Kudos to Students, Faculty, and Alumni

April-May 2013 Updates

Students

                     Congratulations to Art Students who placed in the 46th Annual Juried Exhibition (Juror John Oles).

• First Place/Best in Show: Katherine Culatta, Red (series of three), Limestone and Photo Plate Lithography
• Second Place: Mary Grace Wynn,  Adam at the Wharf, Inkjet Print with Graphite
• Third Place: Allison Fawcett, Drips in the Dark, Oil on Canvas 
• Honorable Mention: Samantha Moody, Triceratops, Wood Cut Relief Print
• Honorable Mention: Emily Ellison, Arch I, Cone 10 Wood Fired Ceramics
• Chancellor's Purchase Award: Kelly Olshan, Blind Contours II, Oil, Acrylic, Molding Paste. 

Allison Fawcett (BFA candidate, concentration in Painting) has been awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research grant for her proposal, "Food for Thought," in preparation for her Senior Exhibition in Fall 2013. "Food For Thought" combines images from iconic horror films and classic comfort food advertising into Neo-pop art paintings that relate to American culture. These paintings are intended to initially seduce the viewers through luscious paint and pop culture iconography into a deeper examination of the hidden deceptions of modern food manufacturing. To read the complete abstract, follow this link.  Drips in  the Dark was awarded 3rd Place in the 46th Annual Juried Student Exhibition in March 2013. The Juror was John Oles. For images of the exhibtion and opening, check out the Facebook page of Art Front, the student group who organized the exhibition. 

Congratulations to Art students who presented their research at the Spring Undergraduate Research and Community Engagement Symposium on April 24: (Studio) Emma Bussard, Adam Cable, Tess Darling, Emily Ellison, Aron Flanagan, Hannah Grace, Dakota Hall, Kat Holloway, Rosie Midyette, Michael Reisch, Mary Grace Wynn; (Art History) Caitlyn Doctor, Kalie Nacca, Lily Scharf, Katie Johnson, Kimber Lawson. Follow this link to read the titles of their research and the abstracts.

Art students visited the Nasher Museum of Art on the campus of Duke University In April to explore three exhibitions: Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey, described by Nasher as the “first survey of Mutu’s work in the United States, and the most comprehensive and experimental show to date for this internationally-renowned multidisciplinary artist;” Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina Collections, described as “comprised of over 100 works from across the history of the photographic medium and drawn from North Carolina collections, reveals how photographers use techniques to persuade us of their vision;” and Exposing the Gaze: Gender and Sexuality in Art, described as being“an eclectic array of mediums and genres, this installation reveals the many ways artists working from the late 19th century to the present have experimented with the pleasures, hostilities, and politics of spectatorship.” http://www.nasher.duke.edu/

The students also received personalized viewing of Kara Walker and Guerrilla Girl prints in the Nasher Museum's collection vault.  The trip was organized by Eva Bares (Visiting Assistant Professor Art History). Leisa Rundquist (Associate Professor of Art History) accompanied the group.

Katie Johnson (Class of 2013 BFA, concentration in Sculpture and Art History Minor) has been working with Leisa Rundquist, Associate Professor of Art History, in preliminary research of artwork for the exhibition Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place that Leisa will curate for the Asheville Art Museum in Spring 2014 (read more about the exhibition below in Leisa's Faculty Update. Katie was awarded a grant for travel and research for her Undergraduate Research paper,"Dissolving Boundaries: The Politics of Categorizing the Artwork of Thornton Dial Sr." She presented the paper at the spring symposium and it will be published in the Journal of Undergraduate Research. Katie will continue her research and curatorial experience as an intern at the Asheville Art Museum, and will work with Leisa to acquire the pieces for the exhibition which will open in January 2014.

In May, Katie received a $1,000 award from the Folk Art Society of America. Her application packet included her undergraduate research project/senior capstone paper on Thornton Dial, Sr. In addition to the cash award, Katie has been invited to submit an article for the society's journal, the Folk Art Messenger. The Folk Art Scholar annual award is open nationally to both undergraduate and graduate students. Please follow this link to read what Katie has to say about her travel and research and the announcement for the award.

