A Temporary Madness. Bethany Pierce, artist.
Through March 31, the Asheville Area Arts Council presents Who’s Afraid of RED?, an exhibition featuring 16 new artists. Inspired by a series of Barnett Newman paintings called Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, the exhibit will explore this color and its nearly countless associations: love, vitality, opulence, fire, the heart, the devil, blood, power. “I have always been fascinated by and drawn to the color red, and I thought it would make a good theme for a show,” says Barbara Fisher, who is curating the show under the AAAC’s Point of View Curator Program. “The Point of View Curator Program is a great idea as it encourages artists to try on a different hat, so to speak, by coming up with a concept, writing a proposal and then curating a show of their own design.” An oil painting titled “Rhapsody in Red” is Fisher’s contribution to the exhibition. “It expresses the intensity yet accessibility of the color red, in an energetic field of dynamic shapes, lines and different shades of red,” she says.
Artist Bethany Pierce says she has carried on a “long and sometimes ambivalent love affair” with the color red. “I actually had a hard time choosing which work to show,” she says. “In the end, I chose the piece that seemed the least apologetic. The red cascades down the canvas in an almost straight-from-the-tube purity that felt very cathartic to paint at the time.” The painting “was intended as an abstract expression of falling in love, that colorful inner tangle of dopamine and norepinephrine, that heart-pounding rush,” she says.
In addition to Fisher and Pierce, Who’s Afraid of RED? will feature works by Alicia Armstrong, Ian Brownlee, Margaret Curtis, Suzanne Dittenber, Spencer Herr, Karen Ives, Nava Lubelski, Daniel Nevins, Kevin Palme, Jeremy Phillips, Peter Roux, Molly Sawyer, Ralston Fox Smith and Kirsten Stolle. The gallery will host an opening event on Friday, March 1, from 5–8 p.m. at the Asheville Area Arts Council’s Thom Robinson and Ray Griffin Exhibition Space, with an artist talk beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Asheville Area Arts Council’s Thom Robinson and Ray Griffin Exhibition Space is located in the Refinery Creator Space at 207 Coxe Avenue. Hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event and exhibition are free and works are for sale. For more information, call 828.258.0710 or visit AshevilleArts.com.
