Cara Smelter @ So & So Books
CARA SMELTER at So & So Books
February 1st, 2024 - April 26th, 2024
719 N. Person St, Raleigh NC, 27604
Artist Statement
My name is Cara Smelter and I tell short, non-fiction stories, with my linocuts. I am a trained scholar of African American History and a self-taught printmaker. My text driven linocuts are an intersection of my scholarship and creative pursuits enabling me to blend my love of language and the craft of story-telling, with the art of block printing. I would be remiss if I did not highlight that the titles of each print are of equal importance as the print itself. The titles are either in direct conversation with the linocut or provide critical context, narrative detail, and thick description that bring each piece to life.
My micro-narrative linocuts draw on my lived experience and allow the viewer to peer into my candid thoughts, feelings, struggles, and joys. My linocuts enable me to grapple with complicated emotions and the realities of my life. Some common themes in my work include: living in a disabled body; reflecting on my grief journey; and processing the impact of childhood abuse and neglect. I explore sexuality, love, death, trauma, addiction, compassion, and empathy in my life and often use my stories as vehicles to make social, cultural, and political commentary.
While my prints depict stories specific to my life, they feature characteristics of life and culture that appear across the narratives of others who have experienced similar struggles, joys, thoughts, and feelings. I endeavor to create linocuts that engages the viewer in what feels like an intimate conversation between friends - a conversation that brings levity to tough situations and lets the viewer know, I really fucking get it.
Biography
Cara Smelter is a child of the (long-leaf) pine. Cara's senior pug, WALL-E, is "Raleigh famous" and definitely has more followers than her on Instagram. Cara lives (unfamously) and hand-pulls prints in Raleigh, NC.
a sign from god
Linocut
9 x 12
2023
how are you feeling? really.
Linocut
9 x 12
2023
cara a. smelter lived
Linocut
9 x 12
2023
our love is dynamite
Linocut
9 x 12
2023
i love a good opossum
Linocut
4 x 4
2019
mantra
Linocut
5 x 7
2018
Exhibition Checklist + Pricing
a sign from god : $300
how are you feeling? really. : $300
cara a. smelter lived: $300
our love is dynamite : $300
i love a good opossum : $75
mantra : $150
to inquire about purchasing a piece please email Ant (they/them)!
AFTER/GLOW - NEW LIGHT + NEON
AFTER/GLOW - NEW LIGHT + NEON
December 2023 - January 2024
Opening Reception: December 1, 6-8PM
After/Glow presents works of light and neon art that merge craft and critique. The Triangle based artists manipulate light waves, particles, glass, and gas to create experiences that are nostalgic, yet they utilize new technologies and processes, pushing the boundaries of light as a medium.
ARTISTS
Bre King - Durham, NC
DJ Neon - Durham, NC
CJ Murphy - Raleigh, NC
Anna Payne Rogers Previtte - Raleigh, NC
Ty Van de Zande - Raleigh, NC
Jason Blyskal
ILLUMINATE ART WALK 2023 - For the month of December VAE Raleigh will be the home of Jason Blyskal’s stained glass installation “As Above, So Below.” The Illuminate Art Walk is a public art program put on by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance every December that features several works of art around the city that use light to create immersive installations for the public to enjoy.
Contemporary Muslim Art CFA
CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM ART OF NORTH CAROLINA
Call Closes: January 13, 11:59PM
Notification: late January
Exhibition: February - May, 2024
From February - April 2024, VAE will be exhibiting the work of contemporary Muslim artists in an exhibition that will center, support, and uplift Muslim artists in the Triangle and the larger South. Through VAE’s open source and collaborative working model we seek to create an exhibition that not only brings awareness to the historical circumstances related to Muslim identity, but also celebrates the rich and diverse identities of Muslim people.
A team of steering committee members and VAE staff will review the applications in late winter.
The call for art closes on Saturday, January 13th at 11:59PM. Artists will be notified in mid-January. If you have any questions or request accommodations, please email Ant (ant@vaeraleigh.org). Please do not reach out about the status of your application. Applications that are incomplete will not be reviewed.
At this time we are only seeking submissions for artists based in North Carolina.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Rakan DiarBakerli (he/him)
Rakan is currently working at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University after 10 years of teaching science in the classroom. He is passionate about cultural learning, exploration of the natural world, gaming, and visual storytelling. Any opportunity he finds disposable income, it goes straight to finding his next adventure in a land he has never been. He hopes to immerse himself in new cultures, languages, and food with people he has never met before!
Waad Husein (she/her)
Waad Husein is a Sudanese-American artist and designer. She enjoys experimenting with a variety of mediums such as photography, illustration and collage. Her work explores the visual rhythms of being a third culture kid, architecture and nostalgia. Waad is a co-founder of Tabadul Collective, an arts organizing group rooted in exploring identity and creativity.
