Ceramic invitational

Bosco Bae, Ted Batt, May Carter, Kevin Crowe, Chatham Monk, Joe Monk, Shawn O’Connor, Kenny Tinklenberg & Justin Rice

March 3rd through April 20th, 2023

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5pm

Emerging Artist Series

Adara Wright

Lustre

September 2nd through October 20th

ARTIST STATEMENT

Color, light, and buttery brushstrokes fill me with a creative euphoria, but it is the individual’s story, feeling, and purpose that make me come alive. The portrait is the primary focus in my work because there is something powerful and fundamental about connecting to a story or an emotion through the human face. At infancy, we find belonging and safety in seeing our parent’s smile. As adults, we discover a sense of home and acceptance in connecting with a dear friend or a partner’s loving gaze.  

I have also long been fascinated with dance and movement. Emotion, stories, and even just the day-to-day rhythms of our lives are so beautifully expressed and communicated through the figure in motion. 

Within my work, the viewer will find a variety of media used to explore capturing the portrait and the figure in motion. My hope is that this blend of color, value, and technique will draw the viewer into the story and concept to connect to a moment, a brushstroke, a smile, or a tear. As you take in each moment, may you be reminded that no matter where you are, you are never alone.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

Emerging Artist Series

Candy Henderson

July 1st through August 18th

ARTIST STATEMENT

Creating, for me, is like an orchestra instructor. I love being able to maneuver colors, highs and lows, intense and transparent. Using multiple mediums allows me to capture the vibrancy of colors in movement. I love making my work move. Switching to black light allows me to do as such. Bring forth the unseen beauty. 

H. Bayne

June 3rd through June 16th, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5pm

Artist Statement

Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Angels, water, flames, entrails, and bugs somehow were the first images that came to mind while analyzing my emotions. Each representative of something, but also representative of nothing. I incorporate many versions of myself in these five self portraits - the versions of myself that I allow emotion to take over reason and thought. Although each painting is a visual representation of my emotions and my body, the viewer can interpret the pieces according to their own experiences - creating an equilibrium of shared emotion between the viewer and the artist.

The process for completing each painting included a period of isolation for five days, in which I had to complete the piece by the end of day five. I did not leave my apartment, I only spoke to my roommate in certain cases, and I controlled what entertainment/media I consumed during this time. I triggered a singular emotion for five days by following a specific routine depending on which emotion was being painted, which included a particular diet, sleep schedule, personal routine, and many other aspects of daily life. I wanted to complete this experiment because I have always been intrigued by the use and interpretation of emotion in the fine arts. I yearned to understand how far I could push my emotions into my work, as well as understand how the viewer can emotionally interact with the piece. This series taught me a lot about myself and how I process my emotions.

I hope to create a space in which one can feel. I want the viewers to experience their emotions - not the emotions that I decided to paint, but their emotions. This series is very personal to me, of course, but I want the viewer to consider this series personal to them as well. Emotions are not scary, they are what makes us human, and sometimes art alone can help a person feel more human.

HAGS & OTHER STARRATIVES

Bunny Goodjohn

May 6th through June 16th

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work looks for edges, those thin lines between the public and the private, between what we are told is the truth of a situation . . . and what we know is its reality. My work springs from those edges and resolves through an exploration of my own experience. 

The past six months have been a creative examination of aging spurred both by observing the increasingly condensed lives of my parents and by my own wrestle with menopause, a fight from which I emerged as both winner and loser. The result is a range of stitched narratives or "starratives" all worked organically and intuitively by hand and using discarded materials.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

Tangible Nothingness: An Unfinished Becoming

Nugent Koscielny

May 6th through June 16th, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5pm

Exhibition Details

Every stimulus we encounter in our environments fuels our perception, our state of being  or process of becoming aware of something by the senses.This exhibition will examine  the intersection of experience and perception. Tangible Nothingness is an opportunity to  consider how our interactions within our world shape us and we then shape our world, how  we affect and are affected by our environment and by our experiences, translated through  psychology, biology/physiology, technology and installation design. 

