Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual
On Exhibit: November 7th – December 8th, 2023
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
The Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual is the oldest Native American artists’ cooperative in the U.S. and was founded in 1946 in Cherokee, NC. The legendary artistry, design, and durability of Cherokee crafts are admired throughout the world, and Qualla has played a key role in keeping those traditions alive while encouraging experimentation and innovation. The current exhibit, created by Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center, showcases varied examples of both traditional and modern styles of Cherokee art, historical photos, and many informational panels of crafting traditions of the Cherokee to our Blowers Gallery space.
Learn more about the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual here from their website.
Postcards from the Land of Sky: Images from the LeCompte Collection
On Exhibit: October 1st, 2023 – November 14th, 2023
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
This exhibit is a collection of the L. C. LeCompte Postcard Collection held in Ramsey Library’s Special Collections (Upper Level). It contains postcards depicting scenes from the Southeastern US. Most were published by the Asheville Postcard Company. Lamar Campbell LeCompte reputedly started in the wholesale postcard business in 1913, with a business initially located on Patton Avenue. However, the 1914 to 1917 Asheville City Directories show LeCompte as a salesman for Smith’s Drug Store, and the first entry for the Asheville Postcard Company is not until 1921 when J L Widman was a business partner.
In 1930, LeCompte moved the business to 31 Carolina Lane in Asheville, and soon the Asheville Postcard Company became the largest distributor of postcards south of Washington, DC. LeCompte soon started to publish his own postcards, traveling around taking photographs of buildings and scenes that he thought would be of interest, and using a publisher to print the cards. LeCompte died in 1977, and the business was inherited by Ruth Thurmond (who donated the majority of the postcards in this collection to UNC Asheville) and Allen Hall, who had both worked with LeCompte for many years. They sold the business in 1978, when the inventory of Asheville Postcard Company was estimated to be several million cards.
Interested in learning more about Ramsey Library Special Collections’ Postcard Collections? Please visit this page:
https://libjournals.unca.edu/librarynews/exhibits/land-of-sky-postcard-exhibit-now-in-blowers/
Externalities
By Artist Nick Raynolds
On Exhibit: August 1, 2023 - September 29, 2023
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
Reception: Thursday, September 14th at 1pm in Blowers Gallery
Nick Raynolds presents his recent triptych, “Externalities”. Each piece including “The Garden After the Rain”, “Confounding Fathers” and “Drawing Down the Moon” are abstract narratives which serve to elaborate on Raynolds’ idea of “introspective realism”. Also on display will be a number of works from the artist’s 2020 MFA thesis exhibition “emotional plague” which was closed early due the pandemic lockdown. This is the first time these pieces will be shown outside the ETSU venue.
Perspectives Preserved in Plastic
By Artist Ava Bock
On Exhibit: March 20 - May 11, 2023
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
Artist Statement: Perspectives Preserved in Plastic is a record of my various attempts to observe, catalog, and connect with my intangible inner self. As I relive and react to the depth of my lived yet unresolved experiences, being unable to physically see what was going on inside my logical, emotional, and spiritual self provided a problem I felt driven to solve.
Since my mind associates color with emotional responses and texture with physical ones, I started to replicate those moments literally. By working from my strongest and most intense experiences, the pieces created at the beginning of my journey are the most erratic looking with the most saturated colors and sharpest edges.
Beyond color and texture, I use differing levels of opacity to communicate my openness and the level of comfort I have with the topic I'm working through. In this way, I am able to open myself up to a deeper, quieter, and more nuanced place within myself. By layering opaque materials and clear ones, I found the ability to share myself without discomfort.
As time went on, this combination of observed light, color, texture, and transparency began to combine in a way that followed my own natural biorhythm. Meditative patterns started to emerge and intertwine as I began to settle into a more harmonious place of self-knowing.
The entire breadth of this intimate observation is showcased through the uniquely human material of synthetic and bio-synthetic plastics. From my initial exposure to photography, through to the Light and Space movement that inspires my more sculptural and current pieces, my connection and understanding of the versatility of plastic made it the natural choice for this analysis. Salud y Vida (Health + Life)
Double Take
By Artist Jeremy Phillips
On Exhibit: January 22 - February 24, 2023
Reception: Valentine's Day (2.14.23) from 4 - 6pm
Location: Blowers Gallery in Ramsey Library
Jeremy Phillips' Artist Statement: Why make paintings anymore? For me they are something solid in a digital world, images that linger long after the media circus has flown by, perpetual presences that invite you to slow down rather than flit off to the next piece of eye candy. A painting should be something you can live with and that keeps talking back.
When I think of painting in the internet age, the physical qualities of the work become central – the surface texture, the way the light plays off the paint, the accidents of application, the revelations of underlayers, the juxtaposition of thickness and color, the material of the support, even the underlying stretchers.
Content, beyond the play of form, is a relished addition. The interiors of rooms or apartment blocks, the visual games of optical illusions and impossible shapes, binary code, stacks; these are prompts for contemplation. Painting is also about a conversation with other art. Building on the work of artists like Sol Lewitt, Jasper Johns, Sigmar Polke, and older modernists like Edouard Vuillard, and Pierre Bonnard, I want to add my own voice to the questions modern art raises (like “What is a painting?”, “What is beautiful?” and “What kinds of things can be a subject for a painting?”, and “How can I used older images to make something new?”), and try to offer some of my own solutions.
I hope the results feed the eye as well as the mind, with a luscious use of oil paint, commercial fabrics, strong bright colors, and sharp lines. Sometimes deceptively simple and sometimes intriguingly complex, these visual puzzles intend to keep your eyes peeled.