IBXARTISTS SHOW IN DURHAM
IBX ARTISTS SHOW IN DURHAM
The show will debut on Friday, November 20
A group exhibition of contemporary artists with ties to Eastern North Carolina will exhibit their work from November 20th to January 15th at LabourLove Gallery in Durham on the Golden Belt Arts campus. The show will feature adventurous work incorporating unconventional rough materials. Innovative mixed media pieces will be the norm including paintings with metal parts, sculptures both small and large, and diverse fiber works incorporating figurative ceramics and raw natural objects.
Originally from Rocky Mount, gallery Co-Owner Kelly Dew will contribute her precise mixed media paintings. Frequently adding metallic and wall papers to the surface, viewers can expect a bounty of the rich colorful images she is known for. Dew is a graduate of the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. However, with relatives from the small town of Grimesland in Pitt County, she has strong ties to the region still home to many of the participating artists.
Other painters involved are Destry Sparks of Greenville and Emily Howard, a 2009 graduate of the East Carolina University MFA program. Sparks will display his unconventional outsider acrylic works which highlight worn found objects attached to burlap. By using rough grades of burlap and harshly textured items like driftwood and rusted metal parts a visceral effect is readily apparent on the surface of his paintings. Sparks is also participating in the National Collage Society 25th Annual Exhibition at Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta. He also was just honored as the First Place Award Winner of the 2nd International Society of Acrylic Painters Online International Open Exhibition. Howard’s work is similar in that her paintings feature objects embedded into the surface to the degree that a thick murky stew of stuff entices viewers to take a closer look.
Fiber artists Pamela Zimmerman of Washington and Jennifer Hodges of Wilmington echo the earth tones of Sparks and Howard in their inventive tangible pieces. Zimmerman’s distinctive moon faces are unmistakable and powerful regardless of the scale she chooses to tackle in a given piece. Her solitary ceramic souls peer from intricately woven fibrous cocoons. A 2009 NICHE award finalist, Zimmerman is making waves nationally. Hodges is well known to Eastern NC art patrons for her days on the staff of the Greenville Museum of Art and for producing remarkably understated sheets of fiber embedded with natural objects such as leaves and twigs.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the approach of Philadelphia sculptor Joshua Parker Coombs. A 2009 MFA recipient from ECU as well, his remarkable work is stunning both in terms of technical achievement and bold authentic content. Whether in large rusted metal pieces or in brightly colored intimate polished wood pieces, the common thread is his ability to bend diverse materials to his liking. He fashions objects which seem to live, breathe and even quiver in their desire to reach out toward us.
LabourLove Gallery is a new contemporary art gallery housed at Durham’s hotbed site of creativity known as the Golden Belt Arts campus. The show will debut on Friday, November 20 in the midst of 35 on-site artist studio spaces, artist lofts and a vibrant Durham Third Friday Art Walk tradition. For more information visit www.labourlove.com The gallery can also be reached at (919) 373-4451 Tuesday – Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The show will debut on Friday, November 20
A group exhibition of contemporary artists with ties to Eastern North Carolina will exhibit their work from November 20th to January 15th at LabourLove Gallery in Durham on the Golden Belt Arts campus. The show will feature adventurous work incorporating unconventional rough materials. Innovative mixed media pieces will be the norm including paintings with metal parts, sculptures both small and large, and diverse fiber works incorporating figurative ceramics and raw natural objects.
Originally from Rocky Mount, gallery Co-Owner Kelly Dew will contribute her precise mixed media paintings. Frequently adding metallic and wall papers to the surface, viewers can expect a bounty of the rich colorful images she is known for. Dew is a graduate of the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. However, with relatives from the small town of Grimesland in Pitt County, she has strong ties to the region still home to many of the participating artists.
Other painters involved are Destry Sparks of Greenville and Emily Howard, a 2009 graduate of the East Carolina University MFA program. Sparks will display his unconventional outsider acrylic works which highlight worn found objects attached to burlap. By using rough grades of burlap and harshly textured items like driftwood and rusted metal parts a visceral effect is readily apparent on the surface of his paintings. Sparks is also participating in the National Collage Society 25th Annual Exhibition at Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta. He also was just honored as the First Place Award Winner of the 2nd International Society of Acrylic Painters Online International Open Exhibition. Howard’s work is similar in that her paintings feature objects embedded into the surface to the degree that a thick murky stew of stuff entices viewers to take a closer look.
Fiber artists Pamela Zimmerman of Washington and Jennifer Hodges of Wilmington echo the earth tones of Sparks and Howard in their inventive tangible pieces. Zimmerman’s distinctive moon faces are unmistakable and powerful regardless of the scale she chooses to tackle in a given piece. Her solitary ceramic souls peer from intricately woven fibrous cocoons. A 2009 NICHE award finalist, Zimmerman is making waves nationally. Hodges is well known to Eastern NC art patrons for her days on the staff of the Greenville Museum of Art and for producing remarkably understated sheets of fiber embedded with natural objects such as leaves and twigs.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the approach of Philadelphia sculptor Joshua Parker Coombs. A 2009 MFA recipient from ECU as well, his remarkable work is stunning both in terms of technical achievement and bold authentic content. Whether in large rusted metal pieces or in brightly colored intimate polished wood pieces, the common thread is his ability to bend diverse materials to his liking. He fashions objects which seem to live, breathe and even quiver in their desire to reach out toward us.
LabourLove Gallery is a new contemporary art gallery housed at Durham’s hotbed site of creativity known as the Golden Belt Arts campus. The show will debut on Friday, November 20 in the midst of 35 on-site artist studio spaces, artist lofts and a vibrant Durham Third Friday Art Walk tradition. For more information visit www.labourlove.com The gallery can also be reached at (919) 373-4451 Tuesday – Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