Kulsum Tasnif (she/her)
Kulsum Tasnif is a mixed media artist who uses a wide range of techniques and approaches, much of which deal with social issues and the way they affect the Muslim-American community to which she belongs. Her current exhibit, “Backpacking Method,” is a multi-sensory public art project for Raleigh Stories (a public art project supported by Raleigh Arts) which celebrates diverse communities of Method Road by memorializing their legacies. In January 2023, Kulsum founded Artist Ummah, a non-profit cultural arts organization for the Triangle Muslim-American community and beyond. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for VAE Raleigh.
ENTRY INFORMATION
To use the online form to submit information about and images of your work, please review these instructions for naming your files.
All files should be named like so: FIRST INITIAIL LASTNAME#_TITLE.jpg, FIRST INITIAIL LASTNAME#_TITLE.jpg, etc. (e.g. JDoe1_Untitled)
Still images should be sent as jpegs should be at least 1000px at their widest dimension, not to exceed 2MB per image. 2D artists may submit one JPEG per entry. 3D artists may submit two JPEGS (one full shot and one detail) per entry. Follow the filename format for works as indicated above.
Video samples should be edited to no longer than 2-minute excerpts. It is strongly preferred that video & audio artists submit their work online through clips or URL addresses to online sharing formats like Vimeo, Youtube, or Dropbox. Videos submitted as uploaded files should be no larger than 10MB (as that is the largest file eligible for upload on our entry software). Video pieces will only be accepted for exhibition if they are captioned, either with open captioning, that is integrated into the video or closed captioning that can be turned on when needed. Read info about captioning videos on Youtube, with iMovie, or Quicktime! Please only submit video art or video documentation of an art piece that requires video to be fully experienced. Do not send video walk-throughs of static exhibitions or video slideshows.
Audio: Audio should be submitted as separate MP3 files. Each track should be no longer than 2 minutes. Follow the filename format for works as indicated above.
Web-based: Web-based work should be submitted as a URL listed in the work sample list. Please only submit web-based projects. A portfolio website that features audio/video art and still images will not be considered.
Eligibility
The call for art is open to any living artist based in North Carolina who identifies with the theme of Muslim Art. A maximum of 2 works of any medium, per artist may be submitted. Two- and three-dimensional entries will be accepted. Work must be original and completed in the last 5 years. VAE Raleigh reserves the right to exclude work due to size or special requirements. Entries must be hand-delivered to the gallery or mailed in a returnable container.
We will not exhibit or financially support work that co-opts the story of a community without representation from that community acting in a decision making role.
Accessibility
VAE’s gallery entrance, lobby, and exhibition space are all located on the ground floor with accessible paths of travel. The space has flexible seating and an accessible restroom. Our aim is to make entering our exhibitions accessible to everyone. If you need any additional information or accommodations in order to enter this exhibition please email Ant or call 919.828.7834 and leave a message.
Visit our accessibility page for more information.
Sales
VAE Raleigh will retain a commission of 30% for all works sold during the run of the exhibition. If a work is not for sale, please enter "NFS" in the "Price for Entry" field in the entry form. An insurance value is still required for artworks that are not for sale.
Liability
All entries will be handled with the utmost care and respect. VAE is not liable for artwork during transportation to or from the gallery but does carry a blanket inland marine policy that covers most fine artworks and craft items up to $5,000. VAE reserves the right to refuse coverage to artwork with inherent vices, high values, or that is deemed unstable.
Nick Osetek @ So & So Books
NICK OSETEK at SO & SO BOOKS
October 19, 2023 - January 3, 2024
So & So Books | 119 N Person Steet, Raleigh NC, 27604
The works on display are a selection of experimental, hand-printed artist proofs and monoprints made while studying advanced printmaking at Appalachian State. Traditionally, printmaking is known for repetition and duplication of a repeatable image, but through alternative techniques, monotype, or monoprinting; a one-off print can be produced that’s unique from a numbered edition. The selection features a variety of these techniques, as well as examples of hybridizing mediums into a single print, such as woodblock and photographic-intaglio or silkscreen and stone lithography. All prints displayed are attempts in pushing the bounds of the printmaking medium and are one of a kind, produced through alternative techniques, hybridization, and/or monoprinting.
Bio
Nick Osetek
Nick Osetek is an illustrator, printmaker, and tattooer currently working in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2016 from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina with a concentration in studio art and advanced printmaking. The 2 years following his degree, he taught woodshop foundations to incoming art students at Appalachian State, then completed a 6-month, sustainable printmaking internship at Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Massachusetts.
Former helicopter mechanic and engineering technician, Osetek holds an appreciation for technique, process-involved mediums, and displays a meticulous sense of detail in his work. The subject of his visual work draws inspiration from organic and mechanical compositions, contained chaos with moments of serendipity, and the darker elements of the world that exists within and without us.
Where Are You Really From? : An Exhibition of First and Second Generation Artists
“Where Are You Really From?”
