Artist, Donna Ruff
Creativity and ingenuity will brighten the galleries of Blue Spiral 1 throughout the year as more than 25 artists show new work on the theme Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. An opening reception will be held Thursday, November 17, from 5–8 p.m. The exhibit runs through January 6.
Reduce, in Gallery Two, features the work of fourteen artists reducing—or using subtraction methods—to create art. Works include cut paper, carved wood, ceramics and mixed media.
A North Carolina native, Leigh Suggs lives in Virginia and creates with paper. “I have included a body of work that is completely reductive,” she says, “I am removing more than 50 percent of the paper—not only to reveal what may be behind the work, but to create intricate geometric patterns and wavy grids that undulate and pulse—all causing a distorted visual perception.”
Suggs credits the influence of her mother, Marianne Suggs—an art professor at Appalachian State University—for her own interest in and pursuit of art as a career. She has studied at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Virginia Commonwealth University and Penland School of Crafts.
Works displayed in Gallery One represent Reuse and Recycle. New forms, especially those with an animal motif, have been created from utilitarian and found objects. Marshall artist Rob Pulleyn’s sculpted forms with imprinted textures will be on display in the Small Format Gallery. The Display Case will hold Korean- and Chineseinspired pottery by South Carolina artist Jim Connell. Two artists—David Eichelberger and Douglas Miller—share space in the Showcase Gallery with, respectively, nature-centered porcelain vessels and graphite/mixed media renditions of animals on paper.
Located at 38 Biltmore Avenue in downtown Asheville, Blue Spiral 1 features the work of more than one hundred artists displayed in a 15,000-square-foot space. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. To learn more, visit bluespiral1.com.