The multi-media exhibition will be designed with consideration of contemporary ways in  which we move through our world, notice speed and time, and interact with others around  us. The work illustrates and invites the audience to consider how perception and association  are the basis for what may be understood.

Artist Statement

For me, recent times have been an adventure in staying home and being close to my family. Much of my work is drawn directly from my life at hand. During this period, awareness of the spaces we inhabit has been intensified. I have made numerous videos and recordings of my everyday life and thought deeply about the ways in which I experience speed and time, the psychological construct of memories and how these layer together within a consciousness and to what ends. I have often wished I had a camera or device to hand when I did not, to catch the moment, words or actions, as they were expressed before they faded into memory. 

On another layer, the work closely examines how we, as human beings, notice and interact with our environment. Inspired by ancient traditions and contemporary ubiquity; sundials and speedometers, random conversations, shaky cameras, the sounds of footsteps and heartbeats, the droning of engines. All of these aspects mingle together in the work to provoke reflection upon how we exist in these moments and make meaningful associations through captured traces. The goal for my work is to examine human behavior and thought and to offer viewers an opportunity to experience moments of increased awareness of their own perceptions and associations. 

Never finished, always becoming.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

Students of Cindy Wood

May 6th through May 26th, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5pm

Exhibition Details

Cindy Wood  teaches beginning drawing, pen and inks, charcoal, colored pencil, and watercolor painting.  My students consist of Jr. High through High School ages.  They study Upper torso anatomy for Portraiture, and 3D Drawing. Their year consists of drawing studies and two Completed Projects of their studies by the end of the school year.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

Emerging Artist Series

Angela Dianna

March 4th through April 21st

ARTIST STATEMENT

Based in Southwest Virginia, Angela Dianna uses elements of the natural world in combination with warm oil palettes to encapsulate the essence and emotion of what it is to be human. Utilizing light and shadow to exaggerate the emotion of the subject matter, she aims to create an empathetic relationship between the art and the viewer by drawing the viewer to look just beyond the surface and witness an image of themselves.

Exhibit Catalog

How long did that take?

Jill Jensen

March 4th through April 21st, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5pm

ARTIST STATEMENT

How long did that take? 

A long time. 

I began as a painter and over time have explored pastels, color pencils, printmaking and sewing. When I became aware of surface design, I knew it was my medium.  The skills I acquired gave me a rich set of tools to create images from life or my imagination. 

I do not consider myself to be a patient person except for activities that interest me.  Both fiber art and printmaking can be demanding due to the multiple steps and attention to detail that are required.  My work is a combination of additive (painting, stitching, collaging) and subtractive (plate carving) processes that together form the final image. 

Graphic imagery frequently inspired by symbols, archetypes and prayers drew me to woodcut and linocut printmaking.  My love of intense color is satisfied though painting and stitching.  The stitching has the added bonus of adding texture to the final work. 

How long did that take?  Time for inspiration from nature, prayers and daily life to percolate.  Time for designing, carving and printing plates on fabric and paper.  Time for painting and assembling painted and printed fabrics into a single unit.  Time to stitch layers of fabric together for additional color and texture.  Sometimes a very long time.

ARTIST BIO

From her home studio in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jill Jensen designs, carves and prints woodcut and linoleum prints on both fabric and paper. Her prints on fabric are completed with paint and stitching to create a colorful and textured image. Inspiration comes from the natural world viewed on her long morning walks and from prayers and poems.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

Yearly Quilts

2017 (Timeline)

Mixed Media, 325” x 9”

2019 (Timeline)

Mixed Media, 261” x 8”

2021 (4 columns)

Mixed Media, 91” x 8” each

Emerging Artist Series

Jed Mickle

January 7th through February 17th, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5PM

Jed Mickle

ARTIST STATEMENT

Jed has always loved creating characters, along with words for them to inhabit. These days, most of his spare-time creations inhabit t-shirts. He likes to think they mingle and have a good time together.

After an autism ‘diagnosis’ in 2017, (neurodiversity!) this off beat artist felt freed up to be even more artistically incongruent. He found abstract painting as a way to express what words cannot and to explore invisible worlds and unseen things. 