An Exhibition of First and Second-Generation Artists
August - November | Dock 1053
Opening Reception: August 18th, 6-8 PM
Going about daily life as a first or second-generation immigrant, one pesky little question tends to find its way in introductions and conversations: Where are you really from? No matter how isolating the question feels, we sigh, and answer politely. This seemingly casual and insignificant question manages to catch you off guard, bringing you to question your identity for a moment's time. Making yourself question: Where Am I Really From?
This exhibition was conceived to grasp hold of that eternal question and provide first and second generation artists with a platform to answer it wholeheartedly. Immigrants act as a backbone to America. It is vital to acknowledge the pathway of cultural unity and awareness that immigrants have created. This exhibition is meant to explore that; The way in which first-generation and second-generation immigrants navigate their way through new expectations, standards, and roles while also carrying their cultural uniqueness. “Where Are You Really From?” is to act as a conduit for first-generation and second-generation immigrants to share their personhood and development through art. Their art serves as a powerful testament to the intricate interplay between cultural heritage, personal narratives, and artistic innovation.
Drawing from their ancestral roots while navigating the complexities of their present reality, these talented artists craft works that resonate with a profound sense of belonging and self-discovery. Through vibrant paintings to brutal imagery, this exhibition weaves together a tapestry of diverse perspectives. It offers a glimpse into the struggles, triumphs, and enduring resilience of these artists' forebears, while also showcasing their own unique experiences and visions. Each brushstroke is a testament to the power of art as a bridge that connects the past and present, forging an unbreakable bond between generations and cultures. As you immerse yourself in "Where Are You Really From?" you are invited to explore the profound ways in which the rich legacy of first and second-generation immigrants continues to shape and inspire the vibrant world of contemporary art.
Contemporary Indigenous Artists of NC
Contemporary Indigenous Artists of North Carolina
June - August, 2023 | VAE Pop Up Space - 208 Fayetteville St, Unit 204
ARTISTS
Jessica Clark
Xavier Davis
Marcus Dunn
Miriam Ximil
STEERING COMMITTEE
Claire Alexandre
Dennis Redmoon Darkeem
In 2023 VAE will be launching a new initiative that will center Contemporary Indigenous American Artists. Through our open source and collaborative working model we seek to create exhibitions and public programming that not only bring awareness to the historical circumstances related to Indigenous identity, but also celebrates the rich and diverse identities of Indigenous People.
Our Vision: In 2023 we will be launching the first stage of this initiative. The first project will be a group exhibition curated from an open call for art. The call for art will be open to any Indigenous artist living in North Carolina. This exhibition will feature a suite of programs that compliment the exhibition, as well as highlight the cultural importance of North Carolina’s Indigenous population.
In 2024 it is our hope to bring a cross-institutional, city-wide focus to Indigenous art through exhibitions, public programming, and a correlating publication. In 2024 we plan to expand our scope to include a more wide reaching call-for-art and installation proposals accepted from artists across the country.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Each of the artists featured in the exhibition speak to different facets of Indigenous culture that are a part of a much larger narrative about Indigeneity in a contemporary context. Among these themes the importance of preserving culture, familial/ancestral connections, and storytelling are at the core of all of these works.
Jessica Clark’s works from her series Lumbee Family Values reflect scenes of everyday Lumbee life. Her representations of daily life are both a study in survival in the face of adversity and about the importance of retaining cultural identity. For Clark, the process of creating these works is a meditation on narrative and a celebration of, “the vitality of contemporary Native culture and identity, creating monuments to a people who have persevered in the face of oppression and appeal of assimilation.”
Xavier Davis’ work considers Indigenous histories and futures that merge into kaleidoscopic tableaus. These works are influenced by historical moments in the long history of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the circumstances surrounding the colonization of stolen Indigenous land, and the Cherokee resistance to give up their land.
Miriam Ximil’s Where This Flower Blooms looks at the importance of ancestral knowledge and the vital practice of connecting to one’s roots and to the Earth to become closer to our true selves. This way of knowing informs a way of belonging that puts emphasis on the relationship elders play in preserving Indigenous histories and narratives for future generations.
Marcus Dunn’s work looks at historical reference and assimilation, using these as a means of reconstructing historical narratives. Dunn uses both photographic records and imagined scenes to create portraits that “investigate the physical and psychological effects of cultural removal” in the contexts of Indigenous residential boarding schools. These schools were meant to eradicate Indigenous culture and practices through assimilation. Dunn’s work contemplates the complexity of these narratives and how they impact the present.
Sehrish Kahn @ So & So Books
Sehrish Kahn at So & So Books
719 N. Person St
Raleigh NC, 27604
April - June, 2023
Artist Statement
Sehrish Khan is a Pakistani artist based in North Carolina. Her work offers a blend of different colors, techniques, ideas and patterns, which is why she abstains from limiting herself to a single genre. Her work illustrates the amalgamation of enriched cultures and experiences. Her vision has been constantly shifting, which allows her to portray reality in that moment of time.
Sehrish finds herself ever-evolving in the world of art and illustration.
In Your Love
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions 12"x16"
Price: $800
Everything is your sign. When drowned in your love, there is no need to be scared by the waves of the world!
