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June Issue 2004
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, Offers Works by Max Halperen and Outreach Program
Max
Halperen
Artspace in Raleigh, NC, will feature the exhibition, Wall Words, a project of the Artspace Outreach Program in the center's Lobby Gallery from June 4 - 26, 2004, and The Fantasticks by Max Halperen, on view in the Artspace Upfront Gallery, from June 4 - 26, 2004.
During the winter of 2004, twelve children from Raleigh Rescue Mission participated in an exciting textile arts residency led by Peg Gignoux. The youths, ages 8-16, made journals, wrote poetry, and created a large collaborative poem out of hand-dyed and painted cloth. This dynamic work entitled Wall Words bursts with color, beads, and poignant metaphors. Harriet Hoover documented the 7-week project. Hoover's photographs will accompany the fiber installation.
Gignoux is an innovative textile artist, designer
and educator based in Carrboro, NC. She creates vibrant mixed
media works, art quilts, handmade books and banners for a variety
of public and private settings. Gignoux has been awarded numerous
commissions and grants for her imaginative design work, developed
for schools, museums and health care centers throughout North
Carolina.
Exhibiting actively in the triangle since 1990, Gignoux has also
been included in shows in NY, TN, TX, CA, WY, and VA. She enjoys
teaching art quilting to all ages and has led innovative collaborative
projects. She received a BA in English from Kenyon College and
a Masters of Industrial Design from NCSU, College of Design.
Max Halperen's larger paintings move through a world that is rickety and unstable but that, through grace, luck, or will, has somehow managed to hold together - or at least, according to him, up until now. Thus a boat or canoe shape appears again and again in his paintings, a boat with open ribs that couldn't possibly stay afloat but does. He use images of primitive deities or totems to suggest our efforts to conjure a sense of continuity, but these figures may be held together by slats or string, or just plain spit, as we try to hold together our rickety, unstable world. Smaller work on paper and panel harbor images, figurative or abstract, that may find their way into the corners of major paintings but often stand alone. They are usually fantasies - fantastic creatures, impossible landscapes, and thus the title of his exhibition, The Fantasticks. Halperen notes that his work "mingles surrealism, symbolism, expressionism, and every other ism of the past century."
In addition to creating his own work, Halperen reviews art exhibitions, has written catalogues and monographs, taught modern art history, lectured on North Carolina art, and curated/juried exhibitions around the state. He has taught at NC State University since 1956 and is currently a professor emeritus. As an artist he has moved over a period of many years, from tight realism in black and white to symbolist and surreal work in bright colors.
For more info check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call Artspace at 919/821-2787 or at (www.artspacenc.org).
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