TACTILE

A multi-sensory and accessible exhibition in VAE's Main Gallery
May 6-26
First Friday Reception: May 6, 6-10pm
Main Gallery

For the month of May VAE will exhibit 22 pieces of work that can be experienced with more than just sight alone. These multi-sensory pieces were created by 17 artists from 7 states across the US. This exhibition invites visitors to go beyond looking at artwork and encourages them to use their senses of touch, smell, hearing, and even taste to experience each piece.

While this exhibition will, of course, give existing art patrons a new way to enjoy and appreciate art, one of the main goals of TACTILE is to further VAE's focus on including people with disabilities in the arts community. VAE is providing large-format print materials, Braille transcribed materials, Audio Described and ASL interpreted tours, field trip opportunities for school-age kids, and additional staff assistance for visitors during the exhibit. Contact Brandon (919.828.7824 ext 6) if you would like to request any specific accommodations.

COME TAKE A TOUR ON SATURDAY, MAY 21!
11am - Open Exhibition Tour
1pm - Audio Described Tour
3pm - ASL Interpreted Tour
RSVP for a tour: email brandon@visualartexchange.org or call 919.828.7834 est 6

Can’t make those time? Still want to experience a tour of the exhibit?? That’s AWESOME! Want to request an accommodation for that tour? We are happy to accommodate! Contact Brandon: brandon@visualartexchange.org or 919.828.7834 ext6 to start a conversation!

In addition VAE is hosting two workshops in conjunction with TACTILE:
Double Duty - a creative writing workshop utilizing all of your senses!
CREATING SPACE - a workshop around accessible and multi-sensory exhibitions!

The Artists
Phil Ashe, Sequential Destination
Phil Ashe, Fuzzy Logic
Peg Bachenheimer, Washing Ashore
Whitney Bandel, In Your Hands
Jeannette Brossart, Undulating
Renee Cloud, Artifacts
Pamela Crockett, Memory Melt
Kate Dameron, Breathe, 2..3..4
Kate Dameron, Germinate
Susan Finer, Roundabout
Em Jensen, Three Hours (Third Hour)
Larry Lean, Wolf Trap
Larry Lean, In Advance of a Bald Headed Tire
Eddie Lohmeyer, Joust Assemblage #612 (In Black)
Carey Netherton, Manganese Violet
Jenna Richards, Large Openwork
Daphne Rodgers, Disintegration II
Kelly Sheppard Murray, Mile After Mile
Devyn Vasquez, Let's just be honest
Devyn Vasquez, Acrylic Meditations
Kathrine Worel, In It That Is More Than Itself (objet petit "ah")
Kathrine Worel, This Much

View all of the work exhibited in TACTILE!

The Juror
Tom Pursey, Co-founder of Flying Objects, a London-based creative agency that won an IK Prize in 2015 for their multi-sensory exhibition Tate Sensorium at Tate Britain.

about Tom
Prior to founding Flying Objects, Tom worked for Google in Europe, and lead Chrome and Brand marketing for Google in Asia. He holds a degree in English Literature from the University of Oxford. He's interested in interactive projects, the role of digital in the arts, and what happens when things come together in unlikely ways.

about Tate Sensorium
Can taste, touch, smell and sound change the way we ‘see’ art?

Tate Sensorium is an immersive display featuring paintings from the Tate collection. You can experience sounds, smells, tastes and physical forms inspired by the artworks, and record and review your physiological responses through sophisticated measurement devices.

The experience encourages a new approach to interpreting artworks, using technology to stimulate the senses, triggering both memory and imagination. On leaving, you will be invited to explore the rest of the gallery using the theme of the senses as a guide.

Tate Sensorium is the winning project of IK Prize 2015, awarded annually for an idea that uses innovative technology to enable the public to discover, explore and enjoy British art from the Tate collection in new ways.

The Guardian's writer Nicola Davis was highly impressed!

Accessibility
While VAE’s gallery space is fully accessible and we strive to make the exhibition submission process accessible to artists as well. We encourage anyone to enter our open call exhibitions. If you need any additional information or accommodations in order to enter a call-for-art please email or call (919.828.7834 ext 6) Brandon for assistance.