Hannah Wiepke (BA in Art History candidate) will be leading a week-long summer camp at Carolina Friends School Summer Programs for ages 8-11 in Chapel Hill. The topic will be Art Expo: Caves to Pollack; she will also be the coordinator for CIT (Counselors-in-Training) Program. In addition to Art History, Hannah is also majoring in Education with minors in Spanish and Religious Studies.

Congratulations to the 2013-2014 Scholarships and Awards Winners.  To see who received them, follow this link.

Adam Cable (2013 BFA in Art, concentration in Photography) participated in the 2013 Queer Studies Conference: Queering Space/Queering Borders. He presented his undergraduate research "Lavender War: Surveying Exclusion in Community Spaces" in a session moderated by Art History Associate Professor Leisa Rundquist as well as participating in  panel discussion, Gay Marriage Erasure. 

Faculty

Congratulations to Leisa Rundquist (with her recently acquired title change from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in Art History) on being awarded 2012-2013 Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Jackson Martin will join the Department of Art in August as Assistant Professor of Art/Sculpture. He received his BFA in 2004 from Middle Tennessee State University and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. Jackson will be recreating "Rooted" at  Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus, Denmark, this summer as part of a two-week residency at Godsbanen Cultural Center. The installation was at Pratt Institute's sculpture garden in Brooklyn, New York, for two years before it was de-installed in December 2012. The installation has been well received and is well traveled: other than Pratt, an incarnation has been in Key West (2009), Baltimore (2009-2010) and Governor's Island, New York. To see more of Jackson's work, follow this link.

Eric Tomberlin's (Assistant Professor of Art/Photography) photography is currently on display in the national juried exhibition, Photography and Environmental Concern at Photoplace Gallery in Middelbury, Vermont. Kate Ware, Curator of Photographs, New Mexico Museum of Art, was the exhibition's juror.

Tamie Beldue (Assistant Professor of Art/Drawing and Lithography) has work in Carolina's Got Art! during the month of May at Elder Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina. Curated by Lance Esplund, art critic for Bloomberg News, the exhibition has 130 pieces that Mr. Esplund considers the best of the best work submitted by North and South Carolina artists. Another exhibition of work submitted for the Carolina's Got Art! will follow in the June exhibition Salon. Follow this link for information on these exhibitions.

Tamie will have a solo exhibition at The Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio, called Pliable Observations: Tamie Beldue in the Richards Gallery from June 14–August 10, 2013. (For information follow this link)

Tamie was one of 81 artists selected for Manifest Creative Research Gallery Exhibition that was mentioned in an earlier Kudos webpage. The exhibition catalog, International Drawing Annual 7,  is now available.  There were 572 international artists who entered 1511 images for the exhibition . (To view or purchase a copy follow this link.)

Carrie Tomberlin's (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art/Photography) work is currently included (thru May 5) in the 37th Annual Photo Spiva 2013, a national exhibition juried by Natasha Egan, Director of Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. The exhibition is located at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, Missouri.

Leisa Rundquist (Associate Professor of Art History) is curating an exhibition, titled Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place for the Asheville Art Museum (January 18–May 11, 2014).  Working closely with her research assistant, Katie Johnson (BFA/ARTH minor), Rundquist has traveled to New York City and Atlanta this semester to research work and secure artwork loans.  Her initial research for the show has been funded by a UNC Asheville Faculty Development Grant.

Social Geographies provides a platform for in depth analysis of art by:

• Henry Darger (1892-1973) http://www.folkartmuseum.org/darger
• Thornton Dial (b. 1928) and Lonnie Holley (b. 1950) http://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artists/
• Minnie Evans (1892-1987) http://foundationstart.org/artists/minnie-evans/
• Martín Ramírez (1895-1963) http://www.folkartmuseum.org/ramirez
• George Widener (b. 1962) http://www.riccomaresca.com/portfolio/george-widener-2/

This exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue authored by Rundquist.

