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. 

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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

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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)!

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

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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)!

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.

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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.

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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)!

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!

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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)!

Play Exhibitions @ Dock 1053

May 10 - September 4, 2022

Dock 1053

1053 E Whitaker Mill Rd

Raleigh NC, 27604

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“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”.

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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

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Jenny Eggleston - State of the Union @ So & So Books

April - December, 2022

So & So Books

719 N Person St

Raleigh NC, 27604

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EXHIBITION STATEMENT

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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

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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.”

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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

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Wings of the City: Make your Mark!

March 4, 2022 - March 30, 2022

VAE Raleigh

120 Wilmington Street

Raleigh NC, 27601

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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.

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Plein Air Exhibiting Artists

Ann Neely

Andrea Frank

isolde sarnecki

Rick Bennett

Beth Barger

Randall Hale

Lori White

Self Portraiture @ Dock 1053

December 13, 2021 - April 30, 2022

Dock 1053

1053 E Whitaker Mill Rd

Raleigh NC, 27604

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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

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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.

Lakeshia Ried @ Shaw University

Lakeshia Reid at Shaw University Library

August - December 2021

LOCATION

Shaw University James E Cheek Learning Resources Center

118 E South St, Raleigh, NC 27601

Saturday 12–5PM

Sunday 12–8PM

HOURS

Monday - Thursday 8AM–10PM

Friday 8AM–5PM

ABOUT LAKESHIA T. REID
Lakeshia T. Reid is a self-taught artist who lives and works in North Carolina. She received a B.S. in Graphic Design in 2011 and worked as a Graphic and Web Designer until she began painting portraits in 2017. Her background as a designer helps her create works that nod to the fantastical while offering interpretations of #BlackGirlMagic – a phrase/movement that celebrates positive messages and images of black women. She is currently a full-time artist and owner of 311 Gallery in Raleigh, NC.

One’s own World (The Hermit)

From the Earth and the Elements (The Star)

Everything that Exists (The Magician)

As you Are (L) and She Would be Light (R)

More Things in Heaven and Earth

Memory is a Blessing

Because You Are

Unlike a Flower in a Dry Spell

One but Many

APPROACHING MAXIMUM: THE CLIMATE CRISIS NOW

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION WEBPAGE

Lauren Collins, Mary Ann Anderson, Jessica Dupuis at Dock 1053

October 2, 2020 - February 26, 2021
Location: DOCK 1053
1053 E Whitaker Mill Road
Raleigh, NC 27604

Lauren Collins

Artist Statement

a vision

a meditation

an urge 

a gut feeling

I now believe that these are direct communications through worlds — veils are broken in order for this conversation of speaking and listening and channeling. 

Sometimes in the form of words, sometimes shapes, sometimes just a texture or feeling. 

Created from light + love — dissolving fears and uplifting dreams. 

Sometimes it is only a whisper, so faint that everything else must completely disappear from sight and sound in order for it to live with me in solitude for a moment. 

And only just for that moment. 

And then it is gone. 

Other times it is so loud and blinding that it is all i know to be real — like i have to know; i have to feel it and communicate it to the world, or else it will fill me from the inside out, all the way, expanding from my bones to the thin veil of my skin. 

They live in the shadows and begin to shuffle into the light in order to speak their language to the world; 

and i am only their translator.

Mary Ann Anderson

Artist Statement

My paintings are informed by philosophy and art, especially:

         - Chinese and Japanese art – transcending time and space

         - Kandinsky’s conceptual premise that painting can help us to a greater consciousness

         - American abstract expressionist art and conceptual art 

These mixed media pieces are made using graphite, acrylic varnish and acrylic paint on synthetic paper (Yupo).

Artist Biography

Mary Ann Anderson has presented solo exhibitions at Visual Art Exchange and Artspace in Raleigh, at Duke University, the Durham Art Guild and GoldenBelt in Durham; at the Ackland Museum Store and Chapel Hill Library in Chapel Hill; and The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. Her art studies have included classes at Ox-Bow, a program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.