Visual Art Exchange strives to be accessible to all visitors! If you have an accommodation you would like to request for an upcoming program or exhibition, have a suggestion about our accessibility, or if you have an accessibility question please contact us at (919) 828-7834 ext 6 or by emailing Brandon.

• VAE is a single story facility and all galleries and facilities are accessible.
• All printed documents can be made available in Braille or large print.
• We are happy to provide audio tours and/or ASL interpretation for our exhibition and/or special events. A two-week advance request is requested, if possible.

VAE would like to invite members of the disability community to work with our staff and board to increase our accessibility and inclusion of artists and patrons with disabilities. If you have suggestions, criticisms or would like to be involved in increasing VAE’s accessibility email Brandon or call (919) 828-7834 ext 6.

If you would like to become a member of VAE but the membership fee is a financial barrier please contact Brandon (919.828.7834 ext 6) today to start a conversation!

VAE is part of a Learning Community of eleven arts organizations that collaborate to advocate for and improve access to the arts for people with disabilities. This collective is funded in part by the City of Raleigh Arts Commission and the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.

This exhibition is funded in part by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation

Questions? Email Brandon!

PROJECT POSTCARD

A blank postcard, a stamp and a few USPS restrictions were the only guidelines given for VAE’s inaugural Project Postcard.  In today’s culture we so rarely mail things.  This project encouraged students to think about the ways in which we communicate our creative ideas.

This project encouraged students to be CREATIVE, while working within RESTRICTION, and includes an element of CHANCE.

CREATIVE – There is no set subject matter.  Students used any materials (other than buttons or string, sorry USPS rules).

RESTRICTION – The United States Post Office had a few restrictions that students had to stay within to insure that their postcard made it through the mail.  Finished works could be no thicker than 1/4″ and could not weigh more than a can of soda.

CHANCE – The US Post Office was a collaborator on each piece of artwork! Some elements of the artwork may not have held up as well to the mailing process as others. Some cards may be postmarked differently or in a different location than others. All of this adds additional interest to each piece!

Postcards are displayed May 6-7, 2016 in the windows of

VAE Raleigh

311 Gallery

307 W Martin Street

PROJECT POSTCARD is supported by

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.

Photography Group / United Arts

BURN & DODGE

June 2016
First Friday Reception - June 3, 6-8pm
410 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 170, Raleigh NC 27603

The Photographers’ Forum is a supportive network for photographers to explore ideas, share techniques and offer each other feedback and support. The forum meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7pm at VAE. This group is coordinated by Ray Pfeiffer, please contact Ray to get involved! Ray Pfeiffer - rpstudioart@gmail.com

Featured Photographers
Mike Aliff
John Horwitz
Scott McRae
Richard A Usanis
Rob Randall
Teresa Stephens
Eric Saunders
Stephen J. Fletcher
Ray Pfeiffe

Marcia Streithorst & Lauri Arntsen / HagerSmith PA

Wax & Wares

June - July 2016
First Friday Receptions: June 3 & July 1, 6-9pm
300 S. Dawson Street, Raleigh, NC 27601

Artist Statement
My passion is inspiring the viewer’s imagination.  My love of photography and printmaking combined with a new fascination for the tactile experience of encaustics gives my latest artworks a dreamlike quality. Evoking visions of landscapes and abstract worlds that appear almost real, like dreams just beginning to take shape. With encaustic the surface can be smooth or heavily textured, but that surreal glow will always draw you in. It’s what made me fall in love with beeswax painting!

HagerSmith Design PA is located in Raleigh’s Warehouse District, right around the corner from VAE at 300 S. Dawson Street. The gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and on First Friday from 6-9pm on the First Friday.

Linda Kimball / United Arts Council

May 2016
First Friday Reception - May 6, 6-8pm
410 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 170, Raleigh NC 27603

Artist Statement
I was born in Wisconsin, raised in Illinois, spent many years in Southern California and have been living in North Carolina since 1986. I come from a family of artists, my father and great uncle, both dreamers and art lovers. I lose myself when I paint, and I draw inspiration from thoughts of my mother. My mother was present physically but mentally absent. The lack of a mother in my childhood has had an enormous influence on my life. I use painting as the most sincere form of self-expression.

