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December Issue 2004
Waterworks
Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, Features New Exhibitions
The Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, is presenting
several new exhibitions including: Forest, an installation
and paintings by Karen McVay Butch and Martha Enzmann in the Woodson
and Osborne Galleries; Sculptural Basketry, featuring works
by John Skau in the Norvell Gallery; and Coptic Iconography:
A Living Tradition, featuring works by Wasef Matias in the
Stanback Gallery Hall. All three exhibits will be on view through
Jan. 22, 2005.
Martha Enzmann and Karen McVay Butch have partnered on multi-media
projects and installations numerous times over the course of their
careers following their meeting at Savannah College of Art and
Design in Savannah, GA, where they attended together, Enzmann
earning her MFA and McVay Butch receiving both her BFA and MFA.
Their resumes reflect multiple collaborations on international
exhibitions, including costume and puppet exhibitions in France
and Germany designed for parades by Elkland Art Center, a nonprofit
organization founded by Enzmann and her husband in Todd, NC.
Both Enzmann and McVay Butch have been involved in theater sculpture/design,
interdisciplinary projects, theatrical performances and costumes,
and community outreach programs. Enzmann says, relating to the
Waterworks exhibition Forest, "Three dimensionality
is of more interest to me than two dimensionality, so I 'build'
paintings. Some resemble sculpture, though I still think of them
as paintings. Sometimes they seem more like stage sets, or frames
for action..." Enzmann's and McVay Butch's installations
to be displayed at Waterworks reflect this unique painting-sculpture
dynamic as it reveals the eclectic nature of the wooded environment.
Artist John Skau of Archdale, NC, is a self-proclaimed contemporary
basket maker who has been a full-time artist since 1993. As he
explains, the forms he creates "echo some of the language
and figures from basic math, like cones, parabolas, circles, triangles,
and squares... These baskets become radiant, intoning ancient
patternsbold, pre-language patterns that speak to all... My contemporary
baskets attest to an eternal order in the cosmos where mere handfuls
of linear elements find their way to such satisfying resolutions.
These baskets are timeless objects, joyous work to create and
behold."
Skau earned an Associate of Arts from the College of Lake County
in Grayslake, IL. He graduated summa cum laude from Northern Illinois
University, and he earned his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art
in Bloomfield Hills, MI. He has instructed sculptural basketry
at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, and general art
at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. Skau was named Artist-in-Residence
at Newport News Public Library in Virginia during May 2001. He
has three exhibitions planned for 2005 in three different states
and has exhibited previously throughout the United States in 17
states and internationally at the US Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.
Egyptian artist Wasef Matias has studied and created Coptic art
since 1985. He received a diploma in History of Coptic Religion
and a Master of Art degree from the Institute of Coptic Studies
in Cairo, Egypt. Between the years 1985-1990 he also studied under
Dr. Isaac Fanous, an Egyptian Coptic art "Master." Matias
has instructed Coptic Iconography in North Carolina and New Jersey
since 1996 when he immigrated to the United States. He began working
independently in 1991 by installing icons and mosaics in numerous
churches and monasteries throughout Egypt, Germany, England, Canada,
and the United States.
As the Matias explains, his "work is done using the traditional
technique of egg-tempera on gesso with gold leaf, which requires
lengthy preparations of a wooden panel and great expertise in
handling natural pigments mixed with egg. This ancient technique
has been used by generations of iconographers since the early
centuries of the Christian era." Very few individuals have
learned the unique and intricate trade of Coptic art, but those
who have understand fully its wonder and the respect and precision
necessary to continue this tradition.
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Waterworks
Visual Arts Center is funded by individual memberships, corporations
and businesses, foundations, the City of Salisbury, Rowan County,
the North Carolina Arts Council, and the National Endowment for
the Arts.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery
listings, call the Center at 704/636-1882 or on the web at (www.waterworks.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.