Calendar of Events

A reception will take place on Friday, July 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork. Most of the works are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition.

The Vacuum Shop Studios (VSS) was founded in January 2013 between the Old North Knoxville and 4th & Gill neighborhoods. Occupying the former location of a vacuum repair shop at 1326 N. Broadway, VSS is a collaborative work space for artists. While the space is primarily used as private artist studios, VSS opens their doors to the public three times a year for open studio nights annually on First Fridays in February, May, and October. VSS has exhibited at Bagwell Gallery (Pellissippi State Community College) and Catron Gallery (Walters State Community College). The exhibition at the Emporium Center marks VSS’s third group exhibition. The Vacuum Shop Studios were voted "Top Artists Workshop/Studio" in the Knoxville Mercury's "Top Knox 2015 Reader's Poll."

Currently, VSS houses eight artists: Eleanor Aldrich, Heather Hartman, Kelly Hider, Ashton Ludden, Erin Mullenex, Chelsie Nunn, Deborah Rule, and Jessie Van der Laan. The exhibition will include works by these artists in a variety of media such as painting, collage, mixed media, printmaking, and fiber work. For more information, please visit https://vacuumshopstudios.wordpress.com/.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

A reception will take place on Friday, July 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork. Most of the works are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition.

A native Californian, Christine Parkhurst holds degrees in English and Education from the University of California at Berkeley, has taken advanced Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and has lived, worked, and studied in Europe. She loves writing, gardening, dogs, music, and ceramics. She has worked with clay in England, Lake Tahoe, Bakersfield (one of her greatest regrets is that she didn’t go on a class field trip to visit the art studio of Peter Voulkos), and Knoxville. Christine has two grown children, two stepchildren, four young granddaughters, and currently shares a home in Knoxville with her husband, George, their two dogs, and – at last count – 22 rather large fish.

In this exhibition, Christine Parkhurst will display clay busts, bowls, vases, and animal forms with some of our poetry.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

A reception will take place on Friday, July 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork. Most of the works are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition.

Tracey G. Crocker makes paintings and mixed media artworks. By questioning the concept of movement, Crocker finds that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humour that echoes our own vulnerabilities. The artist also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-seeking man who experiences a continuous loss.

Her paintings are characterised by the use of everyday objects in an atmosphere of middleclass mentality in which recognition plays an important role. By choosing mainly formal solutions, she often creates work using creative game tactics, but these are never permissive. Play is a serious matter: during the game, different rules apply than in everyday life and even everyday objects undergo transubstantiation.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

A reception will take place on Friday, July 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork. Most of the works are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition.

Silas Reynolds was born and raised in Morristown and now resides in Knoxville. Growing up with an artist father, art was like second nature to him. He began drawing at a very young age and his passion for art grew quickly. He continued his love for drawing throughout his childhood and began experimenting with paint in his early twenties and soon fell in love with the freedom of abstract painting which allowed him to express himself in a different way.

Silas Reynolds is a self-taught artist and is primarily recognized as an abstract painter using bold colors and shapes to create a highly energetic work of art with acrylic, spray paint, latex enamel, pastel, and other media. His style is influenced by the likes of Jackson Pollack, Willem De Kooning and Alex Brewer, and his work is inspired by nature and everyday life. “Most of my work is completely spontaneous,” says Reynolds. “I start with a mark and keep adding layers until there is a cohesive balance between the shapes and colors that are made.”

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Information: (865) 523-7543 or www.knoxalliance.com.

Opening reception July 7, 5-9 PM

Join us as we celebrate featured artist Moisés Ponce at our July exhibit opening. His "Arte 504" collection will be on display until July 28.

Hours: M-F 11 AM - 4 PM until July 15. Limited schedule through end of August.

Casa HoLa, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-335-3358, www.holahoralatina.org

Stop by to see July's photography exhibit by Douglas Hubbard of Hubbard Photography Services. Capturing everything from portraits to architectural and nature shots, his work is as varied as it is beautiful!

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

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents tatter Carollyn Brown as the featured artist for July and August. The exhibit includes tatted doilies, ornaments and baby clothes, as well as handmade shuttles. Tatted lace is created by winding cotton thread around two tiny shuttles. Brown refers to tatting as "an old art that is not as lost as it used to be." She uses her blog, Carollyn's Tatting Blog, to share tips and patterns with tatters from around the world.

She enjoys calligraphy, sewing, weaving, quilt-making and cake decorating, but tatting is her favorite art form. She's from a creative family and has passed her creative pursuits on to her children. Her husband, Richard, helps her make beautiful shuttles that are also works of art.

Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: M-F 8 AM – 5 PM. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum

A new art show featuring three black female artists - Jen Simon, Gwen Johnson, and Hawa Johnson. Mythology, Africa and the everyday family and culture are the themes within the exhibit. The show is up through the month of July.

4614 Asheville Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37914. Phone: (865) 525-5431 or www.knoxlib.org

Charles Clary "memento morididdle"

Free and open to the public; Closed July 4.
The Rose Center, 442 West Second North St., Morristown, TN, 37814. Hours: M-F 9-5. Information: 423-581-4330, www.rosecenter.org

Art work by Kate Aubrey and Lee Edge is on exhibit in the gallery at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.

The opening reception is June 16 from 6 to 7:30PM; artists' talks at 6:30PM.
Exhibit runs through August 10, 2017
Gallery hours: 10 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Thursday
10 AM – 1 PM, Sunday

A devoted watercolorist for 40 years, Kate Aubrey has won numerous awards and was a finalist in The Artists Magazine's Over 60 Competition of 2013 for her painting, "Invisible." Since arriving in the Knoxville area in 2014, Aubrey has taught workshops in Tennessee and Nevada, is Vice President of the Knoxville Watercolor Society, and is a member of the Art Guild of Tellico Village, the Fountain City Art Center, the Tennessee Artist's Association, the Southern Watercolor Society, and the Arts Alliance of Knoxville. Her paintings have been in the Oak Ridge Art Center's Annual Juried Shows of 2014 and 2015, winning awards each year, and The Arts and Culture Alliance's National Juried Exhibition of 2016. She won awards in the 2016 and 2017 Southern Watercolor Society Juried Exhibits, and her painting "Old Soul, Dear Heart" took the top Jerry's Artarama Purchase Award in the 2016 Tennessee Watercolor Society Biennial Exhibition.
Lee Edge uses a variety of techniques to create artwork ranging from portraits to landscapes to still lifes. Edge's artwork has appeared in juried shows in numerous locations including the Denver Art Museum, the Rocky Mountain states, Philadelphia, and Knoxville. She received an award in the 18-state-plus-D.C. Southern Watercolor Society show in 2017 and was awarded "Excellence of Watercolor" in the 2014 Oak Ridge Open Show. She has worked as an art teacher in various states over thirty years while raising her family and moving often, necessitated by husband's jobs. She and her husband have resided in Tellico Village since 2003.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

The image of the tortured artist is cliché because it’s often true, and, more so, because we talk about it a lot. In fact we love it. It may be that it appeals to a strange human craving for martyrdom: we love those who suffer for their passions. But not all artists fall on their swords or mutilate their ears; for a whole bunch of them the creative process reflects an earnest desire to bring a burning passion or drive to create into harmony with a good, even calm life.

Dino Liddick is one of the seekers of calm. Dino’s exhibit, “With the Eye, For the Mind” is currently hanging in our Market Square location, and the work that comprises the show is built upon a foundation of mindfulness and kindness. Some of that is a reaction to an emotional life, and some is related to sheer practicality. Certainly the artist has responded to emotional crises in his work, but for Liddick, the art isn’t merely a kind of therapy: it’s a statement of being. “Sometimes somebody will ask me how I feel, and I say, well, look at that painting – that’s how I feel.” On his website, he writes, “Rather than pulling ideas from the mind to produce ‘art,’” he, “practices clearing his mind through the process of a piece.”

Rather than formulate a work, Liddick hopes the piece will come together intuitively without too much conscious involvement. It’s an effort to feel rather than to think. When he’s moved by a subject or situation, Dino tries “to go home and reach that feeling, and let that feeling come into shape. I try to paint the feeling and then put in the shapes – I don’t try to the paint the shapes and then put in the feeling.”

“With the Eye, for the Mind” by Dino Liddick will be on view at the downtown Knoxville Tomato Head on Market Square from June 5th through July 2nd. The exhibit will display at the West Knoxville Gallery Tomato Head from July 4th through August 3rd.

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville. http://thetomatohead.com

Reception: September 1 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Stone, Mesh and Metal features prints by faculty from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville School of Art in the school’s nationally ranked printmaking program. Beauvais Lyons, Althea Murphy-Price and Koichi Yamamoto are pursuing their art using a variety of printmaking methods including lithography, screenprint and intaglio, reflecting the materials and processes of their chosen media. This exhibition offers a sampling of some of their recent investigations.

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