Exhibitions

In the Spring of 2009, representatives from the Turchin Center staff and Appalachian’s Department of Art visited The Universidad de las Américas en Puebla (UDLAP) and artists living and working in Puebla and Cholula Mexico. The goals of the trip were to research the local art and artists and to lay the groundwork for future artist residencies, faculty, student and cultural exchanges between the two universities’ art departments and graphic design programs. During the trip, Turchin Center representatives toured many artists’ studios, and began curating the "Shadow of the Volcanoes: Contemporary Art from the Mountains of Central Mexico Exhibition".

Athanase "Tanase" Fontenot is a self-taught artist originally from Dog Island Swamp, a small community in the heart of Cajun Louisiana. Fontenot's drawings and paintings are inspired directly from the objects and scenes that surround him in his daily life. Content to share his work only with family and friends, Fontenot was coaxed to exhibit these works. Fontenot works with oil pastels on black gessoed cold press watercolor paper.

In March of 2007, a team of Appalachian State University professors traveled to Milan, Italy to film interviews with 13 Holocaust survivors in their homes. Each person reflected not only on what they went through and how they escaped, but also how it affected their families and their country, and how it shaped their lives as adults. The dangerous and horrific events of the Holocaust took place when these survivors were young, so the experiences they endured had particular significance.

As part of the contemporary Mexico exhibition, the Mezzanine Gallery features a select group of works of contemporary talavera ceramics from Universidad de las Américas Puebla's (UDLAP) Permanent Collection. Talavera is a style of pottery and design that was created and perfected in the Puebla, Mexico region. Talavera has many traditional designs, but most of the artists featured in this exhibition use traditional forms with their own take on the design, or create their own interpretation using the traditional methods.

The exhibition Perspectives in Bronze, presents works by two well-established sculptors Greg Bailey & Michael Warrick. These artists will present works that contrast and compliment by exemplifying the multifaceted qualities of bronze by utilizing their own influences. Bailey's bronze work is "based upon an intellectual and emotional response to the predictions of the future regarding the planetary sustainability of human life" where Warrick's bronze work is a direct "exploration of organic form and textural surface with a natural color pallet" derived from found objects.

Painter, Amy Cheng's current work has been inspired by six months spent in Brazil on a Fulbright Fellowship, where her senses were overtaken by the lush plant life that flourishes in its tropical clime. Chenge take natural forms and riffs on them, saturating the paintings with color, energy, pattern and light. The jewel-like quality, and shimmering details linkthe micro and the macro - mosaics, brocades and the cosmos combined. The complex layered space, concave and convex forms, decoration, transparency, and shape-shifting playfulness all conspire to seduce – the way nature seduces in order to propagate itself. Cheng paints about the irrepressible life force we encounter in nature where the physical, sensual, spiritual, cerebral, and erotic coexist in a nexus. The artist used to speculate that her love of pattern and repetition found its roots in my Asian sensibility. Now she believes that on a very basic level, the human and possibly all living organisms nervous system respond organically to pattern-making.

Dan Smith's art has been featured in over 100 exhibitions throughout the country including the prestigious National Academy Museum of Art in New York City; the DC Art Center in Washington, DC; the Taos Art Museum in Taos, New Mexico; The Academy of Art in San Francisco, California; and Virginia Commonwealth's Anderson Gallery, in Richmond, Virginia. Smith is a graduate of BFA and MFA studio art programs at East Carolina University and the University of South Carolina's, respectively. Before moving to Hickory, North Carolina in December 2003, he spent over 15 years teaching studio art and humanities at colleges in South Carolina and Virginia, including Claflin College in Orangeburg, South Carolina; Hampton University, in Hampton, Virginia; and Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia.

The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition is a national juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Each year, ten sculptures are selected for exhibition, with a cash prize awarded to the artist whose work is chosen as that year's Rosen Award winner. Since its establishment in 1987, The Rosen has become an integral part of An Appalachian Summer Festival, the university's annual multi-arts celebration, with the announcement of the Rosen Award winner coming during the festival's annual Sculpture Walk with that year's juror.

Over the past five years, painter Martha Neaves has been creating two large bodies of work: a body of allegorical paintings that merge the worlds of mythical vision with emerging and popular science and a series of non-objective paintings that she created using both hands simultaneously.

David Meyer is an artist whose work explores many aspects of the human condition and the physical world. His work ranges from installations and large-scale outdoor commissions to simple objects that compel the viewer to take a second look.

This series of paintings is a celebration of the life and beauty of the Tsuga canadensis, the eastern hemlock, and of the rare Tsuga caroliniana, the Carolina Hemlock, which occurs only in the mountains of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. This exhibition is meant to connect with viewers spiritually and emotionally, enhancing awareness and deepening the bond with these irreplaceable members of our living community.

Children's Art of the High Country is a juried exhibition that features works of art by children (infants – 8th graders) in Ashe, Avery, Watauga and Wilkes counties. Juried by a small group of local artists, this exhibition includes a variety of creations from paintings to sculptures.

Appalachian State University has built a national reputation for outstanding academics in all areas of study.

The 8th annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) is a program of Appalachian’s Outdoor Programs in partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

Open Spaces, Sacred Places is a book written by Tom and Kitty Stoner that introduces nature as a means to heal communities in need. A series of inspirational stories told of passionate and persistent people who have brought communities together to create public areas of respite, it dramatically demonstrates how nature has the power to heal and unify in our increasingly frenetic, 21st century world.

As employers consider the critical need of the 21st century workplace to attract and retain the best and brightest employees, our society must also consider a shift in the functional spaces geared toward an environment that supports an overall “work/life” lifestyle.

Printmaker April Flanders’ current work addresses the uncontrollable nature of invasive botanical species in the Appalachian region, influenced by humankind’s fascination with the exotic, and perhaps driven by the need for individuality.

Printmaker Laura Berman allows her work to be guided by structures based on sequence, multiple and interactive images.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts is proud to be a host of an Art-o-mat ® machine. Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. The project was started in 1997 by Winston-Salem artist Clark Whittington, whose inclusion of an old vending machine in one of his shows created an unexpected and long-lasting impression. What followed was the formation of Artists in Cellophane (AIC), an organization based on the concept of "taking art and repackaging it to make it part of our daily lives." There are currently over 75 active machines in various locations throughout the country, and approximately 400 contributing artists from ten different countries work to keep the machines stocked. "The experience of pulling the knob alone is quite a thrill, but you also walk away with an original work of art. What an easy way to become an art collector." For more information, please visit the Art-o-mat website at www.artomat.org.