Fall 2021 BA Student Senior Group Exhibition
On Exhibit: December 1st - 10, 2021
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
Reception: December 3rd 5-7pm in Blowers Gallery
Students will present a portion of their senior portfolio in Blower’s Gallery in Ramsey Library. This show is the last step for students to earn their Bachelor’s of Arts in Art. Students’ studio art concentrations include Ceramics, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture. Artists presenting work at this exhibition include Jackson Benton, Wyatt Bryant, Olivia Peters, Hattie Padgett, and Penn Hartsell.
Evanescent by Leigh Svenson
On Exhibit: October 1st to November 30th, 2021
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
EVANESCENT: ev.a.nes.cent (adjective) Soon passing out of sight, memory or existence; the quality of being fleeting. From driftwood cathedrals being taken by the sea - to mercurial dune grass etchings and ebb tide carvings, these fleeting images I have captured during vacations at the Golden Isles of Georgia.
For the past five years, specifically St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island, I lugged along my big Bronica GS-1 medium format (6X7) film camera for treks to the beach. Usually I would get entranced with potential images and start to photograph while my wife looked for shells down the beach. Capturing the passage of time, both ephemeral and enduring, has long been of interest to me. It is my hope that you will study these photographs and those qualities will be revealed to you. -Leigh Svenson, Weaverville, NC
Women of Distinction: If you can see it, you can be it!
By artist Joseph Pearson
On Exhibit: August 9th to September 30th
Reception: August 17th 12-3pm in Blowers Gallery
Artist Statement: I created this body of work to honor the women in my family, women whose love, nurture and support made me who I am. These were women who worked hard at home and in the community. This desire was precipitated with the celebration of my last living aunt’s 96th birthday. (July 18,1922 - March 24, 2021). It led me to consider doing something to honor her and the women of her generation, including my mama and her older sister. Through this body of work I wanted to present a few of the many professional women from the local community as examples for younger women and girls as they strive to reach their goals and potential. It’s a way of giving back something of the nurture and encouragement I received from the women in my life.
I am Joseph Anthony Pearson. I am a resident artist at Pink Dog Studios in the River Arts District. I paint people as figures and portraits (as well as murals and pet portraits).I received the B.S. degree in Art education from Jackson State University and the Master of Education degree from William Carey College. I trained professionally for five years at the Art Students League of New York. A percentage of any donations and sales will be donated to local non-profit organizations.
Visit Joseph Pearson's website for more information: www.josephart.net/
International Photo Contest Exhibit
On Exhibit: March 29th to August 2nd, 2021 in Ramsey Library's Blowers Gallery View 2020-21 Winners Online and View 2019-20 Winners Online
Exhibit Creators: UNC Asheville Study Abroad. Artists on Exhibit: Nora Segurola, Ray Strong, Katie Tanner, Amanda Morse, Luiz Dantas, Veronika Mojik, James Kwak, Aly Pagano, Gloria Kirk, Jonathan Morris, Zax Milkereit, Logan Guarglia, and Carter Kennedy.
Each year the Study Abroad office hosts an International Photo Contest where students, faculty and staff can submit photographs they have taken while abroad. The photographs in this year’s International Photo Exhibit offer glimpses into communities around the globe and represent the winners from the 2020 and 2021 photo contests. Sharing their overseas experiences with the larger UNC Asheville community helps bring the world to Asheville and aids our understanding of their international experiences. These images are placed on permanent display across campus at the conclusion of the show. Further details on Study Abroad's annual international photo contest can be found here. Please note that due to Covid-19, this year's exhibit will not have a reception nor individual presentations from our winners.
Urban Renewal in Asheville
On Exhibit: Spring Semester, 2021 in Ramsey Library's Blowers Gallery View Exhibition Online in Accessible Format
Exhibit Creators: Ramsey Library's Special Collections, UNCA Professor Patrick Bahls, and students in Professor Bahls' UNCA course, "Urban Renewal in Asheville and Elsewhere" taught in Fall 2019.
This exhibit explores the local history, intents, and impacts of the Urban Renewal movement beginning with the U.S. federal Housing Act of 1949. It contextually presents individual cases of community change in the Asheville area through text, maps, and photographs, including with the controversial 1937 Residential Security, aka 'Red-lined,' map of Asheville's neighborhoods (see left-hand image). The entire exhibit is available online in screen reader accessible format here. Illustrative excerpt from this exhibit: [...] The impacts of urban renewal were not equitably felt by all citizens. Low-income neighborhoods, particularly those with high proportions of residents of color, were more often targeted for renewal. This is unsurprising, given longstanding racial inequities in the availability of funds for home purchase and improvement. (Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law describes these inequities in great detail.) For instance, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), founded in 1933, offered ways for homeowners facing default on their existing mortgages to buy into new mortgages with manageable repayment plans. To assess investment risk, the HOLC enlisted local agencies’ aid in surveying neighborhoods, color-coding neighborhoods according to the results of those surveys, with red indicating the riskiest areas for investment. Many neighborhoods that were “red-lined” were home to high percentages of Black residents, and few “green” neighborhoods were home to any persons of color. - text courtesy of Patrick Bahls