Homesick
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 1.5'x2'
Price: $1200
Lahore was a different world in its own; the busy life, the rich history, the colorful culture, and the unfamiliar faces!!!
Cold Icy Stare
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 3'x3'
Price: $1500
To the women who don't shy away from looking at the difficulties of life eye to eye. These are the women who have the power of changing perspectives; their eyes control the movements of emotions that surround them. These are the women who behold a cold icy stare.
Bare Hands and Gentle Thoughts
Dimensions: 3'x4'
Medium: oil on canvas
Price: $1200
She is a protector, a mother, a wife, but above all, she is a woman who falls in love with her work every day. Her bare hands and calloused fingers pay the price of not giving up. She is a woman of timelessness, never stopping to breathe and working constantly.
Exhibition Checklist + Pricing
In Your Love: $800
Homesick: $1,200
Cold Icy Stare: $1,500
Bare Hands and Gentle Thoughts: $1,200
to inquire about purchasing a piece please email Ant (they/them)!
The Pivotal Fund Community Exhibition
funding artists at pivotal moments
The Pivotal Fund provided direct financial support to artists for their creative practice and funded their most ambitious ideas.
The Pivotal Fund provided annual grants to self-identifying visual artists in Alamance, Chatham, Davidson, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Orange, Randolph, and Wake counties of North Carolina. This region is well-primed for significant investment in the individual artists that make up our creative community. This fund was designed to support artists who also exist in the geographical and creative margins and whose contributions to our burgeoning creative culture have historically been overlooked and under-resourced.
The Pivotal Fund was made possible through the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Regional Re-Granting Program.
The Regional Re-granting Program was established in 2007 to recognize and support the movement of independently organized, public-facing, artist-centered activity that animates local and regional art scenes but that lie beyond the reach of traditional funding sources.
The program is administered by non-profit visual art centers across the United States that work in partnership with the Foundation to fund artists’ experimental projects and collaborative undertakings.
Skully Gustafson - Hillsborough
- Livvie at the Moth Barn ($2000)
- Strawberry Hanggliders ($2300)
- Pet Cemetery ($2500)
Wiley Johnson - Raleigh
- Say I ($1100)
- Inner Here Now ($600)
- The World Inside Me I ($800)
Matt Marble - Greensboro
- Zahar: Lupine Peace ($80)
- Zahar: Wheel of Nature ($80)
- Zahar: The Ascending Tear ($80)
Jordan Robinson - Durham
- Shrine of Adventure ($5000)
- Halos of Memoirs ($5000)
- Temple of Healing ($5000)
ARTISTS
jonh blanco - Durham
- meditation on a rainmaker ($900)
- California AB 1096 Seal with Ball on Nose Figurine (NFS)
- untitled, artist sketchbook (NFS)
Chloe Crawford - Durham
- Upright Nationalism (NFS)
Xavier Davis - Raleigh
- Commoditized Influence ($4900)
- Menagerie ($2300)
- Salutations ($1500)
Gemynii - Durham
- Angel of Water, Angel of Air ($888)
- Miss B Haven ($555)
- Mayowa ($888)
to inquire about purchasing a piece from the exhibition please email Ant (they/them)!
Chieko Murasugi @ Red Hat
Chieko Murasugi at Red Hat
100 E. Davie Street
Raleigh NC, 27601
November 2022 - March 2023
Chieko in her studio.
Artist Bio
Chieko Murasugi is an abstract painter and mixed media artist who was born in Tokyo, raised in Toronto, and lived in San Francisco for 20 years before moving to North Carolina in 2012. Trained as a visual scientist and artist, she has a PhD in Experimental Psychology (York U) and an MFA in Studio Art (UNC-CH). Murasugi has exhibited her work nationally in galleries and museums, including the Mint Museum, Greenhill, UNCG’s Gatewood Gallery, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Her paintings are included in the collections of TIAA, Honeywell, the City of Raleigh, and Duke University. She is a co-founder of BASEMENT, an experimental, artist-run project space in Chapel Hill.
From left to right, Box Seat, Glacial, and Transpose
Artist Statement
Created in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my Shiro Kuro (White Black) works allude to dualities that exemplified those disquieting months: past and future, hope and despair, fragility and resilience.
Speaking through materials, I employed cheesecloth, an airy fabric once used to wrap napalm jelly in incendiary bombs. My choice references the WWII fire bombings of Tokyo, which my parents barely escaped, and which irrevocably altered their futures and their psyches. I coated the cheesecloth with rabbit skin glue, a sizing used since the Renaissance to seal canvases and when wet, glistens like jelly. When applied to cheesecloth, the glue stiffens and strengthens the fabric while remaining susceptible to moisture.
Shiro Kuro’s abstract compositions, punctuated by sections of blue ink and pages of old diary pages, embody both the vulnerability and potency of the human spirit across time.
