Two pieces that will be on view at the HOW Space. Left: Thomas Campbell, Right: Luke Gnadinger
The HOW Space at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC is a gallery and education space that seeks to advance creativity, collaboration, and community. It’s used for workshops, talks, social events, and, this week, for an exhibition of work by Penland’s core fellows.
Core: Contemporary Selections from the Core Fellowship at Penland School of Crafts will open April 5 and run through April 12, 2018. The exhibition will feature Penland’s current and recent core fellows: Stormie Burns, Thomas Campbell, Luke Gnadinger, Rachel Kedinger, Elliot Earl Keeley, Kyle Kulchar, Sarah Rose Lejeune, Alexandra McClay, Corey Pemberton, Kento Saisho, Katherine Toler, and Devyn Vasquez. The work will range from clay and metal to paper and print, with the common thread being the creative exploration and inquiry that are at the heart of both Penland and the HOW Space.
Please join us at HOW this Friday, April 6 from 6:00-9:00 PM for a reception to celebrate Core and the work of these Penland artists. The HOW Space is located at 182 Howard Street in Boone, NC. More information here.
Tom Shields, “Mediation,” cast iron, 60 x 18 x 39 inches (photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center)
The year’s first exhibition at the Penland Gallery is a collection of work by artists who, in the words of gallery director Kathryn Gremley, “have erased dividing lines or untethered themselves from material and creative constraints.” Titled I dwell in Possibility after a poem by Emily Dickinson, the exhibition includes work in ceramic, glass, metal, painting, photography, printmaking, and wood with considerable mixing of media. The fifteen artists represented will be teaching workshops at Penland in 2018. The show runs through May 13.
Ruther Miller, “The Evocation and Capture of Aphrodite,” hand-embroidered wool on fabric, 36 x 30 inches
Walking into the exhibition, visitors will be greeted by a three-foot tall, precisely rendered image of a young woman—leaves and geometric shapes float by her in the foreground. The piece can easily be mistaken for a painting, but closer inspection reveals that it is made entirely from embroidery thread. The artist, Ruth Miller, spends about a year stitching one of these pieces.
Photographer Dan Estabrook is represented by a series of tintypes, which are images created on a metal plate. Although tintypes have traditionally been treated simply as a type of photograph, this artist has chosen to also approach them as metal objects. Using a jeweler’s saw, he carefully cuts up different tintypes and recombines them to create metal collages.
A cast-iron teapot by Frankie Flood, who is a faculty member at Appalachian State University, has a surface texture that looks like the inner surface of tree bark, while the surface of a wooden platter by Matthew Hebert has been carved into a 3D image of a manhole cover. And an animated video by Noah Saterstrom is accompanied by several of the paintings he used to create it. These are just some of the wonders and possibilities presented in this exhibition.
Also on view in the Focus Gallery is an exhibition titled GATHER | Eat, Drink, Enjoy, which showcases elegant, functional glassware by Courtney Dodd and Nickolaus Fruin. Together, the artists have formed “Shaker + Salt,” a line of exquisitely-executed plates, bowls, cups, and more that are meant to be shared, enjoyed, and laughed over at the table. The exhibition highlights these pieces as they might be used at a dinner party, complete with a fully set table and cocktail recipes to go with each set of glasses. Admire the entire arrangement, and then lean in close to catch the special details that set each piece apart.
This Sunday, Penland will hold its annual Easter celebration and egg hunt, which always includes an impressive range of handmade eggs by students and instructors. Many are crafted using the materials at hand in the session’s workshops—wood, glass, iron, clay, and more—but there are often wildcard entries made by Penland’s friends and neighbors, too. This year, thanks to an egg decorating party hosted by Penland’s Community Collaborations Manager Stacey Lane, the hunt will also include a bunch of eggs dyed using the traditional Ukranian method of pysanky.
The pysanky technique is a layered wax resist technique, something like batik on eggs. With a skilled hand, highly complex patterns can be built up with successive applications of wax and dye, wax and dye, wax and dye. The final step is to warm the egg over a small flame, wipe off the hot wax, and reveal the vibrant pattern hiding beneath. Keep an eye out for these beauties tucked around campus this Sunday!