Spatial divisions between “inside” and “outside” impact how the art world describes, identifies, and validates artists featured within the exhibition.  Whether deemed “outsider”—Henry Darger, Martín Ramírez, George Widener—or “self-taught”—Thornton Dial, Minnie Evans, Lonnie Holley—these artists bear categorical markers that organize their art but do not adequately speak of their arts’ unique qualities and circumstances.  In response to such prescriptive frameworks as “outsider” art, this show asks viewers to experience artwork regarded as different, differently.  The goal of the exhibition is to open up this contested space of difference and organize it around discussions of subjective experiences instead of one of marginality.  

To this end, Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place engages localities and artistic agency on multiple levels. The exhibition’s approach draws upon sociological perspectives and analyses of landscape as a means of expressing the pluralities of shared, human experience.  The thirty, mostly large-scale works by featured American artists re-envision space and place informed by social isolation, exclusion, displacement, and inequality.  Consequently, the show investigates visual ways of mapping such experiences through layered objects, panoramic formats, cartographic views, chronographic vistas, and images of visionary and vast worlds. 

Eve Bares (Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History) and Leisa Rundquist (Associate Professor of Art History) have been awarded several research grants for course development in interdisciplinary areas.

1. Eva will be Project Leader for Understanding Place in Socio-visual Geographies with Leisa and  Karin Peterson (Sociology). Using the "Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place" exhibition (AAM, Jan 18-May 11, 2014) as a starting point, fall-enrolled students will explore a broad range of artists, theories, and visual culture experiences to prepare them for understanding both the practices of curating an exhibit and the thematics and theories of the exhibit itself. The respective classes will use the unique lens of their discipline and compile their respective analyses and findings in a final document that will serve as a supplement to the exhibit and will offer its reader a comprehensive view of the topic. The document will be a major assignment in each of the courses, and the precise format of the document will be determined over the summer as team members develop learning goals and assignments and common bibliography.
2. Eva is the recipient of an award for Contemplative Pedagogy Across the Curriculum, which will coordinate efforts between Health & Wellness Promotion, Literature & Languages and Arts & Ideas courses to integrate a variety of contemplative practices into the classroom as well as encourage interaction between students of different disciplines and academic experience. The grant allows for the development of interdisciplinary components for the syllabi and of shared assessment tools.
3. Eva received an individual grant for use in developing contemplative practices in her ARTS 310 Place and Mind class.

Alumni

Ben Elliott (Class of 2005, BFA in Art, concentration in Sculpture) and Hayden Wilson, (Class of 2007, BFA in Art, concentration in Sculpture) are in HandMade in America's exhibition Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft on view through May 31 at 125 South Lexington Avenue, Asheville. Ben and Hayden are among sixteen WNC artists working in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, or mixed media.  Curator Kathryn Gremley, (director of Penland Gallery and Visitors Center) selected 26 pieces that "illustrate a balance of craft processes and unique ideas, combining tradition with innovation." To read more about the exhibition, follow this link.

Heather Knight (Class of 2006, BFA in Art, concentration in Ceramics) is featured in American Craft Design 2013 as one of "25 interesting artists known for their design sensibilities." To view "In Her Element" by Joann Plockova, in the special edition of the journal published April 2013, follow this link.

Rebekah Pineda (Class of 2012 BA in Art, concentration in Art History and the recipient of the 2011–2012 UNC Asheville Art History Scholarship) has been accepted into the graduate program in Arts Management at the American University in Washington, DC. She received a graduate assistantship which will cover tuition as well as a stipend.

Maria Andrade Troya (Class of 2001, BFA in Art, concentration in Ceramics) was featured in the May 2013 issue of the Laurel of Asheville. Read the article about Maria and visit her in her studio at in The Curve studios and gardens, Riverside Arts District, 12 Riverside Drive, Asheville.

Emily Crabtree (Class of 2010, BFA in Art, concetration in Painting), completed her MFA studies at the University of Oregon,  Portland, with a Senior Thesis Exhibition at Disjecta, The Contemporary Art Center of Portland, May 4-26. Follow this link for more information on the exhibition and to see more of Emily's work, follow this link.