Exhibition Checklist + Pricing
Glacial, $1200, cheesecloth, rabbit skin glue, paper, ink
Transpose, $1200, cheesecloth, rabbit skin glue, paper, ink
Box Seat, $600, cheesecloth, rabbit skin glue, paper, ink
to inquire about purchasing a piece please email Ant (they/them)!
Diwali 2022: Mandala Street Painting
Presented by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and VAE Raleigh
Sunday, October 23, 2022
228 Fayetteville St
12 PM - 5 PM
We are excited to welcome you to VAE Raleigh to celebrate Diwali through public art! Registration for this event is free. Please read all of the details so that we can ensure you enjoy the event and we keep everyone safe and healthy.
DETAILS:
- Groups are limited to 4 participants.
- Each registration form reserves a single street painting square. You will need to fill out one form for each square you wish to reserve.
- Each group will be provided with one box of Street Pastels for their mandala painting. Participants are welcome to bring additional chalk if they'd like.
- Water and snacks will be provided at the site. Please plan ahead for any other refreshments you'd like. No alcohol allowed.
- Please keep in mind that Fayetteville Street is shaded in some spots and sunny in others. Plan ahead with sunscreen, umbrellas for shade, warm clothes, and layers.
- There is no seating provided on the street. Participants are allowed to bring seating if they'd like.
- We ask that you complete your entire street painting square in the time allotted so that we can accommodate all registered groups safely.
- Complete all fields in this registration form. Incomplete forms will not reserve one of the limited street painting spots.
-Please review and sign the participant agreement at the bottom of this form.
QUESTIONS? Please contact kayla@vaeraleigh.org.
Debbie Robbins, New Works at Dock 1053
Debbie Robbins: New Works at Dock 1053
Dock 1053 - 1053 E. Whitaker Mill Rd.
Raleigh NC, 27604
October 2022 - January 2023
Artist Statement
Debbie’s background is in interior design, which gives her art a strong sense of design and color. Debbie sees art everywhere she goes.
Though Debbie did not paint much until she became an empty nester, her experimental nature has allowed her to quickly catch up. She feels comfortable with acrylics, her primary medium. The fast drying time of the medium allows Debbie to experiment with layers and textures using various mediums in her work.
Debbie received her B.A. in Interior Design at UNC-G. She is a former board member for Visual Art Exchange and still a volunteer. She was on the board at UNC Rex Cancer Center on the art committee. She is a member of Raleigh Fine Art Society.
To view more of Debbie’s work visit 311 Gallery!
Exhibition Checklist + Pricing
Luxury, 30x24
Sparkling, 40x40
Transfer, 36x48
2nd Layers, 30x30
Connections, 30x30
Textural, 30x24
to inquire about purchasing a piece please email Ant (they/them)!
CLAIM THE BODY: HEALING & AUTONOMY
Graphic Image Courtesy of Grey Von Cannon
August 11 - October 27, 2022
VAE Cube Gallery
228 Fayetteville St
Raleigh NC 27601
Claim the Body: Healing & Autonomy comes at a time when discourse related to autonomy is more important than ever. As rights continue to be stripped from the lives of people globally, VAE understands the importance of sensitivity regarding this subject matter. It is not our intention or goal to highlight trauma and disaster, but to instead focus on network building, mutual aid support, and community engagement that can be regenerative and healing.
Claim the Body features work from 8 artists, mostly artists from our immediate local community in North Carolina. We believe that to better facilitate community building and connections it is important to lean into our local community of artists, organizers, and champions of bodily autonomy to foster support, care, healing, and understanding amongst each other.
The ways in which we exercise our autonomy are vast and distinctive. Through dress, body adornment, healthcare decisions and interpersonal relationships, individuals make daily choices about their physical bodies and lifestyles. While some of these decisions are fleeting or aesthetic, they often reflect deeply held convictions, significant deliberation, and creativity. There is power in that.
While bodily autonomy is deeply personal, it is rarely exercised or experienced in isolation. The confidants, abortion care providers, tattoo artists, organizers, doulas, mutual aid efforts, and innumerable others are critical to our choices, advocacy, empowerment, and our healing, both personal and collective. We believe that through practices of personal and communal autonomy, a higher quality of life is possible. The works in Claim the Body speak to the reclamation of the self and the body politic that happens in the struggles for autonomy.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Candace Howze
Cassandra J. Rowe
ARTISTS
Candace Howze - North Carolina
Cara Hagan - New York
Cassandra J. Rowe - North Carolina
Gabi Magaly - Texas
Grey Von Cannon - North Carolina
Jenny Eggleston - North Carolina
Jennifer Markowitz - North Carolina
Julie Rae Powers - New York
PROGRAMMING
SOLD OUT!
OCTOBER 15, 6 - 9PM
Portrait Party w/ Jade Wilson, and Closing Reception
Join VAE Raleigh and Durham based artist, Jade Wilson, for a special program and closing reception for Claim the Body.
About Jade: Durham artist, Jade Wilson, has worked as a professional image maker for the past eight years, spending the first half of that time as a corporate photographer and the other half defying artistic convention and upending the status quo. Their work explores what lies in the shadows behind beauty and sorrow–both personal and communal. Their raw and frequently somber style is illuminated by their Black trans identity.