Jessica Dupuis

Artist Statement

Invisible and visible boxes surround us every day, from standards of society and institutions to houses, studios, and offices. Within these structures, individual perceptions and senses vary, just as our memories and attachment to objects differ from one person to another. For me, the physical form of sculpture functions as a journal; architectural spaces that are open for the viewer to explore.

My work evolves from a process in which I use a combination of clay slip and discarded materials such as newspaper, cardboard, and furniture and transform them into art objects.

Artist Biography

Jessica Dupuis was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She received her MFA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and her BFA with a concentration in ceramics and print media from Alfred University. Dupuis exhibits her work regionally and nationally. She has been a resident artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Women's Studio Workshop as well as a recipient of the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award and an Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant from the Durham Arts Council. She is an Assistant Professor of Art in Ceramics at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Jade Wilson at Red Hat

We Keep Us Safe - Jade Wilson

Red Hat
100 E Davie St
Raleigh, NC 27601

August 14 - December, 2020

About the artist

Jade Wilson is a Black trans documentary photographer and video artist based in the Raleigh-Durham area. Jade examines the self in relation to others and reveals the identity of an individual and a community. For Jade, their technique is to illuminate the relationship between identity and representation.

About the work

A collection of images, titled We Keep Us Safe, contends with the gap between authentic Black and Brown identity and how it is often misrepresented and appropriated in culture and media. Kids and superheroes, both signs of hope and imagination, provide a way into untangling and understanding this discrepancy.

We Keep Us Safe allows Black and Brown kids to see themselves represented through their own imagination—when the world around them often leaves them out or portrays them negatively. Representation, from media to the tech industry, allows kids and adults to see their future selves as leaders in any space they dream of.

About Open Gallery

The Open Gallery features a rotating series of exhibits for associates, visitors, and the local community. Installations are chosen for their relevance to openness, collaboration, and community—all hallmarks our open source roots.

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Descalza

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27603

January 22 - February 29 , 2020

Born in El Salvador and raised in North Carolina, Lisbeth Carolina Arias has woven her story as an immigrant of the United States into a clothing brand that is cherished by those who are proud of their heritage.

 As a young girl growing up in rural NC, fashion design served as the first outlet that didn't have a language barrier. It was one she and her mother, a highly-skilled seamstress, could finally cross together. Arias studied Fashion and Textile Design at North Carolina State University, interned in community-focused brands in Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and Italy, and worked for several fashion studios, including Vera Wang, in New York City all before starting Descalza.

 Descalza, meaning barefoot in Spanish, empowers communities through handwoven fabrics and reminds us of where we come from and who is still at home.  As a handcrafted, made-to-measure, fashion label, Descalza bridges both communities by collaborating with artisans from Latino America to weave the fabrics and local seamstresses in North Carolina to create the statement pieces. Together, they create unique and colorful statement pieces that make us proud of our immigrant beginnings and to be de aquí y de allá. 

Carolina’s exhibition at the United Arts Council is a part of VAE’s upcoming project, ­DE AQUI Y DE ALLA (of here and there). De Aqui y De Alla is a contemporary art project with the goal of exploring the duality that our Latinx community members feel. This feeling comes from living in the United States but not being white enough to be accepted without discrimination while being seen as to gringo to be fully accepted in the culture they identify with. The project will feature the work of Latinx artists who use their unique identity to combat this lack of acceptance and carve out space for themselves both here, and there.

Documenting Activism

National Humanities Center
7 TW Alexander Dr,
Research Triangle, NC 27709

January 15 - March 28 , 2020

Protests and social activism have shaped the United States since before its birth. The right to assemble and the right to freedom of speech are protected by law specifically because of their ability to check authority. Art, in its broadest sense, has always played a vital role in the push for social change. One of the most important roles art has played is to document acts of protest and activism so that those moments live on and become part of our collective history.

About the Venue: The National Humanities Center is a nonprofit institute for the study of all areas of humanities. This fall, NHC will welcome its incoming class of learning fellows from 30 states and four countries.

Juror: Caitlin Penna
Caitlin Penna is the University Photographer at Western Carolina University, a freelance Photojournalist, and a freelance Photographer based in Sylva, North Carolina. Her ultimate passion is telling other's stories through photography and writing. Caitlin tends to be drawn to conflict, social justice, religion, and your everyday folk.