Michael Iauch, (Class of 2010, BFA in Art, concentration in Painting), completed his MFA studies at UNC Chapel Hill with a Senior Thesis Exhibition at Allcott Gallery Hanes art Center in Chapel Hill. His exhibition, How Can I Be a Song?, performed on March 28 described how he wrapped himself in blankets with lyrics from rock-n'-roll songs drawn onto them and then went out hitchhiking. For a clip, follow this link.

Jason Adams, (Class of 2010, BFA in Art, concentration in Sculpture), completed his MFA studies at Clemson University with his Senior Thesis Exhibition, Yours, Mine, Ours, in Lee Gallery, Clemson, March 25–April 5. Visit Jason's website here.

Congratulations to Alumni MFA 2013 graduates: Jason Adams, Michael Iauch, Emily Crabtree, and Allison Gulick (in the March Kudos).

Tatiana Potts, (Class of 2012, BFA in Art, concentration in Printmaking) has been accepted into the Master of Fine Arts Program at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to a teaching assistantship, she was awarded the prestigious Herman E. Spivey $15,000 Humanities Graduate Fellowship that she was nominated for by the University of Tennessee. The Fellowships are awarded to "first-time enrollees in humanities graduate programs" and are chosen on the basis of those "who have excelled in undergraduate work and shown professional potential." Tatiana credits direction from the Art Faculty and  the skills she learned in completing her undergraduate research at UNC Asheville as invaluable resources for writing her letter of intent, defining her future goals, and interviewing at the various universities during her search for the best graduate program for her.  

To read Tatiana's first-person account of her search and see some of her recent prints, please follow this link.

March 2013 Updates

Students

The student organization Art Front will install the 46th Annual Juried Student Exhibition with Juror Awards and Opening Reception on March 8, 6-8;00 p.m. in S. Tucker Cooke Gallery, Owen Hall. Ceramicist John Oles is the juror, and he will give an artist's talk on March 8, 5-6:00 p.m. in Owen Hall 237. Please visit this website for announcement and submission requirements, and come back here for April Kudos to see the winners. All events are free and open to the public. The Exhibition will be on view through April 9, 2013.

Faculty

Tamie Beldue, Assistant Professor (Drawing and Lithography), was featured in the February 2013 issue of Verve Magazine.

Eric Tomberlin's photography is currently on display at Tokarska Gallery in London, England, in the exhibition, Cities: All Dimensions. Beginning March 9, his work will also be on display at George A. Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, Missouri, in the 37th Annual Photo Spiva 2013, a national exhibition juried by Natasha Egan, Director of Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago. Eric Tomberlin is an Assistant Professor (Photography).

Carrie Tomberlin's work is currently on display in Parallax, a national juried exhibition of women's photography at Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work is also currently on view in Cities: All Dimensions at Tokarska Gallery in London, England. Carrie Tomberlin is an Adjunct Assistant Professor (Photography).

Robert Tynes, Professor of Art (Painting), serves on the national College Art Association's Professional Practices Committee. Over the last year Tynes chaired the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Artist Résumé and CV Recommended Conventions charged with reviewing and extensively revising two of the most popular documents on the collegeart.org website, the Artist Résumé and the Visual Artist Curriculum Vitae. Tynes was also chair of a panel discussion at the annual College Art Association Conference (held mid-February in NYC) on "Senior Exhibition Requirements for BFA and BA Programs." This session provided a forum for Tynes and other panelists to showcase their institution's respective approaches to senior exhibition requirements. One of the panelists was Paul Jeanes (Class of 2002, BFA with  a concentration in painting) and mentioned in the alumni section below. To read more about Tynes and CAA, follow this link.

Virginia Derryberry, Professor of Art (Painting) and Department of Art chair, has two exhibitions currently installed:  Women Painting Women at Custom's House Museum and Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee, March 7 ­­– May 19, and a solo exhibition, Third Nature in the Francis Gallery, Rawls Museum Arts, Courtland, Virginia, from March 1 ­­– April 19. The Hermetic Bride at right is included in Women Painting Women exhibition.

