ALTARES DEL DíA DE MUERTOS is a collaborative installation between VAE Raleigh and Centro. In honor of Día de Muertos 3 artists responded to traditional ideas of the altar, a central icon of the holiday which is celebrated from November 1-2. Alma Leiva, Cynthia Velasquez, and Kevin Quiles Bonilla’s altars honor Latinx lives past, present, and future.
This window installation is a part of VAE’s ongoing project centering the Latinx community, De Aqui y De Alla.
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.
Toilet Paper Art Benefit Auction : Call to Doodie
Do you need a creative outlet as you have distanced your social interactions? We’re you able to find toilet paper? VAE is the launching the Toilet Pape Art Benefit Auction. We are asking artists to do their duty and create original art, drawings, sketches….doodie doodles if you will…… on an end off the ol’ bog roll and send them in.
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.
Deadline to enter: TBD
Exhibit run: TBD
Location:REX Heart and Vascular
2800 Blue Ridge Rd
Raleigh, NC 27607
This exhibition is being placed on hold along with the rest of VAE’s exhibition schedule due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Updates will be made as soon as we are able to congregate and view are together safely.
Raleigh, NC 27607
Calling all Plein air painters! The world is filled with captivating urban and landscapes, people, and culture. We are calling on you to submit your awesome paintings to be exhibited at REX hospital’s North Carolina Heart & Vascular Center.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.”
By donating artwork to VAE’s 40th Anniversary Gala you enable us to continue hosting 60+ exhibits, producing 40+ educational programs, and providing more than $100,000 directly to artists each year.
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Each mass-produced item in this show was salvaged from the secondhand store or the trash and given a neon facelift. Using the imagery already inside of the painting and through pop culture references, these material mashups bring new creative life into these discarded objects. Danielle’s work provides a commentary on contemporary American consumer and social culture that invites viewers to examine their own habits.
Danielle’s exhibition in the Cube also acts as a two pronged reminder to the artist and consumer alike:
1. So many artists (who are alive and work today) could use your support much more than Hobby Lobby.
2. Mass production of objects and our cultures consumption is most certainly contributing to our global climate crisis.
Danielle is a Durham N.C. based neon bender, artist and metalsmith whose works have been exhibited internationally. She is a member of the all-women neon art exhibition SHE BENDS and is currently a 3rd-year neon apprentice under neon artist and sculptor Nate Sheaffer at Glas neon in Raleigh N.C.
The Cube is sponsored by Celito.net who make it possible for us to pay all exhibiting artists a stipend for sharing their creativity with our community.Celito.net