Breathe: My First Breath
Breathe: My First Breath
A Solo Exhibition by JP Jermaine Powell
June 15 - July 22, 2022 | Opening Reception June 23, 6 - 8PM
The Cube Gallery
228 Fayetteville St
Raleigh NC 27601
NOTE FROM THE ARTIST
“As a local artist, I want to genuinely thank VAE for supporting my colorful career and my artworks along the way. They were behind some of my major works being able to get seen and purchased. They have supported the creative risks that I’ve taken in my work. VAE has been a great resource for, not only myself, but for so many local and regional creative voices for many years. Continued success to VAE’s visionary leadership and mission.”
JP
ARTIST BIO
Jermaine “JP” Powell is a North Carolina based mixed- media artist and muralist. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, JP holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, located in Brooklyn, New York. His paintings and public art projects explore the complexities of human relationships, materialism, and consumerism.
As a world traveler, JP’s travel experiences have inspired the use of various luxury objects featured in his work. Both American and international currencies are often featured symbolically in his work. In his Breathe Life, Modern Currency, and Pure Luxury Collection series (2018- 2022, JP also uses bold, colorful textures, flowers, patterns, and mosaic tile.
JP is the creator and curator of the Breathe: Back To Life art exhibition featured at the Duke Energy Center for The Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is also the creator of the Welcome To Hillsborough Street mural project near NC State University and also the We Are Community mural in Carrboro, NC.
JP’s artwork has also been featured at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Raleigh Magazine, Cary Living Magazine, Duke University, Art Space Galleries, Raleigh Arts, The City of Durham, and The Durham Art Guild. He is fortunate to have collectors throughout the United States, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, and London.
In 2021 JP was formally announced as the illustrator for the children’s book, The Museum Lives In Me in partnership with the North Carolina Museum Of Art. JP’s work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Ohio, New York, Maryland, Washington D.C. and North Carolina.
INVENTORY
JP Jermaine Powell, A Queen’s Justice Triptych, 2021, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 48in x 60in and 16in x 20in, $10,500, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Rainbow, 2021, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 48in x 60in, $10,500, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Concrete Souls No. 1, 2021, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 12in x 12in, $550, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Concrete Souls No. 7, 2021, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 12in x 12in, $550, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Young Money Triptych(Side Panels 2 and 3), 2021, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Wood, 24in x 24in, Not For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, JP Presents #JP100k Tryptych, 2014, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Wood Panel, 80in x 80in, Not For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Black Luxury: Finance 101, 2020, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 36in x 48in, $8500, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, Blanco Noir, 2020, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 36in x 48in, $8500, For Sale
JP Jermaine Powell, No Ceilings, 2020, Acrylic and Mixed Media On Canvas, 36in x 48in, $8500, For Sale
Play Exhibitions @ Dock 1053
May 10 - September 4, 2022
Dock 1053
1053 E Whitaker Mill Rd
Raleigh NC, 27604
“All meaningful, organic, and foundational learning is at heart playful and ludic. ”
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Contemporary American professor of education
PLAY is a collection of work generated from exploration within an artist’s practice, and the embracing of a spirit of playfulness. Each piece expresses a sense of vibrancy, whimsy, and humor, whether as literal tools for play or through experimental concept and process. It is through PLAY that we learn to reimagine our sense of self, and challenge those around us to push beyond constraints of “reality” and “possibility”.
ARTISTS
Anna Lee | Melody Moon and Sonata Sun (from “Things Held Dear”), TV Toy Theater (from “Things Held Dear”), Astronaut Animation Frames (from “This Was Life on Earth”), and Jimmy! (from “ARC 9 PIES”)
Brian Sillman | Bathos V, VII, IX, and XIV
Clara May | Bound, and Untitled Self Portrait
Peri Law | Hinton James, 2016-2017; Morrison, 2017-2018; and Byng Place, 2018
SASS | Teagress for NIGHTPLAY
Jenny Eggleston - State of the Union @ So & So Books
Reading Rainbow, 40 x 37
April - December, 2022
So & So Books
719 N Person St
Raleigh NC, 27604
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Employing both the loosely figurative pre-impressionism of J. M. W. Turner and the satiric graphics of later Philip Guston, Eggleston, in State of the Union, grapples with and protests the injustices carried in on the most recent waves of conservatism–the Tea Party, Trumpism, etc. Eggelston seems to lament a unifying patriotism of the past that has been co-opted in service of voter suppression and false claims of fraudulent vote counts, book banning, and ultimately the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, while recognizing that patriotism, in whatever iteration, has never been accessible to all Americans.
State of the Union also explores the exhaustion, the emotional and physical wear and tear, that the vigilance required to fight injustice results in, as well as the outright violent dangers that accompany oppression and protest. The horse, depicted as either dead or emaciated, is being shot at or doused by paint. The flag is in tatters or is simply disappearing, dispersing like smoke or tear gas.
