Between Mercy and Grace, David C. Robinson, artist.
Momentum Gallery presents the work of six artists in two separate exhibitions in March. An opening reception will be held Thursday, February 28, from 5–8 p.m. for the exhibitions, both of which will run through April 27.
Narrative paintings, original prints and ceramic sculpture make up Vernacular, a show that touches upon such subjects as faith, race and identity in the South. The artists represented are Phil Blank, watercolors; Sasha Schilbrack-Cole, etchings; and David C. Robinson, ceramic sculpture.
An Atlanta artist, Robinson works with terra cotta and clay to produce sculptures that portray the rural South. “I hope to encourage the viewer to reflect on the not-sodistant past and to perhaps invite a reexamination or reevaluation of one’s own prejudices and assumptions associated with race, religion and cultural differences,” says Robinson. “There is something almost mythical about the Deep South that is every bit as dark, powerful and timeless as a Greek tragedy or as absurd, complex and ironic as a Shakespearean comedy.”
Schilbrack-Cole, another Atlanta artist, is a maker, etcher and drawer who graduated from the University of Georgia in 2013 with a BFA in printmaking. “David and Phil’s work is really wonderful,” he says. “I am particularly taken by their use of the figure.”
The watercolors of Blank, a professor at Appalachian Institute for Creative Learning, round out the display. In his Artist’s Statement, he says, “There is a natural joy and humor at seeing the mind’s many images at the same party, talking to each other. I invite everyone I know and try to create a place that is neither sad nor happy, neither ironic nor sober, as weighty as history and as light as sound.”
Concurrently with this exhibition is Jennifer Bueno | Bryce Lafferty | William Henry Price, featuring glass and mixed media, drawings with watercolor and gouache, and paintings. The works of these regional artists explore environmental conditions and unseen interconnections in nature.
Glass in Bueno’s 3-D artwork suggests the earth as viewed from a distance. Glass is the “perfect material,” the Spruce Pine artist says, to portray the sense of disorientation and subsequent knowing that come from viewing satellite images. “In the terrain I can identify a city, farmland, see massive clouds of smog, or glaciers receding. Human presence is undeniable and the consequence of our presence is emotionally overwhelming.”
Lafferty uses the luminosity of watercolor and the flat, even quality of gouache to produce landscape drawings. “They are almost always based on actual places that I’ve visited,” he says, “and are the result of an internal process that involves meshing together memories with categorical knowledge, like science, philosophy or history.”
Asheville’s Price is enthralled by mythology and physics. “We are entering an exciting time as science makes its transition beyond purely materialistic parameters,” he says. “Art and science are about the invisible, and it’s not far-fetched to say that the scientist of the future is an artist.”
Momentum Gallery is located at 24 North Lexington Avenue, Asheville. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 12–5 p.m. To learn more, call 828.505.8550 or visit MomentumGallery.com
