Vicki Rees / AJ Fletcher Foundation

Natural Pacing

March - May, 2016
Vicki Rees is a Raleigh artist who specializes in contemporary realism executed in colorful oils. She draws inspiration from her appreciation of the beauty found in the everyday.  Unusual angles, dramatic lighting, and nature's intricacies all capture her attention. Vicki's work has been exhibited throughout North Carolina and is in collections in the South and Midwest. Originally from Indianapolis, she moved to North Carolina after a 20+ year stop in Kentucky. Her home studio located in downtown Raleigh is open by appointment.

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AJ Fletcher Foundation is located at 909 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27605. The Community Exchange Exhibitions help to enliven the offices of start-up nonprofit organizations that work inside the AJ Fletcher's building.

Eunjung Park: Prism of Choice

April 20 - June 4, 2016
First Friday Receptions: May 6 & June 3, 6-10pm

Many people set up displays in their homes for visitors and passersby to see—figurines, photographs, and other knickknacks arranged on shelves and tables. Such displays seem governed by each arranger’s own individual sense of ‘rightness,’ her sense that things look best when arrayed in a specific way.  In studying these, I have come to regard shelves and tables as symbols for the spaces in which people draw out that sense of ‘rightness’ through the selection and display of objects.

My recent work explores the relationship between supportive structures—like shelves and tables, but also clothing racks and the rhyme schemes of poems—and the items they display.  I am interested in the moments when this relationship becomes complex or ambiguous, when a supportive structure itself is displayed or displayed items play a more structural role.  I am also interested in the ways that structures built of different materials—especially everyday materials—enable diverse forms of display and arrangement that correspond to equally diverse aesthetic sensibilities.   I wish to understand the symbolic potential held by these different forms of arrangement, and how they might be meaningfully employed.

Sara Trepanier / Duke Health Raleigh Hospital

April - June 2016
3400 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27609

Biography
Sara Boland Trepanier is a native of Charleston, WV. Sara was exposed to painting by her artist-mother during her early years. After serving in the Navy, she moved to Raleigh twelve years ago and has been working at Duke Raleigh Hospital for the past five years. After practicing medicine for 20 years, Sara took a workshop with John Poon here at Raleigh. As an artist, she is now enjoying color development while working on landscapes. Sara finds great fulfillment as she balances her day to day work as a staff physician with her artistry, which reflects her love of the sea and wilderness.

Artist Statement
Growing up with a surgeon for a father and my mother who is an artist, I always appreciated the complimentary nature of art and medicine. I loved Frank Netter and find his anatomy books as works of art. I feel studying medicine helps one to appreciate symmetry and beauty in the human figure and causes me to look for balance. It has also been shown that providing art classes to medical students helps build empathy. I find that medicine and art continue to inspire me and appeal to both the creative and logical sides of my brain. I also feel inspired by adventure. My paintings are expressions of the beauty of nature found in landscapes. I love the sea, and my time in the Navy made me appreciate the unpredictability and excitement of the ocean. Sailing brings me closer to that sense of freedom and fun. I am grateful for the National parks I have been able to visit along with my opportunities to travel. I feel my paintings are where art and science meet. I feel there is a balance that one strives for between your logical, science, sequential side of the brain and the intuitive, adventure, and creative artistry side of the brain. I love the feeling of constantly being challenged and inspired. I hope you do too.

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In keeping with Duke Raleigh Hospital’s mission to promote art as part of healing, community exhibits in this space predominantly feature stimulating and colorful artworks. Enter the hospital through the main entrance and travel down main corridor to see VAE Community Exhibition. 

Helen Seebold / United Arts Council

April 2016
First Friday Reception: April 1, 6-8pm
The Creamery Building: 410 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 170, Raleigh NC 27603

Artist Statement
My artistic body of work is greatly inspired by my deep respect of Nature and a love of Ancient Cultures. Reflecting on ancient traditions and cultural practices used throughout history and across geographies, I wish to explore our connection to nature and each other; raising an awareness of the beauty that can be found in both.

Biographical Information
Helen Seebold works in clay, photography and site specific installation. She has exhibited extensively throughout New York, Connecticut and North Carolina and her pieces can be found in private collections around the globe. Recent projects have included community driven art projects for The Durham Storefront Project, Windows on Chapel Hill and Open Art Society’s POP! Downtown Art Series. Her virtual gallery can be viewed at LittleFlowerArt.com and you can follow her on her journey to explore life through art on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram @LittleFlowerArt.

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The MJH Gallery is located in the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County inside The Creamery Building. UAC’s entrance faces Tucker Street. The gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and 6-8pm on First Friday.

Anthony Garcia-Copian / United Arts Council

April 2016
First Friday Reception: April 1, 6-8pm
The Creamery Building: 410 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 170, Raleigh NC 27603

Artist Statement
When I paint, I paint abstract memories. Sometimes the memory is foggy and has been replaced by an imaginary sediment, a residue that has made one memory solid and the other fluid.

Everything in art is a memory. The only expectation that I have from my art is pleasure.