Jed has three beautiful children, who are often his greatest inspirations. He lives in Lynchburg, VA.

You can see more of his work at jedmickle.com and on instagram as @captainhuzzah and @sensitivekidmusic. 

EXHIBIT CATALOG

CONTEPORARY LANDSCAPES

Brittany Gilbert and Casey Murano

January 7th through February 17th, 2022

Gallery Hours - Wednesday through Sunday: 12-5PM

Brittany Gilbert

Artist Statement

Through sequential and perceptual landscape painting, my work creates a record of my experience of  sustained engagement with perpetually fluctuating environments.  It is based on perceptual and direct  responses to particular environments. 

In an outdoor setting there is so much information and many variables that are beyond my control. What  does it mean to engage with how these observations add to my understanding and attune my senses to the  nuances of the scene? Standing in the same spot, I paint the same space again and again over hours,  weeks, months and even years.  Returning to each site multiple times builds an intimacy from which I can  personally and intuitively respond to fluctuating conditions. 

Finding a format best suited for each site, I embrace that I am not a machine and I do not register changes  the same way that a machine would.  I paint what first captures my attention, therefore, directing the  viewer to my individual impression.  Whenever there is a noticeable change in its appearance, I record the  time, put the work aside and begin a new panel.  I cannot and do not want to capture every detail.  I am  interested in the shape shifts within my subject, as well as the freshness, decisiveness and immediacy of my  response.  The result of this process corresponds with the pace at which changes occur.  Endurance leads to  a rhythmic quality in the physical act of painting.  It becomes a flow that is indicative of my immersion in a  fluctuating environment.  Evidence of this flow is shown not only through levels of resolution within a  particular day, but also through increasingly decisive brushstrokes as projects continue.  

Series are installed chronologically as a singular piece - often in grid-like formats contrasting the irregularity  of nature.  In larger series, the spacing of the work is also indicative of the time spent on each painting.  

Over time possibilities open up to me as an artist.  With immersion a field transcends dirt and grass.  The  nameable objects disappear and are replaced by shifts of colors and abstract shapes vying for my attention  before nestling back into obscurity.  Whether it is the color of a tree as the sun rises, the rhythm of sunlight  through a forest, a puddle evaporating or the veil of rain over the landscape, sustained engagement  through painting allows me to be open and ready to respond to the unexpected in seemingly mundane or  cliché subjects.  The arrangement and balance of little and big shapes constantly changes, providing new  paintings from the same landscape motif. 

Painting the same size within a series guarantees that there is minimal disruption to the narrative flow and  read when I present these landscapes in their entirety as a story of my encounters with a particular place.  I  hope the viewer will experience the landscape as I have:  as a constantly fluctuating environment full of  subtle shifts of value, color, and light, as well as dramatic arrangements of shapes.   

As I work, I do not compare the current painting to the previous one.  I am fully absorbed in the present.  I  have faith that the process will result in a genuine record of my experience however subtle or dramatic the  visual shifts. 

Casey Murano

Artist Statement

Pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago and to St. Peter’s Basilica, Assisi, Taizé, and Bethlehem Farm inform my art practice, which includes deep attentiveness to the contemplatively active rituals of daily life: walking, listening, commuting, sharing meals. Pilgrimage encourages me to engage deeply in community with a sense of awe and wonder and openness to new insights. My creative spiritual practices also challenge me to wrestle with the Catholic Church’s troubling entanglement with systems of oppression. In the past year, painting at the river has become a pilgrimage that connects me with the social and physical landscapes of watersheds I call home. While living alongside the James, Roanoke, New, and now Mississippi Rivers, the process of painting helps me discern how to authentically accompany and be in solidarity with whomever I encounter on the pilgrimage of life. Through paintings and sketchbook drawings, I explore my relationship with the societal, environmental, and spiritual implications of places I call home. I work across disciplines in oil, watercolor, recycled paper pulp, ballpoint pen, collage, and book arts, breaking down and building up forms, retracing and dissolving shapes that often reference aerial perspective, topographic maps, the flow of water between rocks, and stained glass.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

