Calendar of Events

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at The Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from November 6-24, 2020. A free reception with the artists will take place on Friday, November 6, from 5:00-8:00 PM. All visitors to the Emporium are asked to wear a mask and maintain physical distancing guidelines. Most of the works will be for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store.

To many artists, paper is considered a flat surface waiting to receive an image, line, or thought. It is used as a backdrop. However, paper can also be an artistic medium in its own right and can be used to produce sculptural and three dimensional shapes. Paper is generally defined as derived from plant based cellulose fiber, processed into a pulp with large amounts of water to separate the individual fibers, and then entwined during the forming and drying processes. Proper preparation of the pulp will also promote chemical bonding between like fibers, further strengthening the resulting paper. The wet pulp and can be formed over a screen as sheets, cast, stretched over forms, molded with stencils, or built into 3-dimensional shapes when wet or after drying. In addition, non-paper objects can be embedded into the paper as it is formed. The paper in this new exhibition represents many of the techniques for forming three dimensional paper objects, including pouring, casting, stenciling, wet forming, dry forming, and embedding objects.

Bruce Bunting’s introduction to papermaking came from his work as an automotive engineer, which included a cellulosic biofuel project with a commercial paper mill. He became more interested in the paper than the biofuel, which led to reading papermaking books, taking papermaking classes, and visiting paper mills and paper artists. Papermaking combines art, materials, chemistry, and equipment in a way that fits his interests and background. He has built all of his own equipment in his current papermaking studio. He is shifting toward the production of large sheet paper, up to about 24x48”, and is working in collaboration with other artists. Learn more: www.brucebuntingart.com or www.postcardsarepaper.art.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed Wednesday-Friday, November 25-27, for the holidays. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.