Calendar of Events

The Tennessee Iris Invitational sponsored by James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center will be on display at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center, overlapping the Greene County Iris Festival, May 20-22. A Meet the Artists reception will be held May 1 from 1-3 p.m., followed at 3 p.m. by a Greeneville High School band concert. Featured works include reverse painting on plexiglas, manipulated digital images, oil on canvas, watercolors and sculpture by dozens of artists from across the state. Viewing hours are Monday — Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

212 Tusculum Boulevard, Greeneville, TN 37745. Info: 423-638-1679, www.greenevillenpac.com

Art Market Gallery of Knoxville is pleased to present an exhibit of recent works by Victoria Simmons of Knoxville and Linda Sullivan of Oak Ridge.

Victoria Simmons is an award-winning painter and illustrator of animals, primarily dogs and horses. Her April exhibit will be paintings of Foxhounds, a series which was born out of years spent at the opening meets of the Tennessee Valley Hunt Club and on hound walks with the huntsman.

Linda Sullivan, who holds an MFA in ceramics, creates functional and sculptural vessels out of stoneware and porcelain clays. Inspired by various landscapes and drawing on her strong background in painting, she employs a unique glazing process by pouring and overlapping her glazes in a purposeful, painterly way to depict landscape imagery.

A First Friday Reception for the exhibit is planned for April 1 from 5:30-9 pm. with complimentary refreshments and live music.

Member owned and operated by over 60 regional artists, Art Market Gallery is located at 422 South Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm & Sunday 1-5 pm. For more information, call 865-525-5265, visit artmarketgallery.net or join us on facebook: facebook.com/Art.Market.Gallery

2nd annual juried photographic exhibition.
Opening Reception : March 26, 7—9 PM with a gallery talk at 6:30.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9AM-5PM; Saturday-Monday, 1-4PM. For information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

An exhibit of nature photography by Becca Childress will be on display in the Visitor Center at Ijams Nature Center. Childress is a graduate of Appalachian State University where she received a BS in technical photography. She is also a former CAC AmeriCorps member on the Earth Flag team at Ijams. “I had the good fortune of working for two environmental non-profits after graduating: Ijams Nature Center and RiverLink,” says Childress. “I learned and grew working as an environmental educator, and consider myself extremely fortunate. These experiences offered some great photo opportunities as well.” The photos are for sale with a portion of the proceeds going to the nature center.

Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

The Knoxville Watercolor Society will be showing their newest works in a Spring Show and Sale at the Knoxville Museum of Art's Community Gallery from March 18th to May 15th. On Sunday, March 20th an opening reception which is free to the public will take place from 2 to 4 PM. Refreshments will be served.

Call Wilda Clark at 865-588-6828 or the Museum at 865-525-6101 for more information. 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: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

February 17, 2011 (Knoxville, TN) – The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments March 11–May 15, 2011.
Amplified Moments is the first major U.S. exhibition to survey the work of Xiaoze Xie (pronounced shout-zah shee-ay), an important Chinese contemporary artist. More than 30 works document his achievements in painting, drawing, photography, installation, and video, and represent his use of books and newspapers to symbolize the fragile nature of history and memory.

Although Xie intended to pursue a career in architecture, the violent military crackdown on student protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 compelled him to shift his energies. He left the People’s Republic of China three years later after completing his training as a painter, and began using symbolic imagery derived from newspapers, decaying books, museum libraries, and media images of current events. For Xie, stacks of printed pages represent not only cultural memory and the passage of time, but the ways in which history is interpreted and recorded according to various belief systems and political agendas.
Xie’s labor-intensive paintings consist of successive layers of pigment applied over several weeks. Working largely from photographs, the artist paints in a manner that is influenced by his camera. Some imagery appears cropped, blurred, and hazy, as if viewed through a photographic lens or perhaps through the filter of memory. The resulting compositions reach near-photographic precision without losing the evidence of the artist’s masterful brushwork.

KMA members are invited to an exhibition preview Thursday, March 10, from 5:30 to 7:30pm. The artists and exhibition curator Dan Mills will present a short gallery talk at 6:30pm. A cash bar will be available.

Admission and parking are free. For more information, contact Angela Thomas at 865.934.2034 or visit www.knoxart.org.

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

The 11-month residency program is an opportunity for emerging artists to further develop both artistically and professionally. This exhibition showcases their progress.
Reception: April 9, 6:00-8:00 PM

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 576 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. For information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

What: Art exhibit

Elizabeth Porter: "Disconnected"
Mixed media

Conrad Reinhardt: "Beyond Time and Place"
Digital photographs and oil paintings

Free and open to the public

When: March 6 through May 6, 2011
Opening reception Friday, March 11, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists' talks at 7 p.m.
Where: Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918
An exhibit featuring the art work of Conrad Reinhardt and Elizabeth Porter-Moses will be on display at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.
Contact: Roy McCullough
Sperrin@bellsouth.net
865-281-2435

The 2011 Knox County Elementary Art Show will be held at the Phoenix Building March through April 25th.

A local student from Bearden High School won the design contest and will be receiving a free trip to New York courtesy of Sargent Art. The art was made into a flag that will be displayed in Washington representing Tennessee in the Flags Across America YAM Ceremony.

Historic Preservation Influences Artist’s Latest Work.

Beth Meadows is an artist who lives and works in Knoxville, TN. Her main medium is, but not limited to, acrylic on canvas. The pieces she has made for Rala are influenced by her position as the architectural salvage coordinator for the non-profit Knox Heritage. Beth re-uses old building materials in her work to promote the importance of historic preservation, and donates a portion of the proceeds of work sold to Knox Heritage. Her subject matter is inspired mostly by life in East Tennessee and music.

To view more of her work, please visit www.bethmeadows.com and www.etsy.com/shop/WithBearHands

The pieces will be displayed and available for sale at Räla, located at 323 Union Avenue in Downtown Knoxville, just off Market Square.

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Sarkisian explores the spatial and perspective possibilities of video, film, and sculpture through multi-media works that challenge perceptions of reality and illusion. This retrospective exhibition features signature works and conveys how the artist has considered and resolved various approaches to integrating video into temporal and spatial experiences.

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: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

For almost five decades, Jim Gray has painted in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains, creating a body of work that captures, according to the artist, "the ever changing pattern of light and shadow [that moves] across the ancient faces of the Smokies." The retrospective exhibition, Roads I've Traveled, showcases these East Tennessee-inspired landscapes, as well as additional selections from Gray's life's work, including wildlife, floral, and marine paintings and assorted sculptures in bronze.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: Monday-Friday: 9AM-4PM; Saturday: 10AM-4PM; Sunday: 1-5PM. For information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org