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August Issue 2006
Davidson County Community College in Lexington, NC, Offers Group Exhibit on Attractions
Contemporary art forms will unite with traditional media and subject matter to form the fall art exhibit, Opposites Attract, at Davidson County Community College in Lexington, NC. The exhibit will open on Aug. 22 and continue through Dec. 15, 2006, in the Mendenhall Building on the Davidson Campus. Ten artists from four states, including North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia will display work that ranges from digital photography to expressive paintings. The objective of the exhibit is to build a bridge between the two approaches by exploring the figure, landscape, or still life in a modern way.
The exhibiting artists are Lis Anna of Asheville, NC, offering digital photography; Rachel Bishop Compton of Woodleaf, NC, featuring oil, pastel and mixed media; Jennifer Edwards of Kernersville, NC, showing charcoal, pastel, watercolor and mixed media; Helen Etters of Winston-Salem, NC, offering digital photography; Greig Leach of Richmond, VA, featuring works in oilsticks; Todd McDonald of Seneca, SC, presenting works in oil; Stephanie Neely of Charlotte, NC, offering oil pastel; Zachary Orcutt of Rudolph, OH, showing sculpture; Kevin Palme of Fletcher, NC, offering works in acrylic and oil; and Patricia Sarvis of Winston-Salem, NC, showing works in oil, pastel and acrylic.
Sculptor Zachary Orcutt plays with the metaphor of flight in his contemporary, sometimes light-hearted works. His aluminum, bronze, steel and found object constructions, made from society's waste, make viewers reevaluate their perspectives. Painter Todd McDonald follows a theme of construction versus deconstruction in his expertly rendered oils. These paintings imply expansion or contraction as structures are abstracted through formal variation.
Minimalist Kevin Palme creates meditative paintings in the colorfield method featuring broad areas of color across the canvas. These works are inspired by his personal relationship to landscapes and memories of places. As a counterpoint to this approach, the colorful figurative and still life works of Greig Leach are bustling with activity and movement. In these oilstick on paper pieces, Leach balances on the edge of the traditional divide between abstract formal painting and narrative storytelling.
By also using time-honored subjects in expressive, unconventional ways, artists Jennifer Edwards, Lis Anna and Helen Etters serve as bridges between the two stylistic poles of the show. Like Leach, Edwards and Anna are also storytellers. Through the familiar forms of figure, portrait and tree, Edwards expressively manipulates color and charcoal in the vein of the Expressionists and Fauves. Photographer and filmmaker Lis Anna retells a familiar story with a twist through her elegant series of manipulated digital photographs, Apple and Eve. Two works from her series Tell-A-Vision are also included in the exhibit.
A self-taught photographer, Helen Etters combines her love of computers with her art form via digital manipulation. She uses nature's forms, exploring reflections and shadows as lines in her gracefully manipulated floral forms and more straightforward landscapes.
Another self-taught artist depicting floral imagery and landscapes is Stephanie Neely. Through her masterful oil pastels, she explores color and the play of light through petals in a photorealistic style. She is inspired by a desire to encounter the mysterious, dangerous beauty of nature, along with its sense of freedom.
Artists Rachel Bishop Compton and Patricia Sarvis explore color in their typical landscape works. Sarvis, whose landscapes are inspired by her travels as well as scenes of North Carolina, relishes rich colors and textures. Primarily a plein air oil painter, Compton exhibits small format landscapes. In addition, three of her abstract media works are included in the show, demonstrating that she is challenged by different subjects and mediums to best express her creative spirit.
Davidson County Community College - a comprehensive community college established in 1958 - provides quality educational programs and services to prepare people in Davidson and Davie counties for enhanced employment and educational opportunities. During the 2004-2005 academic year, the College provided more than 16,000 individuals with instruction. The College is committed to enhancing the ability of individuals and organizations to live, earn, cope, change, survive, succeed, and prosper through perpetual, lifelong learning experiences. These learning experiences create choices and enhance opportunities for education and employment, thereby providing viable means to improve the quality of life in the community.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call Teenie Bingham,
Director, External Affairs, at 336/249.8186, ext. 6239.
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