With this being said, Caitlin hopes to inspire her viewers in the brightest and darkest moments that unfold in front of her lens.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Philip Cherry IV
Ben Hamburger
Martha Leonard
Corneille Little
Cailin Penna
Jody Servon

Nicole Drake @ Frontier

Frontier
800 Park Offices Dr
Research Triangle, NC 27709

December - March

ARTIST STATEMENT

Nicole is using this body of art to explore their own expression in abstract paintings Nicole Drake is a Raleigh based artist. Originally from coastal Georgia, Nicole studied and received their BFA in Studio Art in the North Georgia Mountains. From there, they chose to move to Raleigh with their horde of pets for new art opportunities. This body of art is Nicole’s first exploration into abstract paintings. Nicole uses negative space to encourage movement and intrigue for viewers. Contrasting values and colors create depth and engagement. Every abstract painting is named after an influential woman in Nicole’s life. Without these encouraging people, Nicole’s experience and growth in Raleigh would not be what it has been or will continue to be. This exhibition honors them.

Bob Rankin @ Rex Heart and Vascular

Rex Heart and Vascular
2800 Blue Ridge Rd
Raleigh, NC 27607

September - March

ARTIST BIO

Bob Rankin is a life long resident of Raleigh and an eighth generation North Carolinian. He graduated from the E.C.U school of Art and has studied extensively throughout Europe. His adventurous travels have taken him to over 40 countries. These experiences have greatly influenced his artwork. Bob's passion for teaching led him to a 30 year career in Wake county public schools. He was Sanderson High Schools teacher of the year, as well as, North Carolina Art Education Association's Secondary Art Educator of the year. Bob has exhibited nationally and internationally and is in over 30 corporate collections.

Duane Abbott - Novozymes

Novozymes

September - February

ARTISTS STATEMENT

Duane Abbott delights in iteration and combination, color, meaning, and joy. He is obsessive in his pursuit of theme and variation and compulsive in his desire to create images and objects that inspire happiness and optimism. He has steadfastly pursued his point of view and expertise while always creating art that is immediately accessible and compelling. He hopes that his love and fascination with the world and living are evident and contagious. Any meaning comes from the moments he has spent creating art and the life he has lived to that point. He is human. And each day, if he forgets to remember his reason for wonder (that he is alive and able reflect on that fact) when he wakes, he remembers while he is taking photographs or working to enhance them. All he wants is for a few other human beings to see this. While enjoying traditional photography, Duane also works to create photos that are more like paintings. He combines images to accentuate meaning, provide two-dimensional texture, and most of all, deliver joy. His goal is to continually improve his skill and expand his subject matter. To this end, even while traveling in pursuit of recreation, he has always pursued his art. Wherever he is in the world, he strives to document the place (city, town, or field) and its denizens (people, animals, insects) to provide the elevation that that place and its inhabitants deserve. He wasn’t born to be a traveler or a photographer, but he continues to live up to those monikers in the best ways that he can.

Morgan Benshoff @ SEPI

SEPI
1 Glenwood Ave Suite 600
Raleigh, NC 27603

SEPI is a private office, if you are interested in seeing Morgan’s work please email Kyle.

December 2019 - May 202

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Morgan Benshoff is a native of Greensboro, NC. She graduated from Appalachian State University in 2015 with a BFA in Painting and Drawing. She currently resides in Greensboro where she works and keeps a studio at 205 Collaborative. 

”The foundation of my art practice is curiosity. The meaning of my paintings will change over time and with circumstance, but I continue to be fascinated by the alchemy of paint and water. Somehow, paintings become more than the sum of their parts, and this pulls me back to the paper or canvas again and again. My work can be understood as a record of a tactile experience, pulling the viewer close with a meditative surface, which slowly reveals a poetic silliness. I like to think of the paintings as abstract, imminent objects rather than allusions. They allow perception to shift around and through them, striking a balance between formal composition and intuitive touch. They exalt softness. They are sly, somehow. Perhaps most importantly, they are affirming in their beauty, creating a relationship of reciprocal freedom with the viewer.”