Savannah Ball

“All Wonder and Light”

November 5th, 2021 - November 26th, 2021

GALLERY HOURS:
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY: 12PM-5PM

Artist Statement:

Over the last two years, I have developed a specialized approach to landscape painting, which results in abstracted renditions of unique scenery. I take inspiration from geometric and textural elements of original photographs, loosely yet purposely recreating those elements with acrylic paint on canvas. The addition of a variety of medium additives allow me to build up an almost three-dimensional quality to each piece, and my bold color schemes give my work a crisp, vibrant sense of personality. Each work represents my remembrance of a specified memory, time, brought out from within the landscape. No matter the size of the canvas, each finished work contains treasured memories, dissected and memorialized through texture, composition, and color. 

My compositions create movement by using diagonal lines, texture, and segmented color fields, leading the viewer’s eye to experience the full visual adventure, similar to my journey while creating the visual language of each work. I am committed to a methodical process that involves a number of directed steps, each essential to the finished piece. Though regimented, my systematic process allows for an optimal amount of freedom in creative decision-making while still paying due homage to the initial inspiration.

Artist’s Bio:

Savannah Ball graduated with her BFA in Painting and Printmaking with a Minor in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University and was awarded the Ed Steinberg Award in 2015. She also received her Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northwestern University in 2018. She was born in Orlando, Florida, and currently resides in Richmond, Virginia. 

Her work has received recognition, including Honorable Mention awards in 2020 and 2018 in Crossroads Art Center’s juried art shows and the People’s Choice Award in Riverviews Artspace’s November 2020 Annual Juried Show. She was selected as one of the participating artists to represent Crossroads Art Center during Richmond’s CURRENT Art Fair in 2019. 

Before attending university, Savannah was a self-taught artist, driven by her love of learning and working with her hands. She discovered a passion for creating art and a deep appreciation for learning from others' wisdom. Her desire for individual growth and curiosity as an artist inspires constant exploration and shifts within her work. 

In 2020, her two-person exhibition, "Duality", celebrated the creative cross-pollination between fine art nature photographer, Darron Franta, and herself. Their exhibition beautifully exemplified the harmony between two contrasting artistic processes. 

Savannah is currently represented by Crossroads Art Center in Richmond, Virginia.

www.savannahballart.com

Pictured in graphic: "Waiting Room #6"

EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

Ella C. Gleason

“Here and Now”

September 3rd, 2021 - September 24th, 2021

GALLERY HOURS:
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY: 12PM-5PM

Artist Statement:

My art perspective evolved from the feminist tradition of female artists depicting other females. This is in opposition with the majority of Western art history where predominantly male painters depict females for other agendas. For example, a woman may be painted as a mythological character or represent a moral or ideal. Adding another layer to this work, when women were painted or depicted in art as themselves it often  represented high socioeconomic status. In my work, I represent everyday women as the humans they are; this buds from feminist traditions inspired by past artists Emile Charmy, Alice Neel, and contemporary artist Jordan Casteel, among others. 

The Here and Now series emerges from a more intimate look into my own life - a woman depicting herself. I simply started to look down, and sketched what was happening at the moment. Several moments inevitably accumulated into a series from what I do in my everyday life, which of course has been impacted by events in the last 7 years since the series started. Through omitting my face, the viewer is able to focus on the experience of the small moments - sitting in a waiting room, walking to or from somewhere, or falling asleep/waking up. These are moments in the here and now that may not be remembered - moments that surround focal points of our lives, but are not themselves the focus. People, animals, and experiences may reappear in new ways as they tend to in life; routine and variety melting into one time. These sketches began to pass the time, or while waiting. However, as I continued to accumulate drawings, I realized that even though my experiences are somewhat unique, they are inherently connected to the everyday human experience.