Biographical Information
Anthony Garcia-Copian is an award winning playwright, artist and photographer. He was born in Cuba, raised in Madrid, Miami and New York and lives in Raleigh, NC. He has a studio by appointment only.

The MJH Gallery is located in the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County inside The Creamery Building. UAC’s entrance faces Tucker Street. The gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and 6-8pm on First Friday.

The Other Toy Story

The Other Toy Story
by Joyce Dallal

April 1st-28th, 2016
Opening Reception: April 1st, 6-10pm

Engaging the public through art on the issue of unsustainable consumption, The Other Toy Story is an ongoing project by artist Joyce Dallal that grew out of her personal experience as a parent. Overwhelmed with all the toys that accumulated in her own household—especially the huge amount of plastic that couldn’t be recycled, she decided to see if a solution could be found through art. Featured is Receptacle, a 10-foot-tall trashcan in the shape of a baby doll. The sculpture holds over 1000 pounds of toy trash that would otherwise end up in a landfill. When full, it forms a monumental vision of what we are feeding our children.

A Partnership between the Disappearing Frogs Project and the Other Toy Story

The Other Toy Story is on display at the Visual Art Exchange (VAE) at the invitation of the Disappearing Frogs Project as part of their 2016 activities scheduled for the Triangle area. The two artist-driven projects are partnering this spring to spotlight the impact of human activity on the health of our environment and the survival of all species, big and small. “Disappearing Tree Frog” by Los Angeles artist Cynthia Minet was commissioned specially for this exhibition to spotlight the partnership between the Other Toy Story and the Disappearing Frogs Project as an illustration of the connection between pollution in the environment and the survival of the frogs.

The show at VAE is the culmination of months of preparation and would not have been possible without the support and collaboration of Wake County Solid Waste Management and Waste Industries. These partners have collected used and broken toys to fill the Receptacle, and will be picking them up for recycling when the show is over. They have also assisted three participating schools in the Wake County STEM Collaborative Network: Wake STEM Early College, Aversboro STEM Elementary, and A. B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary with their used toy collection. Many thanks to these community partners for their participation.

The Disappearing Frogs Project, together with their global partner the Amphibian Survival Alliance is raising awareness of global amphibian declines and inspiring people to take personal action to protect these incredible species. Awareness in the community is being raised, hearts of the public are being touched and the children in the Triangle are getting involved.

"Disappearing Tree Frog" by Cynthia Minet

Cynthia Minet

Cynthia Minet works with post-consumer plastics to build illuminated sculptures of animals. Her drawings and pieces have been shown individually and as large-scale installations. The works reveal her interest in ecological and scientific issues, and capture audiences through their visual allure and conceptual bite.

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Collecting the toys with the help of area students and businesses

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Over the course of two days, the baby was assembled and filled with over 1,000 pounds of old toys. Take a look below to see how it happened.

Exchange Gallery: April Featured Artists

April Exchange Gallery Featured Artists
opening reception: April 1st, 6-10pm

Brenda Brokke

I am fascinated with the idea of stacking images in my work.  I layer one image on another just as meaning and understanding is often revealed in layers. I follow the contemporary practice of mixing mediums. Collage and printmaking often enrich the layers. As subject matter, I remain intrigued with figurative pieces that address contemporary issues.  Much of my work is about the role of females in our society and others, especially China.

My work has been described as a mosaic of images. It uses mixed media, memories, and messages. They are meant to provoke thought.

When I am expressing ideas about females, I often use textiles as well as domestic and decorative patterns.

My work is also a conscious reaction to the prevailing trend of the non-aesthetic or anti aesthetic that permeates much of contemporary art. I make no apologies for being decorative in my work.

Eric Ennis

As an art form, hand beading goes back for centuries to the cultures of Asia, Egypt, India, Russia, Native Americans and the Victorian era–to name just a few–when the art of hand beading was most prominent. Eric Ennis, a bead artist in Raleigh, North Carolina, brings this art form back to life again by painting with beads. After a long career as an ornate dress designer, he has established a reputation as a beading artist. Each bead is sewn by hand, one bead at a time, forming unique pieces of art. Only crystal and glass beads, never plastic, are used on the selected fabric.

His work has drawn in customers from around the world as well as attention from Our State Magazine, The Tar Heel Traveler, WRAL Television Station, and a full page article in the News and Observer.

Elizabeth Laul Healey

I paint with bright vibrant colors about topics that are often considered dark, or perhaps even too taboo to talk about. I paint portraits of women surrounded by complex emotions & subject matter such as human rights, women's rights, race, equality, politics & mental illness. I also create work about how the art world & pop culture world affects us all, even those who think they are adverse to their power.  My work is often iconic and easily recognizable by my unique style of outlining my subjects both literally and figuratively.  The best way for me to bring up atopic that is important to me such as race or equality without offending people is for them to decipher my work on their own so they can be the judge of what they think is moral or not.  I want my work to be provocative and I'd rather someone have a viseral reaction to my work and at least remember it, than to confuse it with some other great artist they are indifferent to.

Brian Imfeld

Can we successfully analyze everything in our world? Will we know something completely if we record and measure every quality? Or are there important characteristics that are beyond measurement? To understand how the world works, we try to measure everything. Is it even possible to know what data should be collected when trying to define something that is as abstract as a thought or a feeling or an individual?

