News & Events

UNC Asheville Invitational Art Exhibit Opens October 1

September 28, 2010

A new exhibit featuring ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture opens October 1 at UNC Asheville's S. Tucker Cooke Gallery. The exhibiting artists have been invited by the Art Department faculty and represent the six media concentrations currently offered at UNC Asheville.

The artists are: Christina Z. Anderson, Black and Jones (Kell Black and Barry Jones), Joyce Blunk, Bill Byers, Ron Fondaw, Celia Gray, Taiyo la Paix, Phillip McGuire, Josh McNolty, Anat Pollack, Michelle Rozic, Easton Selby, Tom Turner and Gerry Wubben.

An opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, October 1, in the gallery, located in UNC Asheville’s Owen Hall. The exhibit is free and open to the public, and continues through November 9. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. weekdays.

 The artists are a diverse group working in many different media:

Christina Z. Anderson came to photography by way of painting. Her work concentrates on the 21st century cultural landscape expressed in 19th century processes. She is Assistant Professor of Photography and Photo Option Coordinator at Montana State University, Bozeman, where she teaches alternative and experimental process photography.

Black and Jones are an audio/video artist team that specializes in AV performance. Using the techniques of digital sound and video editing — both in the studio and in live performances — their work explores the history of cinema, the culture of the Internet, the richness of language, the pervasiveness of music and all the ways in which media intersect and interact to create new languages expressive of our time. Both are on the faculty at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville Tennessee. Kell Black is Professor of Art in Drawing and New Media and Barry Jones is Associate Professor of Art in New Media/Visual Communication.

Joyce Blunk is a longtime resident of Asheville who is the recipient of three North Carolina Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowships and the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. She has been awarded numerous residency fellowships in the United States and highly competitive European residencies in Austria, Ireland, France, Spain and Germany. Her paintings and box sculptures have been widely exhibited throughout the United States, and internationally.

Bill Byers often spends time in the forests near Brevard with a camera in hand. Photographs made during his excursions in the woods often serve as the basis for his paintings. Byers is Professor of Art at Brevard College where he teaches painting, drawing and photography; this is his 25th year on the faculty.

Ron Fondaw is Professor of Sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis. He formerly taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Fondaw is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

Celia Gray earned a Bachelor of Arts in painting from UNC Asheville in 2008. She lives in Asheville and teaches courses at the Asheville Bookworks and at Penland School of Crafts. Since graduating, she has had group and solo exhibitions in numerous venues, including Blue Spiral Gallery. She was also recently awarded an artist residency at the Vermont Studio School.

Taiyo la Paix lives and works in Weaverville. La Paix combines illustration, Japanese anime and art historical references into a body of paintings about fantasy and desire, all portraying his relationship with one particular person. Like Picasso's Dora Maar and Andrew Wyeth's Helga, la Paix's unnamed subject reveals an artist's obsession with a particular woman, though in la Paix's case she is fictional.

Phillip McGuire received an honorable mention earlier this year in UNC Asheville’s first national drawing competition and exhibition, “Drawing Discourse.” McGuire is a longtime resident of North Carolina who currently resides in Asheville. He earned his bachelor's degree in art marketing and production from Appalachian State University.

Josh McNolty began college with the intention of studying animation, but then chose drawing and printmaking. He has studied with professors Kevin Heran and Robert Rivers at the University of Central Florida, and with Robert Dunning, professor of art at UNC Asheville. McNolty now attends graduate school at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Anat Pollack uses multimedia installations and virtual space to create multi-sensory, interactive experiences. She is Assistant Professor and Director of Electronic Media at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University.

Michelle Rozic has exhibited her work in Italy and the United States. Rozic is Assistant Professor of Art in Drawing and Printmaking at Stephen F. Austin State University and holds a master’s degree in printmaking from Indiana University.

Easton Selby, raised in Central Mississippi in a family of storytellers, artists and musicians, says his work is inspired by his experiences growing up in the South. Selby has a master’s degree in visual arts at Clemson University and a bachelor’s degree in photography from Delta State University in Mississippi.

Tom Turner is a porcelain potter with 49 years in clay, who has pursued classic ageless beauty. His work appears in more than 30 books written in five countries, and is displayed in art museums across the United States including the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Concerned with material, process and form, Turner is a maker, collector, historian and teacher of ceramic art.

Gerry Wubben has garnered numerous regional and national awards for his prints, drawings, paintings and sculptures, which are found in private and public collections including the Kansas City Art Institute and the SGC International print collection. Wubben is Professor of Art at McNeese State University in Louisiana and holds a master’s degree in printmaking from Indiana University.

For more information, call the UNC Asheville Art Department at 828.251.6559 or visit http://www2.unca.edu/art/.