Calendar of Events

Silas Reynolds is a self-taught artist from Morristown, TN, known for his bold and vibrant abstract paintings. He currently resides in Knoxville, TN, where he continues to create his energetic works of art. As a second-generation artist, Silas had a passion for creativity from a very young age and began drawing as a child. It wasn't until his mid-twenties that Silas commenced painting, and he quickly became captivated by the freedom of abstract expressionism, which allowed him to express himself in a unique way. He uses bold colors and shapes over multiple layers to create depth and texture, using acrylic and spray paint as his primary mediums. He draws inspiration from nature, fashion, and design and is influenced by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Alex Brewer. Silas believes that art is open to interpretation and encourages viewers to explore their own personal meanings and connections within his pieces.

Silas will be opening his show in our Guest Gallery this Saturday from 2 to 5pm. Come see his incredible work and hear his story of his work.

Hours: Friday through Sunday 11am to 5pm

Pivot Point Gallery, 15 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-248-0050, www.pivotpointgallery.com

February 17 - March 5: THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall

What was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thinking about as he sat on his stiff, polyester-covered bed at the Lorraine Motel on his last night alive? Did he have any idea what was about to happen? What would he have wanted people to know about him? Katori Hall takes a stunning look at all of these questions and fills them in with brilliant imagination in her play THE MOUNTAINTOP. A speech, a storm, a visitation, a vision: how does a hero's journey end?

Tickets: https://www.simpletix.com/e/the-mountaintop-by-katori-hall-tickets-116042

River & Rail Theatre, 111 State Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-407-0727, www.riverandrailtheatre.com

The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

Performances are Thu-Sun; tickets at https://knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com/tc-events/beauty-and-the-beast/

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Free and open to the public
Reception Fri Feb 17, 6-7:30 PM with artists' talks at 6:30 PM

Lisa Kurtz
I have made wall pieces out of clay since way back in graduate school. Before I made pottery, I painted, so I often think of these wall pieces as clay canvases or clay landscapes with texture. I also like to add mixed media to some of my wall pieces, such as driftwood, shells, and other found objects. All my clay wall art is wired on the back or mounted on wood and wired so that it hangs easily - just like a painting would. I also love to make clay wall pouches, which can hold water and be used as wall vases for flowers. I have worked with clay for over 40 years and fell in love with the fluid and impressionable characteristics of this wonderful medium in college. Rocks and water have always inspired me. I love the streams running through the mountains, and I also love the ocean. I am fascinated by the effect that water has on the earth and the calming effect water has on people. The textures and colors in water, sand, sea birds, shells, rocks, and marine creatures inform my work and my glazes. I mix up all my own glazes and am often tweaking them to highlight the textures that I put on my pieces. My goal is to infuse my work with the peaceful feelings that water worn rocks, landscape, and waves give to me and share those feelings with others through my art.

Kate McCullough
I began painting in watercolor about 20 years ago after a 35-year hiatus from art. Initially my studies at Villa Marie College and SUNY College at Buffalo included general design, art history and oil and acrylic painting. When I returned to painting, I decided that watercolor was a medium that I would like to explore. I immediately fell in love with it and I have not looked back. I started with courses with Marcia Goldenstein and Whitney Leland at UT and then moved on to workshops at Arrowmont with Don Lake and Sue Archer, Kanuga with Linda Baker and Don Andrews, Cheap Joe’s with Linda Kemp, three workshops with John Salminen and a couple with Paul Jackson. I presently teach a watercolor class at the Fountain City Art Center. I am the former president of the Knoxville Watercolor Society, a member of the Art Market Gallery in downtown Knoxville, a signature member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society.

Gallery hours: Mon-Thu 9:30-4:30, Sun 9-1.
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tue-Thu 10 AM - 4 PM. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

Rala is pleased to present local artist Annie Rochelle as our featured artist for the months of February and March! Her show "People, Plants, and Other Myths" continues her exploration of the intersection of culture and the environment. Please join us for the show opening on Friday, February 3rd from 6 to 8pm.

Annie Rochelle is a practicing artist working and living in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Her artistic interests are divided: between draftsmanship and experimental abstraction; the challenging marriage of Old Masters’ techniques and traditional subject matter with contemporary aesthetics and social sensibilities. Her new interest in botanical forms have opened a new investigation into the relationships among human, artificial, and natural aesthetics. Annie Rochelle is also a two-time 1st place winner of Rala's Annual Dolly Art Contest.

Rala: Regional and Local Artisans, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-6, Su 11-5. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com or www.instagram.com/ShopRala

Opening reception will be Sunday, January 29th from 2—4 PM with a gallery talk at 1:30 PM.

Women’s Work series will celebrate sunlight, moonbeams, and light of all types as well as new ideas, truths, and perhaps epiphanies! Light takes many forms and we are asking women in our region to interpret the phrase, “ I see the light!” in a new or well loved piece.

At Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

Tri-Star Arts is pleased to announce the artist roster, curators, and highlight weekend dates for the inaugural Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art: RE-PAIR, opening January 27, 2023 and on view through May 7, 2023. The recent changes and movements in the world inform our vision and the galvanizing spirit that centers on the rich history of the arts in Tennessee as a means to engage excellence in contemporary art.

Visual art offers a tool towards a common language fostering dialogue across communities, around the state, the country and internationally. The Tennessee Triennial serves as an experience to help us process this moment and propel us forward. It is a geographically fluid conversation that engages people of all ages and backgrounds.

The Tennessee Triennial has chosen a statewide model that is set apart and unprecedented. Curators from institutions in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga have been invited to respond to the theme of RE-PAIR, authored by Consulting Curator, Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons. This horizontal approach allows for each curator to be active in selecting participating artists. The Tennessee Triennial is a collective endeavor that emphasizes Tennessee’s contemporary art community while including national and international perspectives.

The participating venues along with their curators and artists may be found at https://www.tennesseetriennial.org/

KNOXVILLE
Big Ears Festival (Curator: Rachel Milford)
Lonnie Holley
Knoxville Museum of Art (Curators: Kelsie Conley and Stephen Wicks)
Willie Cole
Katie Hargrave & Meredith Laura Lynn
Bessie Harvey
Lonnie Holley
Kahlil Robert Irving
Suzanne Jackson
Mary Laube
Annabeth Marks
Rosemary Mayer
Althea Murphy-Price
Betye Saar
Faith Wilding
Tri-Star Arts (Curator: Brian R. Jobe)
Kenturah Davis
Rubens Ghenov
Hank Willis Thomas

The inaugural Tennessee Triennial is a unified multi-site, multi-city exhibition that promotes contemporary visual art as a tool to foster constructive dialogue across communities, the state, the country, and internationally. The 2023 theme and core concept of the inaugural Tennessee Triennial is “RE-PAIR,” set forth by Consulting Curator María Magdalena Campos-Pons as the guiding curatorial concept for all exhibiting venues participating in the Tennessee Triennial.

Responding to the Triennial RE-PAIR theme about art designed “To heal, suture, and recompose fractured bodies”, “re-pair, patch, rebuild spirits, bodies, cities, political institutions, economic relationships,” the Knoxville Museum of Art presents works emphasizing the transformative power of art to propose new solutions to recent global discord.

The KMA’s Triennial presentation features a thought-provoking selection of objects created by a diverse, intergenerational slate of 13 international artists from across the U.S.: Willie Cole, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Katie Hargrave & Meredith Laura Lynn, Kahlil Robert Irving, Suzanne Jackson, Mary Laube, Annabeth Marks, Rosemary Mayer, Althea Murphy-Price, Betye Saar, and Faith Wilding.

The exhibited works address a broad range of conceptual concerns ranging from the intersection of the personal and the political, to environmental, cultural, and spiritual. They express artists’ deep interest in material as a means of interpreting and amplifying these concerns. They are touched and pressed, deconstructed, constructed and made anew. They embody histories that sensitively embrace contradiction and complication, and that challenge diverse audiences to look both forward and backwards towards “new sites of encounters with yet undefined edges, borders and territories” in search of RE-PAIR.

A major statewide contemporary art event organized by Tri-Star Arts. Consulting Curator: María Magdalena Campos-Pons.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Catron Gallery, R. Jack Fishman Library
Jason Brown is an associate professor of Art at the University of TN, Knoxville. His work explores the impact that extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas have on the ecosystems and watersheds of Appalachian landscapes. Coal mining and mountaintop removal are especially compelling subjects for his sculptures and installations, which challenge viewers to engage in a civic dialogue about individuality, community and place.

Walters State Community College, 500 S. Davy Crockett, Morristown
www.ws.edu

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture is proud to announce the special exhibition, The Sculpture of William Edmondson: Tombstones, Garden Ornaments and Stonework, in partnership with Cheekwood Estate & Gardens. The exhibition is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Division of Diversity and Engagement and will run from January 13 to May 14, 2023.

The exhibition reexamines and recontextualizes the life and work of African American artist William Edmondson (1874–1951). Edmondson is the most significant sculptor to emerge from Tennessee during the 1930s and 40s and remains one of the leading American artists of the twentieth century.

This is the first large-scale museum exhibition of the artist’s career in over twenty years. During Edmondson’s life, he was well known for his yard art, including whimsical birdbaths, fanciful "critters," sculptures of everyday people, and grave markers he carved for African American families.
https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/2022/12/13/mcclung-museum-to-feature-one-of-the-most-significant-collections-of-tennessee-artist-william-edmondson-in-new-exhibition/

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 12–4 p.m.

Featuring Steve Olson's first solo photography show!
Reception on Sun Jan 22, 2-4 PM

The Center is the second building on the right when you turn into Rarity Bay. The Center is open Monday thru Friday 9 to 4. It is best to call ahead because the Center often has meetings or events going on: 423-884-3800

150 Rarity Bay Pkwy, Vonore, TN 37885