Calendar of Events

“Homecoming”, Marie Merritt’s one woman show, opens to the public in the lobby and mezzanine of Niswonger Performing Arts Center. The exhibit is a celebration of the vibrant work of Marie Merritt in a masterful combination of transparent and opaque oil paints. She is a native of Greene County and draws inspiration from East Tennessee history and that of southern Appalachia, translating their beauty, people, and places into stories told on canvas. Her own memories of her childhood in this county provided the motivation for her to take up painting as an adult. “Marie’s paintings are wonderful oils in a very representational genre with tiny traces of romanticism” says James-Ben Stockton, director of Greeneville’s regional art center. “Her work was so well received at the Capitol Theater last year during the “Civil War Views” exhibit that I’m having a preview event in the gallery from September 1-4.” This preview exhibit of Civil War inspired art
will take place at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center and include Marie’s open-stock prints and note cards and two original paintings of John Hunt Morgan. The “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy” is also portrayed through cold-cast bronze sculptures from Dell Hughes. Civil War inspired images including portraits of Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest will also be on hand. Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter’s evocative watercolors depicting Civil War scenes will be included, along with prints from Lynne Olka and Kenneth Hinkle. “Visitors should take special interest in Suzanne Saltzman’s detailed and panoramic action photos of Civil War reenactments,” says Stockton.

September 7, “Homecoming” will open at Niswonger Performing Arts Center. A Meet the Artist event will take place Sunday, September 19th from 12:30 to 3 PM.

James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center, 129 North Main Street, Historic Morgan Square, Greeneville, TN 37743. Information: 423-787-0195, www.james-ben.com

09/04/10 vs. Tennessee Martin
09/11/10 vs. Oregon
09/18/10 vs. Florida
09/25/10 vs. UAB
10/02/10 at LSU
10/09/10 at Georgia
10/23/10 vs. Alabama
10/30/10 at South Carolina
11/06/10 at Memphis
11/13/10 vs. Mississippi
11/20/10 at Vanderbilt
11/27/10 vs. Kentucky
12/04/10 - SEC Championship (ATL)
http://www.utsports.com

Saturdays are special at Ijams. There’s always something interesting to see or do. Join us every Saturday for show and tell and get a sampling of the educational opportunities we offer. We’ll have three different learning sessions throughout the day. The offering varies, but generally includes a live animal presentation, plus an outside activity or guided walk

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Visitor Center: Monday: by appointment only for tour groups and school trips; Tuesday-Saturday: 9AM-5PM; Sunday: 1-5PM (March 1 - November 30). For information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Mary Ruden (photography) will be featured long side Kitty Siegel (jewelry). Mary Ruden's work focuses on exotic butterflies from all over the world.
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/photographers/?inc=details&id=123633

Unarmed Merchants, 129 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-7PM. Information: 865-549-5769, www.unarmedmerchants.com

SEPTEMBER 3-28
A collection of works by local artists:
Michael Underwood, award-winning director, cinematographer and President of Knoxville-based Tantrum Pictures, creates alluring and unconventional fine art photographs which transport, inspire and elevate the viewer. "My goal," says Michael, "is to produce distinctive, memorable, and engaging work--work that isn't afraid to ruffle reality..."

Knoxville painter Kathie Odom's art reflects her life. She leaves the anatomy of her work exposed. In her use of washes and oils, light diffuses and textures emerge, creating interest in her landscapes and quiet scenes. Kathie's compositions are places where the possibility of life exists. Barn. Nest. Field. Dwelling. Bud.
Shed. The vision of Home.

Hanson Fine Art & Craft Gallery, 5607 Kingston Pk, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: Monday-Friday 10AM-5:30PM; Saturday 10AM-5PM. For information: 865-584-6097, www.hansongallery.com

The UT Downtown Gallery is proud to present the first in a series of fall exhibitions. Featured will be the art of a current member of the UT School of Art faculty and a former participant in the Visiting Artist in Residence program. This month we are featuring a wall painting/installation by UT Professor David Wilson, who joined the faculty in 1985, and Chicago artist Pamela Fraser, who taught at UT during the fall semester, 1999.