Leisa Rundquist, Assistant Professor of Art (Art History), has a review of Michael Moon's Darger's Resources (Duke University Press, 2012) published in the February 2013 issue of The Journal of American Studies. To read the full text, follow this link.

Laurel Taylor, Lecturer in Art (Art History) and Classics, has a review of Hasmonean and Herodian Palaces at Jericho. Final Reports of the 1973–1987 Excavations, Volume 4: The Decoration of Herod's Third Palace at Jericho by Silvia Rozenberg, published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 368 (November 2012), pp. 118-120, published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research. To read the review, follow this link.  

Alumni

Tori Bush, Class of 2007, BA in Art with a concentration in Art History, has moved from her position as Programs Director of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans to split her time between two places. She is Operations Manager and Development Director of New Orleans Airlift, an artist-run organization that is building a permanent campus of sculpture and sound in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Swoon is the lead artist of this project. Last year the project was written about by NPR, the New York Times, and Smithsonian Magazine. Tori is also working with the Artist in Residency program by the Joan Mitchell Foundation. This is the first year of the program and she is working with both national and local artists to find ways for them to interact and work with the New Orleans arts community.

Larkin Ford, Class of 2008, BFA in Art with a concentration in Drawing and Painting and Minor in Literature, has been creating charcoal drawings, oil paintings, and comics since graduation. He had a solo drawing show, The Wounded Head, at Asheville's Phil Mechanic Gallery, and was a featured artist in the Oxford American's Visual South issue.

Most recently, Larkin is collaborating with writer Brockton McKinney on a creator-owned title, Ehmm Theory. The comic has just been signed for nationwide distribution through Action Lab/Danger Zone, and is available for pre-order, with the first issue available in May. Ehmm Theory's pre-order number is MAR130763 from Diamond Comic Distributors. To read a review of Ehmm Theory, follow this link.

Larkin also has a painting currently on display in Drawing on the Unexpected, a show comprised of seven Asheville artists, including Brian Mashburn and Taiyo la Paix, and curated by Julyan Davis. The show is on display in Atlanta's Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery through March 30.

Allison Gulick, Class of 2011, BA in Art with a concentration in Art History and currently MFA candidate in Curatorial Practice at Maryland Institute of Art (MICA), has been awarded a $10,000 Challenge America Fast-Track grant from the National Endowment of the Arts for work on her MFA thesis exhibition, Reloading the Canon: African Traditions in Contemporary Art. The exhibition is a site-specific project curated for the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University, in Baltimore; it will be on display March 5–April 2, 2013.

Allison is in an inaugural two-year MFA program described by MICA as the first of its kind in the country to allow "students to conceive and complete individual curatorial projects with a partnering venue, organization or community," said Curatorial Practice Director and MICA Curator-in-Residence George Ciscle. "These partnerships allow students to form enduring relationships with artists and the regional arts community, while at the same time giving them significant insight into issues relevant to curatorial practice. . . .The program prepares students to take a responsible approach to the expanding role curators play in creating a vibrant cultural life. Designed to forge connections among art, artists and the community, the program's collaborative and individual curatorial projects allow students to explore new methods of exhibition presentation.”

Iris Gottlieb, Class of 2012, BA in Art with a concentration in Drawing, had a very well-received exhibition in February (all 93 pieces in the exhibition were sold).  Inventories and Observations, a series of pen-and-ink drawings, was at Carrack Modern Art Gallery in Durham, North Carolina. To read a review of the exhibition, follow this link.

