Calendar of Events

Asafe Pereira

Amity serves as a visual love letter to the friends who allow themselves to be vulnerable with me. Every form has a unique characteristics, making them alluring. My longing to create and photograph comes from the desire to know those I love in a deeper way. The vulnerability they share, I reward with anonymity. The familiarity and comfort we indulge in ignites an excitement in me which pushes me to create.

Old City Java / 109 S. Central St., Knoxville

Stop by to see both of our exhibits this month by Brandy Slaybaugh and Miah Weaver. Brandy's delicate ink and watercolor pieces and Miah's whimsical collages will captivate you!

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

During the American Gilded Age, which offered unprecedented access to consumer goods, what one owned or had the ability to buy became an important way to assert one’s identity.

The American Gilded Age (1870–1900) was a time of rapid modernization and great expansion of the country’s middle class. Though there was also vast income disparity, most Americans experienced an increase in overall quality of life.

Mass manufacturing permitted most people to buy a wealth of new goods, and the growth of trade and travel meant that Americans had new access to, and interest in, goods from around the world. Suddenly, even the middle class could emulate the wealthy, and identity was bound more than ever to what one owned.

From fish forks and fashionable dress, to furniture and fine china, this exhibition explores the seemingly superficial personal and household objects consumed during this era and how they were visible and powerful symbols of wealth, power, and social class. They speak not only to the great change changes occurring in America at the time, but to our continuing preoccupation today with the objects we choose to buy, wear, and display.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

Over 200 shows in 10 days! Featured acts include Steep Canyon Rangers, Dailey & Vincent, Mark O’Connor Band, The Gibson Brothers, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and more. Plus a wide offering of smoked and grilled barbecue available throughout Dollywood. Tickets and more information online at http://www.dollywood.com/.

Triforium – a ceramic installation by artist Eliza Au is on view in the Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. The opening reception is Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 5:00 – 7:00 pm. The public is invited.

Triforium, is a site-specific, wall installation created by ceramic artist, Eliza Au. Her work investigates ornamentation in architecture, and how it engages the idea of creating a sacred space. Au finds elegance, beauty, and balance in mathematical relationships and appreciates the technical challenges of creating her work in clay. “I am interested in how a viewer moves through and experiences space, and how this serves as a metaphor for solitude, self-reflection and transformation through time and movement,” says Au.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, Eliza Au received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She has previously received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and has taught at various institutions in Canada and the United States, including the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, the Alberta College of Art and Design, Monmouth College in Illinois, and The University of Iowa. She has participated in numerous residencies including The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Forthcoming solo exhibitions will be held at the Northern Arizona University Museum in Fall 2017 and Balitmore Clayworks in Spring 2018.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Gathering Light: Works by Beauford Delaney from the KMA Collection. Gathering Light includes more than 30 of Delaney’s paintings and drawings—nearly all of which have never before been on public view—that were purchased from the artist’s estate between 2014 and 2016 in what is one of the most significant art acquisition in the KMA’s 27-year history. The acquisition and display of these works are part of a larger effort to bring long-overdue attention to Delaney’s legacy in his hometown.

Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris) is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Despite battling poverty, prejudice, and mental illness, he achieved an international reputation for his portraits, scenes of city life, and free-form abstractions marked by intense colors, bold contours, and vibrant surfaces. The KMA’s growing collection promises to serve as a vital resource for the preservation and celebration of this East Tennessee master’s work.

The paintings and drawings in Gathering Light were purchased with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve (part of a major gift from the Aslan Foundation), along with additional support from the KMA Collectors Circle, Brenda and Larry Thompson, and friends of the museum. The KMA also wishes to acknowledge Derek L. Spratley, the executor of the Estate of Beauford Delaney, for making works available for loan and acquisition. Accompanying the works acquired by the KMA are also a small selection of paintings from the artist’s estate that the museum hopes to raise funds to purchase.

“We are thrilled to shine a light on one of the world’s greatest artists and local hero Beauford Delaney,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler. “His legacy has been recognized internationally, but he is less well-known here at home. We hope this exhibition helps to change that.”

The museum is holding an opening reception Thursday, May 4 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Opening reception April 21 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists’ talks at 6:30 p.m.

COMMA (COMe Make Art) is a plein air art group that has met weekly in the summer at University of Tennessee Gardens since 2004. Founders were art teachers Gay Nell Gray and Cheri Jorgenson. They are joined in this exhibit by members and retired art teachers Judy Jorden, Shelley Mangold and Owen Weston; current art teachers Caitlyn Seidler and Jackie Wright; and teaching artist Nancy Campbell. COMMA members' artwork is either created in or inspired by images from the gardens. Each artist works in a preferred medium, whether color pencil, pastel, watercolor, acrylics, photography, clay or mixed media. Some work is created on site in the gardens, and some is created in the studio using sketches or images from the gardens. The artists are inspired by the beauty and diversity of the UT Gardens and the friendship and camaraderie they share.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 10-5, Su 10-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.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

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

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

The Knoxville Museum of Art announces an exciting new exhibition, Virtual Views: Digital Art from the Thoma Foundation. This electronic media exhibition is presented in conjunction with the 2017 Big Ears music festival. Drawn from the extensive Chicago-based collection of Carl and Marilynn Thoma, Virtual Views explores the growing importance of electronic new media in contemporary art as seen in the work of artists who are pioneers in the use of LEDs (light-emitting diodes), LCD (liquid crystal display), and computer-driven imagery. The exhibition features nine electronic works comprised of synthetic materials and powered by digital technology, yet the rhythms and patterns of its imagery are derived from nature. The featured artists include Jim Campbell, Craig Dorety, John Gerrard, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Alan Rath, Daniel Rozin, Björn Schülke, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Leo Villareal.

Virtual Views is organized by the KMA and presented in conjunction with the 2017 Big Ears Festival March 23-26.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

With the love of art and entertainment it's no wonder that a bottle or two of wine would get involved to create Wine and Canvas! Awesome local artists, great customer service and beautiful surroundings make for an amazing experience that you don't find anywhere else. Sipping your favorite wine or cocktail, letting your inner artist out to create a masterpiece and maybe breaking into song throughout the night is what we have planned for you! Leave your cares at the door and dive in to the paint party! Best part - you take your artwork with you and leave the clean up behind! Local artists in each city inspire and Instruct Wine and Canvas customers step-by-step to create their finished masterpiece. Each location hosts many events monthly with a different featured painting each night. With our step-by-step instruction method customers without a stroke of painting experience are at ease.

Upcoming events:

$35 per session (unless otherwise noted). Wine & Canvas: Knoxville, TN, 865-356-9179, http://www.wineandcanvas.com/knoxville-tn.html