I make my art from a variety of mixed media sometimes using encaustic. I love mixed media because I can add or subtract fabric, photography, wax or even magic marker at will. The liquid wax has a mind of its own. A variety of textures and bold colors are available and joyful in my art making. Lately, I have been working on abstract acrylic paintings that include photos I have taken – NY Graffiti shots from my many trips visiting my two sons who live there.

All of my works contain a presence of “Elaine” whether underneath the layers of paint or on top in the form of a silhouette.

I have attended Penland School of Crafts to study encaustic painting and various other art schools & classes over many years. In addition to being an artist, I am currently a touring docent at the North Carolina Museum of Art and run a small business with my husband in downtown Raleigh.

I am a member of the VAE and you can see more of my art at 311 S. Martin Street Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina, just look for me inside at the Local Color Gallery. You can also visit my website at www.LindaKimball.com.

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. 

Exchange Gallery: May Featured Artists

May 2016 Featured Artists

May 6th-26th, 2016
Opening Reception: May 6th, 6-10pm

William Breazeale

I am a representational landscape painter. I have lived and worked in the Raleigh/Durham area for over forty years, and have witnessed a remarkable transformation of the rural landscape into a complex urban environment.  This rapid rate of change in our surroundings offers subject matter for my work: the sometimes jarring juxtaposition of the old with the new; the perception of the transitory replacing the permanent; and the contrast between the basic and the complicated.
The result is that my work often incorporates a panorama illustrating the scale, complexity, and vast expanse of our urbanizing surroundings -- one that contrasts with the partial and incremental view we encounter in our everyday lives.   At times I use exaggerated perspectives (from close to the ground or an aerial view) to emphasize the abstract relationships of urban forms and open spaces.  In other cases, the constituent parts of mundane objects/scenes can be reorganized to create a new version of commonly experienced places, such as parking deck or airport baggage claim area.
Since I have spent most of my adult life here I have developed associations with locations in the region that have meaning to me. As such my work tends to be of specific, recognizable sites.
I am currently working on a series of Downtown Durham cityscapes that explore the relationship between the past and the present. The downtown historic district, containing wonderful examples of art nouveau and classical revival styles, provides rich subject matter, especially for rendering of architectural details. The redevelopment south of the railroad tracks provides a contrast - in both scale and form - to the original Central Business District.

Jim Hallenbeck

My art has largely been of landscapes, cityscapes, and, at times, the people captured in these scenes. My approach in painting is to represent each subject realistically, while at the same time to accentuate its bright colors. I find my approach to painting to be one of deep introspection complete with a wide range of emotions - inner peace, happiness, honesty, and truth. In turn, I hope to communicate something to the viewer, to trigger an emotion, to spark a memory that resonates on a very unique personal level.

Ann Howe

Growing up in rural Virginia I spent much of my free time outdoors and learned to know and love the natural world and to develop some sense of the mystery that resides there; this has stayed with me throughout my life and informs my work. Art has the power to make us see even the most familiar things in a new light; in the works shown here I aimed for scenes as they appear in memory or the imagination, leaving the viewer free to find his or her own meaning or emotional response.

In all of my work I try to respond to the different possibilities offered by the several media that I use. The fluidity of the hot wax used in this work gives it more freedom and spontaneity than my work in other media and this, in turn, makes me see things in a new light.

Mary Storms

I express my artistic vision through abstract mixed-media landscapes. I am intrigued and inspired by the natural environment.  My intent is to provide the viewer with a sense of the symbiotic relationship between the primeval elements - stone, soil, water and sky - and the lifeforms these elements nurture.   

I love experimenting with color, be it bold and vibrant or quiet and subdued.  No matter what palette I use, my mixed media canvases and many of my acrylic-only canvases are usually textured.   For mixed media, I layer torn or cut handmade paper and/or recycled magazine paper with acrylic paint, sculpting paste and an occasional found object.   To add additional depth and texture, portions of some layers are literally scrubbed off with water before the paint, glue or sculpting paste has completely set. Some of these scrubbed portions are left “raw”, while others are repainted and/or papered over.   For my acrylic-only canvases, I apply thick layers of paint with brushes, palette knives and my hands.

