With the Land - Chris McGuire

With the Land

Chris McGuire
November 1 - 23, 2019
United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave
Raleigh, NC 27603

ARTIST STATEMENT
Through my work I reclaim my own image and subvert societal perceptions of the disabled body. I challenge and deconstruct these classifications by queering the established representations of disability. Searching for the ways disabled life inhabits the world.

SERIES STATEMENT
An ongoing body of work throughout the National Parks and landscapes across America. Investigating the tensions between the universal design present within these natural spaces and the design of accessible trails. Engaging with various “points of interest”. Responding to land and realizing how the land responds to me.

Kennedi Carter - United Arts Council

Kennedi Carter- United Arts Council

March 1 - 28, 2019

OPENING RECEPTION MARCH 1, 6-8PM!

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27603

A Durham, North Carolina native by way of Dallas Texas, Kennedi Carter is a fine art photographer, retoucher and creative director with a primary focus on Black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics of sociopolitical aspects of blackness as well as the overlooked beauties of the black experience as a whole: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of blackness. 

Arsis Fruritch - United Arts Council

Arsis Fruritch- United Arts Council

Februray 1 - 28, 2019

OPENING RECEPTION FEBRUARY 1, 6-8PM!

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27603

En Masse

En Masse

December 7 - January 4, 2019

OPENING RECEPTION DECEMBER 7, 6-8PM!

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave.
Raleigh, NC 27603

En Masse is an exhibition of VAE’s artist groups community. Over the past year each artist has attended one or more group meetings where they discuss and critique each other’s work. VAE offers five different groups that meet each month: Photographer’s Forum, Plein Air Painters, Textile and Fiber, Abstract and Contemporary, and Metalsmith. For more info on the groups check out the Artist Groups page.

ARTISTS

Lynn Alker
Sterling Bowen
Kelly R Johnston
Marie Lawrence
Patricia Ligon
Tina Marcus
Scott McRae
Jason Noble
Anna Payne Rogers
Lynn Russell
Cara Smelter
Teresa Stephens
Brooke Suffridge
Barbara Thomas
Debi Vought
Qing Wang

Theresa Devine

Theresa Devine

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27603
Monday - Friday 10 - 4

August 3 - September 29 

As a part of THE EVERYDAY project, Theresa Devine will be showcasing her game works for the months of August and September. 

BIO

Theresa Devine, MFA, is an Assistant Professor in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. She is an artist and a scholar whose interdisciplinary research draws on the subjects of games, play, psychology, aesthetics, ethics and social transformation. Theresa received her BFA in Painting and Printmaking at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi in 1991 and her MFA in Painting at the University of Houston in 1994. In her studio artwork, she explores games, toys, and play. 

Her work as lead of the Studio 4 Gaming Innovation research lab focuses on researching games to redefine and explore what they can be and how they can be used in concert with art to initiate transformation in our society. 

In both her artwork and scholarship, She is interested in discovering how art and play can be understood in order to be activated for social change. She believes that through a greater understanding of art and play, a road to creating a more just, tolerant, and inclusive world can
be exposed and that this path can be opened up for others to make discoveries
of their own. 

STATEMENT

Ce n'est pas un jouet: This is not a toy.

Why do we forget to play when we grow up? Why do we hurt each other? Everywhere I look I see distrust, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. This is followed with greed, selfishness, and pain. How can play help us to understand each other? 

Can play transform us and our world? Play is how we learn and gain trust from each other, so can it liberate us from the cycle of hurting each other? 

Through toys and games, I explore the intersection between adversity and play. Play is a serious venture and as the title says, it is not a toy. I invoke Magritte with this title because his work showed us that possibilities are only limited by our imagination. I believe that through play we release ourselves from adversity and open the door to new possibilities. 
 

Effy Francis

Effy Francis 

United Arts Council
410 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27603
Monday - Friday 10 - 4

August 3  - 31

As a part of THE EVERYDAY project, Effy Francis will be showcasing their unique body of work for the month of August. 

ARTIST BIO

Effy Alece Francis was born in Marietta, GA in 1992. Publishing under the trade name E. Alece, they work primarily in digital media. Under their mother's influence, Effy was self-taught from age 10. Believing the human body to be the ultimate art form, Effy imbues their pieces with surreal eroticism and symbolism. Coming out as non-binary transgender in 2017, Effy's artwork speaks to their experience and intersecting identities as a queer, disabled individual. Currently based in Columbia, SC, Effy has shown their work at: VAE Raleigh, Ultralight 2 2018 and 701 CCA Open Studios 2013.

STATEMENT

My work speaks to deep emotions coupled with soft imagery. Loneliness, love, death, and heartbreak are a few of the themes I paint; using flowers, intricate shapes, muted palettes, and beauty in the human form.

Natacha Sochat I UAC

Natacha Sochat

United Arts Council
March

Artist Statement

Artists are part of every aspect of society, there is nothing created that does not include an artistic principle as much as it includes mathematical and physical science.
I have always merged science and art in my work. I live my life reflecting my ethical beliefs and artistic philosophy. My work embodies what I am: for good or bad, for perfect or flawed. The objects I create are imbued with my struggle to understand the unpredictability and the complexity of being human in the 21st century: as an older woman, as an American Latina, as a wife and mother, and as a believer in an ethical political/economic system for the world we live in.

