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UNC Asheville's National Juried Drawing Exhibition Opens January 13

January 6, 2012

UNC Asheville's Art Department will open "Drawing Discourse," the university's third annual national juried drawing exhibition, with a lecture by juror Jerome Witkin at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, in Lipinsky Auditorium on campus. An opening reception will follow from 6-8 p.m. in the S. Tucker Cooke Gallery in Owen Hall. These events are free and open to the public.

Witkin, a figurative artist whose works often deal with political and cultural themes, reviewed more than 400 entries submitted by more than 100 artists representing 34 states. Witkin selected 41 works for the exhibition.

Witkin’s works are found in the permanent collections of many prominent museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Witkin is professor of Art, Design and Transmedia at the Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts, where he has taught for three decades. He has garnered numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Cooper Union Lifetime Achievement Award.

"With this third annual exhibit, we continue our examination of drawing as it is practiced and defined by today's artists," said Tamie Beldue, UNC Asheville assistant professor of art and coordinator of the exhibit. "Our students, like the working artists in this exhibit, are using conventional and innovative methods, sometimes combining different approaches. This exhibit highlights the continued significance and vitality of drawing."

UNC Asheville's S. Tucker Cooke Gallery is free and open to the public, and the "Drawing Discourse," exhibit will be on view from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, through February 3. For more information, visit the Art Department website or call 828.251.6559.