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.

Lisa Bartell / HagerSmith PA

Finding Faces

April - May 2016
First Friday Receptions: April 1 & May 6, 6-9pm
300 S. Dawson Street, Raleigh, NC 27601

Artist Statement
Looking back on each body of paintings, I now see how creating has healed and transformed my life. After years of working as an illustrator and portrait artist, I began oil painting as an internal expression. Uncovering hidden layers of the self, made it obvious that I needed to visually reflect what I was feeling. My paintings have been consistently influenced by past events which suddenly changed my internal perceptions of reality.

In a way, I’m returning to my childhood habit of staring at wood grain and discovering faces. Each painting begins with a dark hue brushed in various directions creating nebulous forms. Standing back from the canvas begins the search for lines and shapes that will influence the painting. After a lot of focused staring, imaginary yet recognizable imagery appears. Colors and brushstrokes are constantly transforming, while making decisions about what is or isn’t working in the composition. My ego wants to keep every form, but stripping away what doesn’t enhance the painting is part of the experienced and rational aspect of creating.

I often have to tell myself to just stop. The painting is finished.

My current paintings are a more playful expression, as the imagery is whimsical figures and mythical creatures. My goal is to create a colorful menagerie of odd and unusual characters intermingled in a performance of their own reality.

The imagery of my work may change from botanical abstracts to figurative abstracts, but the inspiration remains constant: an interpretation of the ongoing alterations to our internal perceptions of what is real.

Biographical Information
Lisa Bartell was born in Albany, New York and raised in several areas of the country: Oakland, Ca, Syracuse, NY, Memphis, Tn. and Louisville, Kentucky. At the age of seventeen she moved to Mons, Belgium. She has now settled in Durham, NC with her husband Gary and two four legged children, Dexter and Drusilla. Bartell has two happy and healthy adult children, Sophia and Christopher.

Bartell’s mother encouraged creativity throughout her childhood, beginning with the design of Christmas and Valentine cards, walnuts turned into turtle pins and later Saturday drawing and painting classes at local art colleges. She went on to receive a BFA from Kent State University and an MFA from the University of Memphis. She also studied at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art.

After several years as an illustrator and portrait artist, Bartell began oil painting in 2002. Her current paintings are a positive expression of life, depicting whimsical figures and imaginary animals.

Bartell is an award winning artist having received two artist showcase awards from Manhattan Arts International’s “The Healing Power of Art” and honorary mention from the Durham Art Guild and Light, Space and Time Gallery. Bartell has had several solo exhibits and group shows juried by renowned artists Beverly McIver, John Beerman and John Rosenthal. Her work is in several private collections.

Bartell has been featured in Durham’s The Herald Sun and the Herald Sun Metro, the Raleigh News and Observer, The Chapel Hill Independent, Artsee magazine and Art Calendar magazine. Her work was seen on Good Morning America’s segment Bob Woodward Reports, “Unsung Heroes: Families of Wounded Soldiers.”

HagerSmith Design PA is located in Raleigh’s Warehouse District, right around the corner from VAE at 300 S. Dawson Street. The gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and on First Friday from 6-9pm on the 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!

MEDIA

March 4-24, 2016
First Friday Reception: March 4, 6-10pm

The Exhibit
The purpose of MEDIA is to exhibit artwork from across the spectrum of artist’s materials. The exhibition has no theme, but strives to create conversations about the variations in a single medium and aesthetic between different media. The exhibition includes 48 pieces of artwork categorized by painting, drawing/printmaking, photography, video, mixed media, fiber/textile, digital media, and three-dimensional works.