Compositionally my work is inspired by the visual language of graphs, charts and writing. When I plan and lay out my work, I incorporate grids, consider margins, and arrange elements in rows or columns to represent the structure we impose on the world as we try to measure and understand it. I replace the words, numbers, and data of the structure with shapes and patterns to redirect the focus away from the data but toward the way data is presented. The materials I choose and the textures I create, represent those unclear characteristics that cannot be defined or quantified. They spread over the entire surface revealing the presence of these non quantifiables everywhere.

Because in today’s world everything and everyone is subject to this probing examination, it is possible that qualities that connect with you are visible throughout these compositions. Are you an odd shape rising from the surface as texture, or are you the measurements from which other elements can grow? Do you stand on the grid where the data predicts you should be or do you contradict that assumption?

DJ Joynes

I, DJ, artist and operator of ArtZjewels, design one of a kind wearable art that reflects individual personality. My pieces contain elements of color, style, beauty and adventure which are solidly constructed of mostly buttons.

Allow me to describe one. This piece was designed for a little girl named Lily. Lily loves boots, hats, flowers, cupcakes and ice cream and her necklace bouquet contains all these elements. She is also affectionately called “Lily Bug” by her family so of course there are lady bug buttons. The title of this necklace is “It’s My Party, Cowboy!”. This necklace tells the story of how Lily puts on her cowgirl boots and hat, takes Teddy by the hand and off to the rodeo they go. Then tomorrow Teddy will go on his on adventure with his lady bug friends; maybe even have a cupcake party!

Another piece with a cameo, vintage buttons and splashes of color scattered about, might lead the viewer on a garden stroll with a Victorian lady in a sweeping sun dress. Talk is quiet, laughter soft, as they meander about though the shafts of warm sunshine peeping between the canopies above.

Each design is a statement piece and fun to wear. As an accessory, they make any outfit POP!

the beginning of everything

April 1 - 28, 2016
VAE is excited to showcase drawings in our the beginning of everything exhibition, but we also challenged artists to help expand the idea of drawing. the beginning of everything is, of course, an exhibition that features skillfully rendered drawings, but will also showcases work that makes viewers question their ideas about drawing. This means the exhibition also includes architectural drawing, cartoons, blueprints, printmaking, digital drawing, illustrations, installation works, and a video that all connect to the idea of drawing.

The Juror
Alicia Lange, Director, SPECTRE arts. SPECTRE arts is a contemporary visual and performing arts venue in Downtown Durham, North Carolina. Alicia founded the space in 2011, restoring a historic 1910 church that now houses some of the Triangle’s best exhibitions. SPECTRE is a valued part of Durham’s thriving arts community and exhibits work by local, regional, and national artists.

The Art
Catherine Altice, Dancing, Drawing, Making Pictures
Mary Ann Anderson, Tethered
Tedd Anderson, Rest Ruin
Tedd Anderson, Face Transplant
Marnie Blum, Self Image
Rachel Borgman, After Velazquez: Drawing Tool for St. Thomas Aquinas After Summa Theologica
Sarah Bradley, Fly Through My Window My Sugar Lump
Jeannette Brossart, Rough Sketch
Erin Canady, Build Me Up
Meredith Cantrell, Dreams Like These
xiaoyu che, The Big Bang Theory
Katie Christo, Forest #4
Katie Christo, Forest #5
Renee Cloud, What Have I Been Doing Lately?
Janet Coleman, head strong
Caroline Coven, Cruciform Series_Opened
Caroline Coven, Cruciform Series_Cradle
Maready Evergreen, Spirit Bubble-Purposeful Movement
Maready Evergreen, Spirit Bubble – Fancy Visitors
Elizabeth Flock, Doodle Compendium
Ross Ford, 05/23/15 3:10pm
Colleen Garibaldi, Untitled (how much to reveal/out of my skin)
Beth Grabowski, 306-311 Burns.
Anita Joice, Bird 2
jean LeCluyse, Marty’s Bees
jean LeCluyse, Underdevelopment at Obey Creek
Janet Link, migration, 2
Janet Link, migration, 3
Angela Lombardi Zappala, La Specola
Greg Lookerse, Dried Stones
Greg Lookerse, I Am Teaching a Stone to Talk Relic
Kristin Lozoya, A Mother’s Journal: A Tale of Two Odd Birds
Loren Marple, Nerves
William McSwain, Compound Roof System
Richard Paxson, The Duke
Janelle Piotrowski, Bee Calm
Lisa Pors, Pencil Dress
Alex L. Porter, Together as One
Nancy Raen-Mendez, Profit
Ben Rauscher, Vulture
Chuck Siler, MakeFor366: January
Richard Stickney, A Sounding Device
Lindsey Stimpson, Living Skyline
Laura Sussman-Randall, Protest
Chris Vitiello, bad decision
Chris Vitiello, marry it
Jake Weigel, Void
Aaron Zalonis, 8am

See all of the artwork to be exhibited in the beginning of everything HERE!