Explanation of the making process: 

Each drawing started as a small scale sketch with pencil and pen. All drawings hinge on perspective and most are drawn with one continuous line - meaning that the pen never left the paper from start to finish. This series focuses on the emotions of the person, moment, and experience. Therefore, while there is an element of realism in each drawing, the lines are abstracted to focus on the emotive quality of the moment. Each drawing was redrawn on the larger 16 x 20” format and is mixed media, meaning additional supplies were employed in addition to pencil/pen. Watercolors, color pencils, among other mediums all interplay on the hand-stained and collaged paper I created.

Artist’s Bio:

Ella is a Southern Virginia native and artist, who creates predominantly mixed media work with the foundations of drawing, painting, and print-making. Key themes such as portraiture, the everyday person, history, personal experience, and feminism appear often in her work. This is the artist’s first notable exhibition beyond higher education, and Ella has earned a M.E.d. in Education and a B.A. in Arts with an emphasis in Graphic design, both from the University of Lynchburg. Ella’s skills range from graphic design to fine art, and her personal work starts with a consideration of the role of women and women artists in art. Ella is an art educator, and currently lives in Lynchburg with her husband and two cats, all of whom appear frequently in her work.

Instagram: @ellasketchbook

EXHIBIT CATALOG

IF INTERESTED IN PURCHASING ANY OF THE PIECES IN THIS EXHIBIT, CONTACT MICHELE BOLEN (GALLERY ASSOCIATE) AT MICHELE@RIVERVIEWS.NET

EMERGING ARTIST SERIES

Kris Collins

“People do Change”

August 6th, 2021 - August 27th, 2021

GALLERY HOURS:
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY: 12PM-5PM

Artist Statement:

An Artist whose name we do not know loses his lover. It was such a toxic relationship that he had to have more of it. In desperation he visits the Neighborhood Witch, who casts a love spell on the Artist’s lover, but the spell requires the Artist’s right hand.

The love streak ends once more so the Artist visits the Neighborhood Witch again, asking her for his hand back, since true love for the two is impossible. The Witch casts a spell, giving him his hand back, but it’s not the same right hand and changes him forever.

I created this collection and based it on a short narrative about an Artist struggling with love and alcohol issues because it hits close to home. This is my way of creating my way through some of the same problems in my own life. My overall vision is to present a story through Art and display it as if its many puzzle pieces scattered. When all the pieces are out of sequential order it becomes more of an experience that allows the audience to put the pieces together and fill in the gaps of the story on their own. I hope the audience enjoys the visual aspect of the Art, but also appreciates and figures out specific details in the story. This collection is made up of the various styles and mediums of Art I create so the audience should get a good idea of my overall Art style. I want to inspire people in the community to make changes in their lives that put them in a better position to succeed, which will improve their mental and physical health and relationships with the people they love.

Artist’s Bio:

EXHIBIT CATALOG

IF INTERESTED IN PURCHASING ANY OF THE PIECES IN THIS EXHIBIT, CONTACT MEG WESTON (ASSISTANT CURATOR) AT MEG@RIVERVIEWS.NET

Please note: This exhibit contains nudity.

An Artist's Sketchbook: Life Drawings and Paintings by Emlyn Edwards will open First Friday, July 2nd, 2021.

Exhibit run: July 2nd - July 23rd, 2021 in the Rosel H. Schewel Gallery (Gallery 109) at Riverviews Artspace.

Emlyn R. Edwards was born May 16th, 1916 in Bloomfield, N.J. and died June 12, 2003 in Lynchburg, VA. He served as a draftsman and topographical mapmaker in North Africa and Europe from 1940 to 1945 with the U.S. Army. When he returned from the war, he attended Yale University on the G.I. Bill and received both his bachelor’s and master’s degree in art. He went on to teach drawing, painting, printmaking, and design for 28 years at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA. After his retirement, he and his wife, Ruth Ann, moved to Lynchburg, where she worked as the librarian at Randolph Macon Woman’s College.

These life drawings and portrait paintings are from his years at Yale University. To him, these works of art were assignments and student projects. As such, few people have seen this masterful work. I have treasured these drawings and paintings for many years. They were given to me by his children, Jean and Tom, at the death of his wife of 57 years in 2012.

-Brooke Marcy | Curator at Riverviews Artspace

EXHIBIT CATALOG