The Artists
Jodi Aker, Beginnings
Bryan Allyn, Decay
Phil Ashe, Intuitive Impression
Phil Ashe, Deep Field
Morgan Benshoff, You’re Doing It All Wrong
Kelli Black, Don’t Worry Ladies, This Won’t Make You Big (After Jillian Michaels)
Chester Brewer, CREATURE PLAY
Jeannette Brossart, The Collector
Zac Buser, Bridal Veil
Jean Cauthen, Earthly Delights
laura (Yi Zhen) Chen, Barns with shadows
Rose Cleary, WEIRDSHAPES4
Renee Cloud, Memory Police, or, the Inability to Remember You Perfectly Twice
Janet Coleman, Preempt
Melinda Fine, The Showgirl
McArthur Freeman, Balloon Bump
Leif Gann-Matzen, Pelagic
Brian Gualillo, Blurred Concepts.
Rich Gurnsey, “I PICK YOU” BY THE AFFECTIONATES
Murry Handler, Daybreak=
Murry Handler, Glyphs#1, Sepia Rosetta
Kelley Hunter, It Started Out Grey
Leatha Koefler, Carolina Blue Lilly
Jana Lankford, Symphony
Elizabeth Laul Healey, On Edge
Elizabeth Laul Healey, Fallen Grace
Stephen Lindberg, Tectonics
Brandon Marshall, Untitled
Randy McNamara, FEELS LIKE TOMORROW
Bronwyn Merritt, Shamanic Medicine Cabinet
Cynthia Meyer, Vivid Color Memories
Luca Molnar, This Is Just to Say
Colin Murasko, Blue, Yellow-Green, Green
Frank Myers, Krispy Kreme Stripes
Constance Pappalardo, When words fail me
Jessica Parnell, Frost
Susan Piercecchi, Enigma
Alexis Price, “stuck in the crosshairs”
Cindy Pryor, “17 of 71 Blue”
Cindy Pryor, “My Father, My Son”
Robert Ringham, Feeding the light
Robert Ringham, Light Seeker
Tim Saguinsin, Critics (My Six Year Old Could Do That!)
Eric Saunders, Stick Castle No. 2
Richard Stickney, starlet
Anne Tello, #thinkdifferent
Richard Usanis, Abstract #156709
Aaron Zalonis, if you let those animals meditate they’ll kill us all

View all of the work exhibited in MEDIA here!

The Juror
Kathleen Rieder, Assistant Professor of Art +Design, North Carolina State University College of Design

About Kathleen Rieder
Kathleen Rieder has been a teaching faculty member in the Department of Art + Design since 1989. Her emphasis is in Design Studies. Kathleen Rieder has taught drawing, painting, color theory, mixed media, 2D Design and 3D Design, and the First Year Experience. She has taught a seminar in Contemporary Issues in Art + Design for juniors majoring in Art + Design for the past 13 years.

In addition to her teaching, she has actively exhibited her art. She has been selected three times to exhibit in the NC Artists Exhibition at the NC Museum of Art. In the past twelve years she has exhibited at the Hanes Art Center at UNC Chapel Hill; the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC-Greensboro; Meredith College; NC State College of Design; the Louise Wells Cameron Museum in Wilmington; and more recently at the Caldwell County Arts Council and the Mahler Gallery in Raleigh.

Questions? Email Brandon!

Contemporary South 2016

January 6 – February 25, 2016
First Friday Receptions: January 8, 6-10pm & February 5, 6-10pm

The Exhibit
The South is emerging as hub for creativity. Raleigh has adopted a vision to become the Southern Capital for Arts and Culture. To showcase the best artwork from the region here in Raleigh, Contemporary South highlights artwork from across the regional South. Since 2012 Contemporary South has been one of  VAE’s most popular exhibition, 2016’s exhibition will feature 77 pieces of artwork, made by 74 artists from 12 states across the region.