This series of drawings/paintings embodies my research into the NeuroMorphic Universe that we all inhabit, playfully transcending the complexity of life.

My Hand is my Mind.

Artist Bio

Natacha Sochat was born in Manhattan, New York City. As a very young child she grew up in Habana, Cuba. Her father was a Cuban revolutionary. In later childhood, her family lived in the south Bronx. Her love of art was nurtured while growing up in the rich cultural landscape of NYC. She attended the Bronx HS of Science. Natacha lived and worked in Europe in the early 1970’s, travelling to many different cities viewing many artistic works in person. She worked as a professional photographer in Berlin, Germany, including freelance work for "Berlin Today" magazine. After Berlin she moved to Boston MA in 1974, where she attended Boston University.  She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Boston University (BA Biology with distinction, minor art history). Her post-baccalaureate studies at Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston included painting, printmaking, photography, and video. She received her MFA in Studio Arts from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her MFA thesis embodied the NeuroMorphic Universe - our connectedness biologically and otherwise, and her work still resides in this realm to this day. She received her MD degree from Boston University School of Medicine.


Natacha met Michael Sochat in 1975 while attending Boston University and they married in 1980. While at Boston University College of Liberal Arts, Natacha met Arthur Polonsky and Harold Tovish. Their philosophies greatly influenced her decision to be an artist. She learned how to code in 1975 before the personal PC was introduced. This was the stepping stone for Natacha to the world of computers that she would later naturally incorporate into her artistic process.


In 2010 Natacha co-founded NKG (Boston contemporary art gallery, now closed). NKG gave voice to the pluralism that continually enriches contemporary art and ideas. NKG's mission was to further contemporary art by giving equal value to the mind and the hand. Natacha curated many exhibitions and works during this time. She also created and managed the gallery’s website.

Natacha has taught at numerous places including School of the Museum of Fine Arts (painting), the New Hampshire Institute of Art (drawing/printmaking), and was Master Teacher in Studio Arts at the St. Paul's School Advanced Studies Program (Concord, NH). She is an interdisciplinary thinker, curator, and artist including painting, printmaking (etching, relief, monoprint, etc), bookmaking, small sculptural objects, performance, video, drawing, and photography. Her work is in numerous collections, has won many awards and has been in exhibitions throughout the United States. She was a member of the College Board Association and served on the Board of the Woman's Caucus for Art (NH), including President and webmaster.

In 2015 Natacha left NH and moved to Raleigh, NC where she currently resides and has a studio in ArtSpace.

Chris Young I UAC

Chris Young

United Arts Council
February

ARTIST STATEMENT

Windswept mountain ridges. Quiet forest trails. Cliffs overlooking an expansive sea. Big skies
and dramatic vistas. I’m drawn to nature.

Inspiration comes from local venues, as well as, far-flung destinations like Iceland and
Tasmania. While hiking, I fill sketchbooks with pen and watercolor drawings, translating those
images into larger oil paintings in my studio. I think of myself as a plein air artist who also paints
indoors.

My recent landscapes range from impressions to abstraction. They are created with oil and cold
wax - applied, layered, scraped, and marked - creating textured and complex expressions of
nature.

ARTIST BIO

Chris Young is an Iowa native and a 21 year Cary, NC resident. While also active in the
business world and as a community volunteer, she has been a professional artist for 4 years.
Chris has exhibited in Cary and Raleigh and her paintings are in private collections coast to
coast.

Kelly Sheppard Murray / UAC

Kelly Sheppard Murray

United Arts Council
August - September

Artist Bio/Statement

Kelly Murray has been working as an artist, educator, and designer for more than 20 years. Since 2000, she has taught studio and art appreciation to adult learners of all ages at Wake Technical Community College. By teaching art majors and students with limited knowledge of the arts, Kelly has observed how people interact with and appreciate visual culture. She has supported hundreds of students in finding their own creativity to employ for personal and professional pursuits.

Kelly’s teaching informs her approach to her fine art and design. By working with audiences of varied aesthetic perspectives, Kelly is prepared to find a way to meet a client’s or community’s needs and purposes. For the last 15 years, Kelly has worked with numerous design and fabrication companies to create sculptures, dioramas, small models and murals for nature, science and history centers.

Environmental issues, land development and the relationship of human activity and nature has been a core interest for Kelly throughout her career and the primary focus of much of her personal fine art production.  Kelly has been exploring encaustic wax painting for the last 10 years.  This passion for molten wax is derived from years casting metal using lost-wax metal casting. Encaustic painting was a natural way to bring her sculptural background and pursuit of painting together because it can easily translate into two or three-dimensional compositions.

Kelly is interested in exploring the ways her experience as an exhibition designer, fabricator, sculptor and painter can be brought together for clients on commercial, public art and fine art projects.