July Issue 1999
Three Exhibits this Summer At St. John's Museum
The St. John's Museum in Wilmington, NC, will present three exhibitions this Summer, ranging from portrait sculptures, to works by untrained artists works with developmental disabilities.
An exhibition of portraits by one of the most-noted American sculptures of our time Portraits in Three Dimensions, by Isamu Noguchi will feature eleven works in cast bronze, plaster, clay and wood, as well as several floor installations. The exhibition opened June 17 and will continue through Sept. 12.
Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles in 1904, the son of Japanese poet Yone Noguchi and American writer Leonie Gilmour. He began his career in clay, working in an academic style that quickly brought him success. In 1927 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship allowing him to study sculpture in Paris, where he was employed in the studio of sculptor Constantine Brancusi as an assistant. Returning to America two years later, Noguchi supported himself by sculpting portrait heads cast in bronze. Portraits by Isamu Noguchi represents eleven of his finest works in portraiture created between 1931 and 1949 in cast bronze as well as plaster, clay and wood.
In the Museum's Hughes Gallery "Complex Gifts: Introducing the Artists of Signature House" will open on July 8 and continue through Sept. 12. This exhibit features untrained art by artistically gifted adults who are challenged by developmental disabilities.
Biblical narrative and big-finned Chevys celebrate life, freedom
and unaffected expression in Complex Gifts, an exhibition
of over twenty works by six untrained artists from Signature Home
in Morganton, NC.
Swirling circus scenes by Brooks Yeomans, purple hot rods by Ricky
Needham and brilliant paradisiacal beasts and plants by Harold
Crowell are featured works in Complex Gifts, as well as
pottery and hand-tied fishing flies. Each of the artists in Complex
Gifts works at Signature Studio, a studio and gallery for
artists whose exceptional talents overshadow the disabilities
and challenges they face in everyday life. In 1993, Signature,
this country's only home for artistically gifted adults challenged
by developmental disabilities, was opened by the Western Carolina
Center Foundation.
Western Carolina Center's fine arts and creative therapy programs are designed to help residents find and develop any creative potential they might possess.
Featured in the Sales Gallery through July 18 are two exhibits by two artists who work in ceramics, Aaron Wilcox: Tension and Hiroshi Sueyoshi: Containment.
Ceramisict Aaron Wilcox moved to Wilmington in Aug. 1998 to
assume positions as part-time lecturer at UNC-Wilmington and art
instructor at Cape Fear Academy. Wilcox received an MFA from Cranbrook
Academy of Art in May 1998 and of his work in porcelain states,
"Ceramics does not exist on the periphery of the context
of Art; it is an integral part of Art. Relevant work must acknowledge
the history of the medium while being an active participant in
contemporary Art discourse."
A native of Tokyo, Hiroshi Sueyoshi came to this country over
twenty years ago to help design and build Humble Mill Pottery
in Asheboro, NC. He worked at Seagrove as a production potter
and taught in Sampson and Wilson Counties and at Cape Fear Community
College where he is currently an instructor. The exhibit, Containment
features work employing the Japanese techniques of neriage and
nerikomi, processes of sandwiching and faceting uncolored and
colored porcelain to render the look of "rock." The
color penetrates the object rather than existing as surface decoration.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery
listings or call the museum at 910/763-0281.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC
29431
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