The horse at times evokes the idiom of beating a dead horse, as issues we keep telling ourselves have been resolved keep rearing their ugly heads generation after generation. At times, it evokes the donkey of the Democratic party, either deflated after a loss to Trump, exhausted in the face of Republican propaganda and lies, or inept and impotent, unable to produce the solutions its stated ideals promise. Or all of the above.
The flag is reminiscent of the flags of Jasper Johns, but in the context of the January 6 insurrection, they also evoke his target series–flag as target. Is the flag a rallying symbol for the insurrectionists, even as it flies over the building they ransacked? Or is it a symbol of the democracy they attempted to overthrow?
After every State of the Union address, the president, no matter which party, inevitably closes by saying, “and the State of the Union is strong.” There are times when that rings more hollow than others, and Eggleston’s State of the Union makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that this is most definitely one of those times.
- Chris Tonelli, So&So Books
ARTIST STATEMENT
“My recent work is in response to the crisis of democracies across the globe, particularly in the United States. While insidious assaults on democratic ideals have been experienced by Black and POC communities since the inception of this country, citizens the country over found themselves in shock and disbelief over the assault on our Nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021. The subsequent attacks on voting rights, reproductive rights, and attacks on the LGBTQ+ communities have intensified in the last year. State of the Union is a body of work that depicts these ongoing threats to our civil liberties through symbolic imagery that is at once visceral and unrepressed. The mixed-media works in this show employ taboo imagery, funhouse mirrors, and flags while using mud, dirt, and gauze as some of the mediums. The symbols and materials composed are meant to be stark reminders that there cannot be democracy when there is only one dominant narrative and made under the blanket of White Privilege.”
Reading Rainbow 40 x 37” | $2000
Voting Booth I 37 x 40” | $2000
Voting Booth II 37 x 40” | $2000
White Trash 30 x 21” | $1000
White Wash 30 x 21” | $1000
America the Broken 30 x 21” | $1000
Mud Flag: In Reverse 30 x 21” | $1000
INVENTORY + PRICES
Insurrection 25.5 x 31.5” | $1200
Yellow Gas 26 x 20” | $800
I Portest 40 x 30” | $1500
For Love of Country 37 x 48” | $2000
Black Hole 30 x 40” | $2000
Black Day 23 x 29” | $1000
Wings of the City: Make your Mark!
March 4, 2022 - March 30, 2022
VAE Raleigh
120 Wilmington Street
Raleigh NC, 27601
VAE Raleigh and Dorothea Dix Park have come together to create an interactive experience in honor of world-renowned Mexican artist Jorge Marín’s traveling exhibition, Wings of the City. The collection of nine bronze sculptures features larger than life figures – some winged and poised to take flight, others delicately balanced in acrobatic poses.
Art created by the Plein Air Group and poetry inspired by the Wings of the City exhibit will be on display at VAE’s pop-up space located at 120 Wilmington Street.
Wings of the City exhibition in Raleigh is made possible through a partnership between the Consulate General of Mexico in Raleigh, Jorge Marín Foundation, and the Dix Park Conservancy.
Plein Air Exhibiting Artists
Randall Hale
Self Portraiture @ Dock 1053
December 13, 2021 - April 30, 2022
Dock 1053
1053 E Whitaker Mill Rd
Raleigh NC, 27604
Marchello Hardin, Death Row Legends
Marie-Louise Bennett, In autumn the trees rediscover their colors
Martin Church, Self #56 & Scorched Self
Naila Lyles-Elcock, Looped
Natacha Sochat, Self Portrait with Butterflies
Piera Yerkes, Meadow Therapy
Rene Gaete, Self Portrait
Rese Cooley, Self Reflection
Shanny Kohli, Daily Mantra
Zaire McPhearson, Honey Coated & Melanin Bloom
ARTISTS
Bailey Dalton, Self
Danyelle Lakin, Squidge
Diego Pablo Malaga, The Cannibal at the Altar & The Cannibal With His Dog
Harrison Cribb, Self Portrait
Irvin Maldonado, Here Until
Isabel Lu, A Dissertation on Eyelids
Jennifer Bonner, The fluidity of days (We just keep accumulating)
Laleh Bagherzadi, Feeling the Power
Leeman Smith, Hippie Summer Quilt
2021 Illuminate Art Walk
Join us for the second annual Illuminate Art Walk! We’ve partnered up with our friends at the Downtown Raleigh Alliance again for this year’s festival of installation, light, and video art! These works will only be on view during the month of December so be sure to bundle up and head out to check out some really incredible work from across the country.
ILLUMINATE ART WALK
December 3, 2021 - January 9, 2022
VAE Pop-up Space
120 S Wilmington St
Join us for the second annual Illuminate Art Walk! We’ve partnered up with our friends at the Downtown Raleigh Alliance again for this year’s festival of installation, light, and video art! These works will only be on view during the month of December so be sure to bundle up and head out to check out some really incredible work from across the country.