Pamela Fraser will give an Artist Lecture, September 2, at 7:00pm in the Art & Architecture Building, room 109 on the UT campus. Please join us for a First Friday Opening reception with the artists September 3 from 5:00pm until 9:00pm. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Wednesday-Friday: 11AM - 6PM; Saturday: 10AM - 3PM. For information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

Elementary Art Exhibition

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Friday, 10AM-8PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. For information: 865-934-2036, www.knoxart.org

Sandra McEntire Is Craft Center Featured Artist in September. New work by potter Sandra McEntire will be featured at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Norris during the month of September. The exhibit is entitled “Naked Pots: Horsehair, Barrel Fired, Micaceous Clay.” McEntire is a long-time potter and teacher from Anderson County.

Meet the artist on Sunday, September 5, between 1-5 p.m.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center: 2716 Andersonville Highway, Clinton, TN. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10AM-6PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

Art Market Gallery of Knoxville will spotlight the work of two member artists: Studio Furniture by Stan Fronczek and photography by Bob Conliffe. Stan Fronczek is an accomplished Studio Furniture maker who preserves the traditional and contemporary elements of design in each piece he builds. Bob Conliffe creates colorful, dream-like images using digital photography and image-enhancing techniques. The gallery will host a First Friday Reception for the Featured Artists on September 3 from 5:30-9 p.m. with light refreshments and live jazz music performed by Brown Musical Entertainment.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11AM-6PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Contemporary Focus 2010 is the second installment of an annual KMA series that serves as a vital means of recognizing, supporting, and documenting the development of contemporary art in East Tennessee. Each year the KMA features emerging artists who work in new and experimental ways. Contemporary Focus 2010 presents the work of Emily Ward Bivens, Nick DeFord, and Evan Meaney. The art categorized as “contemporary” represents the leading edge of where artists are working today. Contemporary art is experimental, provocative, exciting – it is an investigation into new ideas that change the way art is made.

The public is invited to a free exhibition preview at the KMA Thursday, August 26 from 7 to 9pm. Contemporary Focus Artists Emily Ward Bivens, Nick DeFord, and Evan Meaney will be on hand to meet with guests, who can also enjoy the opening of Jane South: Shifting Structures on the same evening.

Emily Ward Bivens uses found and made objects to forge narratives, provoke or encourage interaction, and reveal fictional and non-fictional mysteries. These objects shift from prop to subject to evidence when used in performance, video, and installation. Characters or identities are created to act as subjects, authors, inventors, and curators of the work.

A Knoxville native, Nick DeFord earned his BFA in drawing from the University of Tennessee, and an MFA in fibers from Arizona State University. His work explores the visual culture of geography and cartography using common household materials. Through maps, globes, travel guides, pamphlets and charts, DeFord disrupts commonly recognizable systems to examine our relationship to identity and place, the known and the unknown.

Evan Meaney has been working with film, video, and emerging media for over a decade. Educated at Ithaca College and the University of Iowa, his interests have grown to include deconstructive sequencing, ghost stories, breakdancing, and the poetry of hexadecimal code.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Friday, 10AM-8PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. For information: 865-934-2036, www.knoxart.org

Reception: Thursday, August 26
Curated by Bryan Wilkerson. “A Thousand Words” explores the many definitions of a person’s face and/or expressions. These 8” X 5” collage/drawings on panel depicts various meanings based on the viewers standpoint.
Len Davis - http://www.lendavis.com/

O’Brien Art Gallery, Roane State Community College, 276 Patton Lane, Harriman, TN 37748 • (865) 882-4649, http://www.roanestate.edu/art/gallery/

Jane South has achieved international attention for her innovative mixed-media constructions that blur the lines between drawing, sculpture, installation art, and architecture. Born in Manchester, England, she draws inspiration from the industrial urban character of her hometown and of her adopted home in Brooklyn, New York, where she has resided since 1989. Using little more than a scalpel and colored inks, South transforms flat sheets of paper into a range of sculptural objects whose shapes mirror the contemporary urban environment. She cuts, folds, paints, and attaches each element to create forms resembling vents, containers, ladders, scaffolding, and other functional, industrially-fabricated structures. Working without a preconceived plan, the artist assembles these individual parts in elaborate groupings that thrust outward into space as dynamic sculptural assemblages. The slotted cut-outs on the surfaces of South’s drawings make visible their internal structure, and create intricate shadows that extend into the surrounding environment.

The public is invited to a free exhibition preview at the KMA Thursday, August 26 from 7 to 9pm. Artist Jane South will be on hand to meet with guests, who can also enjoy the opening of Contemporary Focus 2010 on the same evening. More information is available at www.janesouth.com.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Friday, 10AM-8PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. For information: 865-934-2036, www.knoxart.org