Calendar of Events

The visual work of L&N STEM Academy's junior and senior art students includes everything from digital pieces to graphite and watercolor renderings. Enjoy this impressive collection through the month of April at Ijams!

Ijams' Visitor Center is open Monday – Saturday 9 am to 5 pm and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm.

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Exhibiting April through June will be Nashville based painter Catrina Long. Join us for a First Friday Artist's Reception on April 7th from 5:30– 8:00.

Knoxville Arts & Fine Crafts Center, 1127 Broadway Suite B, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-523-1401, www.cityofknoxville.org/recreation/arts

On Friday, April 7, from 5 - 7 p.m., The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade will host a special Opening Reception for the Spring Bounty Art Show. Progressive Savings Bank is sponsoring this show and providing the awards. This show is special because the viewers will cast their votes for their favorite artworks beginning on April 7 and ending on April 28. Winners will then be announced to the public.

The Opening Reception will feature a large assortment of hors d’oeuvres and wine, soda, and water to attendees. This event is free and open to the public. The PCAC is a great place to shop for art including paintings, photographs, pottery, jewelry, wood carvings, and greeting cards.

Art Guild at Fairfield Glade at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Hours: M-Sa 9-4. Information: 931-707-7249, www.artguildfairfieldglade.net

Please join us First Friday April 7, for an opening reception from 5-9pm.

Alison Saar weaves narratives relating to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 into the mixed-media sculpture and paintings featured in “Breach.” Saar explores issues of gender, race, racism, and the African diaspora. She mines mythology, ritual, history, music, and her biracial heritage as sources for her work.

During a 2013 residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Saar was dismayed to see how little had been done to rebuild African American communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina eight years earlier. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she began researching the histories of American floods and the effect on African Americans. The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, described as one of the worst natural river disasters in U.S. history, piqued her interest. Heavy rains resulted in the river breaching levees, creating a historic catastrophe that had a profound impact on the life of African Americans living in the Mississippi Delta. The flood exposed the conditions of poor African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers and their relationship with cotton plantation owners. The flood also resulted in social, cultural, federal policy, and political changes.

With water imagery woven throughout, “Breach” is the culmination of Saar’s creative research on American rivers and their historical relationship to the lives of African Americans. Through mixed media sculpture, paintings, and works on paper, she explores floods not only as natural phenomena; but also the complex interaction of social, cultural, and political factors associated with flooding and its aftermath.

Saar will also be giving a public lecture on her work on Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 PM in room 109 of the Art + Architecture Building.

Free admission! UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: W-F 11-6, Sat 10-3. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

On your way downtown to Rhythm and Blooms, stop by and celebrate "Big (EYES) Festival" with us. Broadway Studios and Gallery proudly presents artist Charlesey Charlton-McCallister in her solo exhibit entitled "Interrupted Signal." In this exhibit Charlesey displays abstract work dealing with digital media as a way to make the viewer contemplate it's role in our society.

Under a festival TENT we will have ethereal music by guitar god, Laith Keilany. Asian food will be provided by the popular Oishii Food Truck. And inspirational works of poerty will be recited by Sundress Academy of Art, featuring Jennie Frost and Erin Elizabeth Smith. All is FREE except for food. Parking is free and on site.

The event opens "First" Friday April 7th from 5-9pm. All ages are welcome.

Broadway Studios and Gallery, 1127 Broadway St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Hours: Thurs-Sat, 11-7. Information: 865-556-8676, www.BroadwayStudiosAndGallery.com

Recent works by painter Harriet Howell and mixed-media artist Marilyn Avery Turner will be on display during April. An opening reception for the featured artists will begin at 5:30 p.m., April 7, during Downtown Knoxville’s monthly First Friday Art Walk, with complimentary refreshments, and music performed by Matt Tilley.

Harriet Howell’s work uses color and movement to express the emotional content of the landscape. She prefers plein air painting which, she feels, encourages an interactive relationship between the artist and the subject. She teaches classes in pastel landscape drawing and in experimental water-media painting. Her art training includes a BFA from the University of Tennessee and studying with master painters over many years. She has taught in pastel landscape drawing at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for many years.

Marilyn Avery Turner draws from numerous sources, ancient and contemporary, to blend personal experiences with archetypal images. The use of drawings and statuary from early Mexican cultures reflects her abiding attraction to the country where she spent a formative part of her childhood. With a background in painting and collage, her use of monoprinting has become an ideal synthesis for these two mediums.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-6. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net or www.Facebook.com/Art.Market.Gallery

By day, Casey Fox is the celebrated manager of Library Fund Development for the Knox County Public Library. Featured as one of the Knoxville News-Sentinel’s “40 under 40,” Fox gets kudos for her fund-raising efforts, particularly a capital campaign to help digitize the library’s historic archives. But when she’s not busy contributing to the Library’s mission, Fox has a secret identity, and it’s one that Tomato Head has proudly unveiled and put on public display in our Market Square restaurant. Casey Fox is also a photographer.