Learn more about Illuminate Art Walk!
ARTISTS
Sabine Gruffat, North Carolina
@mi55hi55
Amarillo Ramp, w/ Bill Brown
This experimental Super-16mm film documents Smithson's final earthwork, 'Amarillo Ramp,' located in the Panhandle of northwest Texas.
Mountain
A video switches between multiple sources of feedback-generated computer animations that are transformed by electronic oscillators.
Milk and Honey, Arkansas
@MindofMilkandhoney @ashkaye8 @islapgordon
There’s Nothing Quite Like Home Cooking
A flesh-centric collaboration between Isla P. Gordon and Ashley Kaye, Milk and Honey explores and lampoons pop culture, partnership and the body. Milk and Honey takes its name from the biblical phrase , and inspiration from its use in the modern day to describe, among other things, The United States of America, a 1984 album by John Lennon &Yoko Ono, and an ancient form of corporal punishment.
Milk and Honey’s oeuvre draws on the creators’ experiences as a trans woman and a gender non-conforming person. Utilizing an array of props, custom designed and printed textiles and bodysuits, their live performances, videos and installations that provided visibility to both the transgender and queer domestic experience and visualizes our ongoing process of learning and unlearning as we redefine our ideas of domesticity and marriage.
KITSCH, CAMP
As a part of the Click! 2021 Photography Festival, VAE presents: KITSCH, CAMP [and all of the other words now one actually knows the definitions for].
KITSCH, CAMP is a group exhibition that evinces world building through camp performance, kitsch styling, and the photographic process. Each artist brings their own self-rendered photographic portals to our reality, allowing viewers to gaze into fantastical worlds of the artists’ own creation that defy the corporeal expectations of the “real.”
In her seminal essay, Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag describes camp as, “...a sensibility that revels in artifice, stylization, theatricalization, irony, playfulness, and exaggeration rather than content...” Using Sontag’s analysis of camp, the exhibition encourages viewers to think beyond the frame, literally and metaphorically, to see the unseen in their lives and toy with the veiled to create dynamic space where irreverent play is centered as a means of self-exploratory departure from the mundane and banal procedures of the everyday.
LOCATION
120 S Wilmington St
Raleigh NC 27602
DATES
October - November 28, 2021
ARTISTS
Benjy Russell - Tennessee
Murrie Rosenfeld - New York
Yi Hsuan Lai - New York
Benjy Russell
Murrie Rosenfeld
Yi Hsuan Lai
NC SCULPTURE
Group Exhibition of North Carolina Sculpture
AUGUST 13 - DECEMBER 12, 2021
DOCK 1053
1053 E. WHITAKER MILL RD. RALEIGH NC, 27604
ARTISTS
Conner Calhoun, Greensboro
Conner Calhoun is currently a MFA Candidate at UNCG in Studio Art. They received their BFA in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of Visual Arts (NY) in 2015. They are a queer artist and curator based in North Carolina. Their most recent curatorial project is SLUG (Chapel Hill, NC), a project space by and for queer people of the South. They worked as a Projects Coordinator at LUMP gallery (Raleigh NC) from 2017-2020. Their studio practice uses the tools of paintings, drawing and sculpture in order to create images and visual narratives that explore the fantastical qualities of queer space, existence and resistance. In 2016 they were the artist in residence at Leipzig International Artist Residency (DEU). In 2019 They were the artist in residence at Obracadobra (Oax, MX). Their most recent solo exhibition was Whispers From Wizard Mountain, LUMP gallery (Raleigh NC) in 2018. Their work was recently featured in CAVE HOMO, a celebration to queer spirit distilled into print form. They are dedicated to the creative forces of the queer south and beyond.
kiki nicole, Charlotte
kiki nicole is a poet and artist who works to archive Very Black Feelings. They are the co-founder of the new media/film archival project and screening series, the first and the last, specializing in uplifting work by Black trans/queer artists often overlooked in art spaces. They are currently a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine and the recipient of a publishingfellowship with Graywolf Press. kiki is 1⁄5 of the NCbased art collective, SaltWater Sojourn—a guest project with Toshi Reagon. They live in Charlotte, NC.
Mia Kaplan, Penland
Mia Kaplan is an artist who works primarily in jewelry and metalsmithing. She received a BA in Studio Art at Earlham College in 2018. Mia worked as an intern Liberty Arts Sculpture Studio & Foundry in Durham, NC in 2016. She was also an intern at Brooklyn Metal Works through the New York Arts Program in 2017. Mia currently is in the Core Fellowship at the Penland School of Craft and works and lives in Penland, NC as a part of the Core program. She has most recently shown work through Secret Identity Projects with their show Amend and in A Curious Year at the Penland Gallery in NC.
Sarah Howes Whitney, Raleigh
Sarah Howes Whitney was raised in New York, went to school at Ohio State University for Fine Arts, moved to the West Coast where she lived in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles, before moving to Raleigh NC, where she is currently an Artist, Museum educator and High School Art Teacher.