Paul Jeanes, Class of 2002, BFA in Art with a concentration in Painting, has an exhibition continuing through March 26, 2013 at Goucher College's Rosenberg Art Gallery. The announcement says Jeanes's "paintings explore alchemical processes of corrosion, ablation, liquefaction, and stratification with a romantically incidental approach to creation.  Each of his works are developed improvisationally, without a finalized compositional plan, while upwards of 25 layers of paint are individually applied and removed from each painting. Every layer is subsequently scraped across and into the canvas, which equalizes the surface so that a unified flattening occurs. Through this labor-intensive process of application and removal, he attempts to depict a kind of turbulent, chromatic atmosphere where shifting fragments and gestures are at once illuminated and obscured. . . . Jeanes's newest cycle of works entitled, The Clearing is based on images and memories from a recent drive across the country of Iceland, from the city of Reykjavík to the majestic glacial lagoon, Jökulsárlón." To see more of Jeanes's work, follow this link.

Sean (Jinx) Pace, Class of 2004, BFA in Art with a concentration in Sculpture, is in a two-person exhibition, Fantastic Mechanics, at William King Museum, Abington, Virginia, through May 19, 2013. He will also give an artist's talk at East Tennessee State University, on March 27.  To read more about Pace's mixed-media exhibition, follow this link. 

Cindy Taylor Walton, Class of 2005, Certificate in Art with a concentration in Painting, is the featured artist at Charlotte Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibition, Abstractions: Oil and Cold Wax Paintings, will be on view through March. Walton gives workshops and lectures on the cold wax process and her work, most recently (mid-February) at  Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, North Carolina.  To read more about Walton's cold wax process, visit her blog.

January-February 2013 Updates

Students

Congratulations to Emma Bussard, a senior from Carrollton, Georgia, and double major in Art (concentration in ceramics) and Health and Wellness Promotions, who was recently awarded first place in the Portrait Category of the International Photography Contest sponsored by the university's Study Abroad Program. Her portrait, A Smile is Universal, was taken during her summer studies in Kathmandu, Nepal. It will be included with the other 42 entries taken in various places across the globe in the April 2013 exhibition in Blowers Gallery

Emma is talented in several areas in addition to her winning photograph. To read about her time in Nepal and India and see more images follow this link. 

Congratulations to Allison Fawcett and Michael Riech, BFA students, who were accepted into the Flood Gallery's First Annual National Juried Exhibition titled Greedy Brut. Allison had two oil on canvas paintings and Michael had two mixed media pieces of found objects. The focus of the exhibition is on current socio-political relations in, or associated with, the United States. Diana Stoll, Senior Editor for Aperture Magazine was the juror. Cindy Canejo, Associate Professor of Art in Art History, and Alumnus Kyle Sherard (Class of 2010, with a BA in Printmaking)  were the organizers for the exhibition. 

Faculty

Congratulations to Tamie Beldue, Assistant Professor of Art in Drawing and Lithography, for the masterfully organized and displayed Fourth Annual Drawing Discourse, which opened on January 18. Juror Susan Hauptman selected 33 pieces for this exhibition after considering more than 1,000 entries submitted by 369 artists. The show-stopper is City Band, a 23.5-foot, incredibly detailed drawing by Chris LaPorte. Ms. Hauptman gave a well-received artist talk before the opening and was available for futher discussion at the reception. The exhibition continues through February 5 in S. Tucker Cooke Gallery in Owen Hall. (For additional discussion, images, including winners of Juror's Choice Awards, and to purchase the catalogue follow this link.)

Cynthia Canejo, Associate Professor of Art in Art History, has scheduled a visit from an award-winning animator, Emily Hubley, on February 12­­–13, 2013. The university and community-wide presentation, Emily Hubley, Award-Winning Animator, will take place on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 6:30­­–7:30 p.m. in Karpen 038 (free and open to the public). A question-and-answer lunchtime talk with faculty and students on the subject of women's issues and filmmaking, A Conversation with Animator, Emily Hubley, is scheduled for Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 12:30­­–1:30 p.m. in Laurel Forum. The Toe Tactic will be screened in Karpen 038 on Monday, February 11, at 6:30 p.m. (prior to Ms. Hubley's arrival on Tuesday, February 12). These presentations were envisioned as a shared event supported by multiple on-campus programs. (For details follow this link.)