Night Game. Caleb Clark, artist
By Kathleen O. Brown
This month, Blue Spiral 1 kicks off the multi-artist exhibition Sports! a collection of works by Kreh Mellick and a two-person exhibition of figurative works by painter Jon Sours and sculptor Kensuke Yamada. Starting with an opening reception from 5–7 p.m. on Friday, March 6, all three exhibitions at the gallery in downtown Asheville run through April 22.
The exhibition Sports! in the Lower Level Gallery showcases the work of Martyna Alexander, Caleb Clark, Chris Cosnowski, Christopher Kerr-Ayer, Brandon Donahue-Shipp, Thomas Pfannerstill and Noah Saterstrom. Featured media include basketballs, mold-blown glass, paintings, wood sculptures and ceramic vessels.
Astro Boy. Kensuke Yamada, artist
Caleb Clark says Sports! features several of his oil paintings that depict basketball courts around Asheville at night. “In these nocturne paintings, I’m interested in showing places of play during the still moments between games,” Clark says.
Three of Brandon Donahue-Shipp’s works from his Basketball Bloom series are part of the Sports! exhibition. “My visual art research is interdisciplinary, combining painting, assemblage, mural-making and collage to investigate how everyday objects carry histories of labor, place and community,” Donahue-Shipp says. “In my Basketball Bloom series, the mundane basketball is transformed into a radial, symmetric assemblage that comments on the human touch, history, place and recycling. I search for and collect used basketballs and reconstruct them using shoestrings.”
Sports! includes pieces by glass artist Christopher Kerr-Ayer, including Chain Link Champion (Gold), Chain Link Champion (Silver) and Bowling Pins. And although he says these works share some themes, their conceptual qualities differ. “Bowling Pins speaks more directly to the subject of sports, undoubtedly, referencing the shape, aesthetic and size of the reference object,” Kerr-Ayer says. “This work plays with the viewer’s perception of objects and what is affected when a ‘fragile’ material takes the place of the original. Exchanging materials engages one’s preconceived notion of the object’s role in the game, highlighting the inherent ‘violence’ of sports.”
He says the Chain Link Champion pieces explore a more subversive tone. “Re-defining elements of trophies—form, size and iconography—as grammar, these works use a visual language that abstracts the object from its immediate identity,” Kerr-Ayer says. “Mixing materials, both handmade and found objects, destroys any material hierarchy while creating a soft, almost feminine, visual quality. Thus, these objects act as an irreverent supplement for actual trophies and their embodied meaning.”
Visitor. Jon Sours, artist
Blue Spiral 1’s Small Format Gallery is exhibiting pieces by artist Kreh Mellick who employs a cut-and-layered style of gouache painting. Through her pieces, Mellick creates timeless images of people, plants and animals woven into tangled worlds of abstraction and figuration.
In its Showcase Gallery, Blue Spiral 1 presents works by painter Jon Sours and sculptor Kensuke Yamada in a two-person exhibition of bold and provocative figurative work. Yamada’s ceramic figures evoke enchantment using gesture, texture and pattern to convey resonant expressions that animate his sculptures. “I combine contemporary imagery with elements of Japanese folklore—such as yokai, kaiju, myths and religious narratives—to explore the emotional depth of everyday life,” Yamada says. “My work is also shaped by my concerns about contemporary America. As I seek emotional meaning in daily experience, I ask how our current society reflects who we are and how we might respond to an increasingly divided social landscape in the US. For me, art becomes a way to think through these tensions—a language through which thoughts and emotions can be expressed and shared. My ongoing challenge is finding ways to meaningfully incorporate and reflect upon the complexities of the present moment within my work.”
Sours’ paintings in this exhibition reveal a precise handling of the medium, employing found and observed imagery to strike the balance between realism and surrealism. “This body of work represents my ongoing interest in figurative painting,” Sours says. “I hope to engage with the viewer’s own memories or dreams and capture a moment frozen in time that feels familiar or uncanny. I often work from photographs or film stills, combining or collaging imagery into new narratives or situations. Throughout the process of painting, details are lost or obscured or unexpectedly altered. This method of editing is not without risk, but will, hopefully, result in a newfound clarity.”
Blue Spiral 1 is located at 38 Biltmore Ave. in downtown Asheville. Learn more at BlueSpiral1.com.
