Above: Artist, Ken Abbott
Artist, Lisa De Girolamo
Two exhibits, both running through February 20, are on display at the Asheville Area Arts Council’s gallery space at 1 Page Avenue in the Grove Arcade. There will be an opening reception for both from 5–8 p.m. on Friday, February 5.
Local photographer Ken Abbott is curator of the Council’s “Point of View” exhibit in the Main Gallery. This show features Ken’s photographs of Asheville, including his personal historical perspective of the nearly completed New Belgium site.
This documentary project grew out of Ken’s interest in capturing images of the River Arts District, its derelict buildings and natural spaces.
“This is an exhibit of artists’ responses to this transition,” says Ken. “It includes photographs I made primarily in the two years prior to the purchase of the land by New Belgium, aerial pictures, panoramas, and interiors, portraits, and landscapes.” There are also photographs by Zen Sutherland, fellow admirer of old buildings and landscapes, interpolated and transformed into fantastic “watercolor paintings” via his camera’s algorithmic talents.
“Friends Lisa Smith and Elaine Bleakney collaborated for their photograph-and-response series,” he continues.
He says Lisa’s images of items for sale at the old auction house combined with Elaine’s quirky and inspired verbal associations evoke the feelings inspired by this loss and by the attachment to things. Together they represent “the mystery and inevitability of their loss.”
He adds that Rod Murphy provided video documentation for the exhibit, utilizing Google Maps to allow the viewer to move through the old site.
“In the process of renewing this space along the west bank of the French Broad River, we have been humbled to be part of the collection of the history of this place,” says Susanne Hackett, community relations specialist for New Belgium Brewing Company. “The people, experiences, and more so, the memories that came before us will shape the story we continue to share. We are honored to be on this ground.”
In the other exhibit, in the Artist Resource Center Gallery, work by abstract collage artist Lisa De Girolamo is featured. Lisa received a BFA from Smith College and an MFA in painting from Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Born and raised in New York City, she now lives in Asheville where she says she is “exploring concepts of abstraction, mainly through collage, monotype, and drawing.”
She begins each piece by first choosing a color key, and then begins arranging the components of shape, color, and line.
“The result may be more or less pleasing. But then I push for something deeper—qualities such as order, unity, and proportion.”
At this point, she says, the work tends to have a life of its own as opposed to being merely an assortment of pictorial elements, and now has the ability “to convey poetically, and abstractly, an experience of the visual world.”
For more information, visit ashevillearts.com.
