Sumter Gallery of Art and public art commissions such as Balancing Art in Simpsonville, SC, for Provident Community Bank; and Journey in Raleigh, NC, for the North Carolina Local Government Federal Credit Union.

Memory, Myth, and Meaning features the work of Lauren Schiller, Jane Terry, and Susan Watson. Each artist’s work, though executed in different media and techniques, explores concepts of memory and ritual. Imagery for Schiller’s small oil paintings is drawn from food-related memories and associations. Themes include food and morality (gluttony vs. abstinence, denial and restriction) and food and identity (personal, cultural, and familial). In each work, food items are portrayed in different locations with various domestic objects.

Schiller uses a modified grisaille technique in which she applies thin, transparent layers of oil paint atop graphite drawings. Terry’s Chamber presents several single-channel videos centered on the theme of myths and truths that emerge from memories. Terry’s references to the fragmented images of memories and the unconscious, along with the repetition of both imagery and audio, impart a mysterious, dream-like feel to her works. A personal narrative unfolds in each of Terry’s works, related to issues of identity, loss, and longing.

Watson, a Zen Buddhist, views her painting as an extension of the question, “What is the true nature of reality?” She notes that “painting offers a way to confront and delve into the mystery of life.” Watson often represents life’s mysteries through dream-like narratives. The interplay of light and dark elements, as well as the use of subtle or hidden imagery, reinforces her concepts, as she strives to express the unknown.

Schiller was born in New York City and is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Seton Hall University where she teaches painting, drawing and printmaking. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and her BFA from East Carolina University where she studied printmaking with Donald Sexauer and Michael Ehlbeck. Currently, Schiller lives in New Jersey and exhibits nationally in solo and group exhibitions including recently at the Garrison Art Center in Garrison, NY and at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Her paintings have been included in exhibitions at the Adam Baumgold Gallery and the Allan Stone Gallery, NYC. Schiller’s work has been published twice in New American Paintings in 2002 and 2008 and in 2008 she received a fellowship award in painting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Terry is Professor of Art at Meredith College in Raleigh, where she has taught since 1993. She received her BFA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MFA degree in photography from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Terry has exhibited her work in regional and national venues, including the San Francisco Art Institute, CA; Louis K. Meisel Gallery, NY; Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, FL; North Carolina Museum of Art; and Wake Forest University Fine Arts Gallery. She was awarded First Place, Fine Art Photography in the fourth Merry Moor Winnett Triennial at Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art. Recently, Terry’s video work has been screened at two annual international Dallas Video Festivals. Terry has received numerous awards and honors, including a prestigious grant from the Peter and Madeleine Martin Foundation for the Creative Arts, two United Arts Council of Raleigh Regional Artist Project Grants, and an artist residency at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO. She is represented in prominent private collections in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Greensboro.

Watson is a native of Juneau, AK, and moved to New York City at age eighteen to pursue a BFA from Cooper Union which she received in 1999. She went on to complete an MFA from Columbia University in 2001. She has had exhibitions in Alaska, New York, and South Carolina as well as solo exhibitions in Miami and France. Her work is also included in the White Columns Curated Artist Registry. Currently, Watson lives in Clemson, SC, with her husband Christopher and their Jack Russell Terrier, Emma.

Natural forms are recurrent themes in the works of both Anna Podris and Megan Clark. However, the way that they translate these images into their pieces is quite different. In her encaustic paintings Podris is able to take advantage of the fluidity of the medium to achieve ethereal quality. By contrast, Clark looks more specifically at structures in nature as an inspiration for her jewelry. Though the use of a jeweler’s saw she breaks natural forms down to simplified patterns and color schemes. For Art Forms in Nature, Podris and Clark demonstrate different approaches to the same inspiration through the creation of both collaborative and individual works of art.

Megan Clark grew up in Durham, NC, where she became interested in visual arts at an early age. This interest led her to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2001 where she pursued a degree in Metals and Jewelry. After graduating in 2005, Megan relocated to Raleigh, NC, where she began her career as a jewelry artist and craftsman. For the past 2-½ years she has been working independently on her own designs and participating in art shows and exhibitions along the East Coast. Clark has developed a unique style that is both contemporary and timeless.

Anna Podris graduated from the Savannah College of Art and design with a BFA in painting. Since then, she has been a professional full time painter showing work in and around the triangle and beyond. She also teaches art classes to children and adults. Podris’ art has appeared on the city of Raleigh buses for two years in a row. Recently she had her first solo show in Brooklyn, NY. Podris has also shown in Vail, CO; Miami, FL; and Alexandria, VA. She shares a studio with her artist husband, Keith Norval.

Janelle Howington began painting birds after relocating to Raleigh from Boston and observing a family of Carolina Chickadees nesting outside her kitchen window. She notes that she felt an “almost Hitchcock-ian” fear of the birds she encountered in Boston, mostly pigeons and geese who had “no respect for boundaries or personal space,” and was delighted by the charm and variety of birds native to Wake County.

The pieces in flock are not all local birds but are in response to the ethereal, unknowable nature of our local songbirds. The paintings themselves, using repetition as a device, examine the way form acts as signifier, whether it is the subtle differences in posture distinguishing between species, or the layering of forms to signify motion.

Howington received a BFA in Painting from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, and an MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, in conjunction with Tufts University. A Raleigh native, she is a recent Artspace Regional Emerging Artist-in-Residence.

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 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 the center at 919/821-2787 or visit (www.artspacenc.org).

[ | September 2011 | Feature Articles | Carolina Arts Unleashed | Gallery Listings | Home | ]