The Artists
Eric Adams, Self Service
Randy Akers, dawn sage
Mary Anderson, Looking Back
Amy Anderson, the lineup
Amy Anderson, The Wedges
Ashley Arakas, “Brevity and Bliss”
Peg Bachenheimer, Good Day Sunshine-Beatles
Devin Balara, Like A Rock
Brant Barrett, Rooster Time
Tamie Beldue, Bisect
Sarah Bielski, First and Ten; Do It Again
Jenny Blazing, Test of Time
William Breazeale, Across the Tracts (Durham CBD#6)
Zel Brook, Horseshoe Barn Roof
Michael Carlebach, Asheville, North Carolina
Micah Cash, Pickwick Landing, Downstream
Renee Cloud, You’re Obviously Not A Hood Girl
Peter Cotroneo, Sweat Sweater
Yvette Cummings Arendt, Voyeur Series
Dana Flynt, Fading Memories XI
McArthur Freeman, Pine App
John Gallagher, Portent
Laken Geiger, PRESENTPRESENCE
Callie Farmer Goss, Binding the Divergence
George Gregory, The Lovers
Jim Hallenbeck, Clothes on Line Along Huler’s Lawson Trek
Anthony Hamilton, Souvenirs #10
Alyson Hansen, Hidden Oak
Rebecca Jacobs, Erosion
Yalonda M James, Cypress Gardens 2
Kathryn Jill Johnson, Tower and Spire
Andrea Kainz, The Body Electric
Joyce Watkins King, Southern Ladies Must Cross Their Legs
Josiah King, Presence
Josiah King, Floor Advancing
Christin Kleinstreuer, Unraveling
Liss LaFleur, QUEEN
Lauren Lake, olate
Sam Lasris, See, Spot,….. Run
Elizabeth Laul Healey, Working Hard at Da Wash
Stephanie Leathers, walls
Gary James Lee, Blizzard
Cayce Lee, Akasha
Vivian Liddell, Swipes 2
Vivian Liddell, Swipes Video
M. Blair Ligon, While My Schoolroom Sleeps
Richard Lund, Broken Mirror
Sarah Martin, Foam Party
Rachel McClain, The Angelina Effect
Lambert McLaurin, “Motherwell’s Window” (abandoned mill)
Gary Mesa-Gaido, Unidentified Point of Departure #2
Rosalie Midyette, Lene
Julia Morrisroe, Your Eyes Proclaim Series #111913
Chieko Murasugi, Life’s Like That
Frank Myers, Fort Fischer Reenactors
Lake Newton, Clinton, Arkansas 2015
David Norcross, Color Conversation 1
Libby O’Daniel, The Tearing and the Torn: Them #2
Olivia Ouyang, Home
Jena Pendarvis, Terra Incognita #1
Nora Phillips, Voladores IV
Zack Rafuls, Difference & Repetition: For Sun Ra & Gilles Deleuze
Andrew Regan, Coat Check
Branch Richter, Through the Peephole
Kathleen Rieder, screen door
Robert Ringham, Little House on the Prairie
William Ruller, Stone Fist
Eric Saunders, Faces At The Fair
Bryce Speed, Yellow Bark
Caren Stansell, Circulation
Teresa Stephens, Four Sided Pyramid
Sterling Stevens, Home Sweet Home
Megan Sullivan, Open
Kulsum Tasnif, Journey to The Good Life
Daryl Thetford, The Search for Balance
Carrie Tomberlin, Pow Wow Contestant, Cherokee, NC
Jenny Williams, Café

View all of the works exhibited in Contemporary South 2016 here!

The Juror
Kristin Fleischmann Brewer, Manager of Programs @ Pulitzer Arts Foundation

About Kristin Fleischmann Brewer
Kristin Fleischmann Brewer is the Manager of Programs at Pulitzer Arts Foundation, where she has worked since 2011. Over the past 3 years Brewer has mounted over 100 programs; founded a grants program that awarded $60,000 to local and national artists to implement community projects. Brewer is also the co-founder and former director of Enamel Art Space in ST. Louis, which exhibited work of local and national visual artists. Brewer received her MFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011 where she was the recipient of the Mr. and Mrs. Spencer T. Olin Fellowship for Women.

About Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Mission – Through engaging exhibitions, programs, and partnerships with artists, curators, and innovators across disciplines, Pulitzer Arts Foundation strives to inspire both the St. Louis community and international arts audiences to think differently about creativity in daily life.

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents a wide range of exhibitions, including those of Old Masters, Buddhist art, important modern and contemporary artists and group exhibitions that explore a diverse array of themes and ideas. In addition to its curatorial platform, the Pulitzer offers a robust roster of programs that bring together leading figures from fields such as art, architecture, design, urban planning, social work, technology, and science. Established by curator, philanthropist, and arts patron Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Pulitzer Arts Foundation promotes the significance of art in everyday life and its impact on the health and success of a community.

Questions? Email Brandon!