Now through May 1st, Fox presents her first solo exhibit in our downtown location. Titled “Landscaped,” the exhibit features a collection of images that Fox captured over the last 7 or 8 years but without intending to create a series. Fox says it was only after the fact that she realized that not only did she have enough shots for a show, she had also uncovered a style: “I was just looking back through my pictures and realized, ‘oh this is what I do’. I remember sitting on the couch once lookin

"Landscaped", an exhibit of photographs by Casey Fox will be on view at the downtown Knoxville Tomato Head Restaurant from April 3rd to April 30th, 2017. The exhibit will then display at the West Knoxville Gallery Tomato Head from May 2nd to June 5th, 2017. Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville. http://thetomatohead.com

At Blackberry Farm Gallery, Clayton Center for the Arts. 3D art ceramic

Barron Hall graduated from the University of South Florida with his BFA in 3D studies followed by an MFA in Ceramics from The University of Tennessee in 2008. His work has been exhibited nationally including solo and group exhibits in New York, Maryland, Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida and Alabama. Past collaborations include sculptural installation projects with Robmat Butler as The Art Team. He is an Adjunct Instructor of Ceramics and 3-D Sculpture at Maryville College and is the owner/operator of Mighty Mud Studios in Knoxville. Barron originally hails from Auburn, Ala. and grew up in both Alabama and Florida. Barron currently resides in Knoxville, Tenn. with his family. http://barronart.net/

A reception will be held in the galleries on Fri., April 28 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., in conjunction with Downtown Maryville’s “Friday Night Lights” event.

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

Art in Public Places Knoxville (AIPPK), now in its 10th year, is a featured presentation of Dogwood Arts. In partnership with the City of Knoxville, Art in Public Places Knoxville is a juried exhibition of large-scale sculptures created by exceptional local, regional and national artists. The 2017-2018 Exhibition will feature up to twenty sculptures in downtown Knoxville, the McGhee Tyson Airport, and Oak Ridge as juried by Knoxville-based sculpture artist John Douglas Powers.

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

Explore more than 60 miles of trails, open gardens, and camera sites as you enjoy a walk, bike or drive, March 31 through April 30.

Dogwood Arts celebrates its North Knoxville trails in 2017. The Featured Trail, Historic Fountain City, dates back to 1957, covers 16 miles and boasts over 3200 blooming dogwoods and abundant flowering azaleas as it winds through the neighborhood. At the center of this welcoming community is a 12 acre park with walking trails, the Fountain City Art Center and the iconic Fountain City Lake where residents gather to visit and enjoy nature.

As you explore North Knoxville, visit the Historic North Hills Trail, with its blooming boulevard along with a charming mix of 1930s Neo-classical, English Cottage, Bungalow, Craftsman and Italian Renaissance homes. Further north and in the foothills of the Clinch mountains, the Halls-Timberline neighborhood was designed as a beautiful building site abundant with native Tennessee flowering dogwood trees. As part of our Bazillion Blooms Program, over 100 dogwood trees have been added in recent years.

For a complete list of the 2017 Open Gardens and Camera sites, please visit http://www.dogwoodarts.com/trails-and-gardens.
Dogwood Arts Festival: 865-637-4561 www.dogwoodarts.com.

Beth Meadows’ current studio is a working space, not open to the public; but if you were to find your way there, you would find yourself in a nest of ideas – one lined with images and materials that the artist collects because they draw her attention. In the exhibit now hanging at Tomato Head Market Square, Meadows has assembled a collection of pieces that feature two prominent classes of things that consistently catch her eye: fashion and food packaging.

Many of the images depicted might seem familiar, and that’s because they’re drawn from the pages of fashion magazines. “They’re super models, “ Meadows says, “and the clothing is made out of a collage of food packaging. The idea was to mix this fascination I have with fashion that’s grown over the years with a negative feeling I have about grocery shopping. I don’t love it, grocery shopping, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m trying not to be swayed by how things are packaged – because I don’t want to be marketed to or persuaded to buy things that are packaged beautifully. That’s really hard for an artist like me because I’m aesthetically inclined.”

The works are a mix of collage and drawing that are, in fact, based on photographs of super models; but as the she creates the piece, Meadows creates her own line of clothing for each – one that’s built from the food packaging that she normally resists. Meadows has a broad range of work, in addition to visiting her exhibit at our downtown place, you’ll want to explore the complete range of her portfolio and find out more about her on her website: http://withbearhands.com/.

On display through April 2 at Market Square, then in the Bearden location April 4 - May 1. Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville. http://thetomatohead.com

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is exhibiting new works in Un//known by Artists-in-Residence – Grant Benoit, Richard W. James, Maia Leppo, Austin Riddle and Emily Schubert. Community members are invited to view the exhibition and attend the reception on April 7, 2017, 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Un//known showcases work in a range of media including functional and sculptural ceramics, fiber, mixed media, jewelry and collage. This cumulative exhibition features work made during the artists’ 11-month residency.

+ Grant Benoit is a mixed media artist interested in narrative, place and memory. He received his MFA in printmaking from Southern Illinois University and his BA from Spring Hill College. Grant utilizes techniques from ceramics, printmaking, and textiles in his installation and sculptural pieces to explore notions of memory. www.grantbenoit.com
+ Richard W. James received his MFA in ceramics from the University of Kansas and his BFA from University of Tennessee, Martin. His figurative sculptures explore childhood experiences and psychological narratives by combining clay, found objects and textiles. www.richardwjames.com
+ Maia Leppo is a metalsmith and jeweler. Maia received her MFA in metals from SUNY New Paltz. Studying first in Biology and Community Health at Tufts University, Maia incorporates those interests and research into her jewelry and body adornment pieces. www.maialeppo.com
+ Austin Riddle received his BFA in ceramics from University of Utah. Influenced by the forms and colors of mass-produced domestic objects from mid-century America, Riddle’s pieces are one-of-a-kind. He uses a variety of clay construction, glazing and firing techniques. www.instagram.com/austinriddlepottery
+ Emily Schubert graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art with BFA in fiber and textile art. She has spent the past several years studying and working in the art of puppetry and performance. Drawing from mythology, folktales, memories, and personal experience, Schubert creates work that make sense of our existence by giving form to our collective fears, sorrows, and desires. www.emily-schubert.com

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm and Saturday 10am - 4pm. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org