Calendar of Events

Opening Reception - Fri Apr 1, 5-9 PM
Event by UT Downtown Gallery and University of Tennessee School of Art

Friedman and Ghenov are comfortable with ghosts in the studio. Ghenov uses family ledgers and documents found while cleaning out her childhood home. Friedman combines unexpected materials such as crayons, reference book photocopies, and lighting gels. Both artists use the act of drawing to try to capture the present moment, while their materials are envoys of the past. These technical and physical modes of working underscore their mutual interest in the foggy lines between different chapters in a human lifetime and realms of presence.

As Friedman and Ghenov simultaneously tease out and further obscure the boundaries between past and present, drawing and accumulated materials, their work is put into conversation with artists from the University of Tennessee’s permanent collection such as Joseph Delaney, Nancy Spero, and Walter Haskell Hinton. The dialogue that ensues explores the blurred lines between drawing as practice and performance, between studies and finished works, and between art-making and living.

Amanda Friedman is a Visiting Artist and Lecturer in the Painting and Drawing Dept. at UT Knoxville’s School of Art. Amanda Friedman’s art is rooted in drawing, painting, and writing. She directs plays and makes ceramics, installations, drawings, paintings, and performances that connect. Her work exists in different fields of action and poetry – varying spaces of concreteness, collaboration, and interiority. Friedman’s work is attuned to rituals and moved by a holistic drive to make worlds. Friedman has had recent solo and two-person shows at Grifter, NYC (2020) and Safe Gallery, Brooklyn (2018). She has been included in group shows at Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn; Situations, NYC; Adds Donna, Chicago; and Redling Fine Art, LA, among many others. Her plays or time-based paintings have been staged in NYC at All Saints Church, Essex Flowers, Safe Gallery, and White Columns. She holds an MFA from Bard College in Painting, where she was the recipient of the Hartog Travel Grant, and has participated in residencies at such places as Shandaken Projects, New York; Autocenter, Berlin; and Clay Break at The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Friedman published an artist book, Because Nothing Ends, with Peradam in 2013. Drawing Hilma Af Klint, made in collaboration with artists Ariel Dill and Denise Schatz, was published by Miniature Garden in 2014. Friedman is a founding member of the artist-run cooperative gallery Essex Flowers in NYC. www.Amandabfriedman.com

Lynne Marinelli Ghenov is a visual artist who primarily makes drawings and works on paper. Lynne's work mirrors the act of bricolage though most of the elements mixed in are absorbed and translated through and in the process of drawing. An array of ephemera and objects that spur memory, generate a story, or conjure sentimentality, is vital to her drawing practice. Family business ledgers, old lined paper, children's toys, found architectural drawings, and antique letters encompass the material choices that create the work's substrate. Lynne has shown work in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Tennessee. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1975 and raised in southern New Jersey. She currently lives and works in East Tennessee, where she co-founded and co-directed C for Courtside Gallery, an artist-run curatorial space in north downtown Knoxville, from 2017-2020. Lynne's day job is the Associate position at Loghaven Artist Residency in Knoxville, TN. She graduated from Tyler School of Art, receiving a BFA in sculpture in 1998. She also studied abroad at Temple University Rome in Italy in 1996. LynneGhenov.com

All UT Downtown Gallery events are free and open to the public. Masking is strongly encouraged. UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: W-F 11-6, Sa 10-3. Information: 865-673-0802, https://downtown.utk.edu

First Friday event from 5-9 PM

The Casa HoLa Store will be open for shopping!

https://holahoralatina.org/events/
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HoLa Hora Latina is located inside of the Emporium for the Arts at 100 S. Gay St. Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902. Info: (865)335-3358 or casahola@holafestival.org

Visit the Ijams Hallway Gallery in April to view photography by David Liles!

This former CPA loves color and high contrast, and his works are often abstractions that are achieved through color, pattern, shape and detail (or lack thereof).

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM

by Paul Rudnick
Directed by Courtney Woolard

A young and successful television actor relocates to New York, where he rents a marvelous, gothic apartment.

With his television career in limbo, the actor is offered the opportunity to play Hamlet onstage, but there’s one problem: He hates Hamlet.

His dilemma deepens with the entrance of John Barrymore’s ghost, who arrives intoxicated and in full costume to the apartment that once was his. The contrast between the two actors, the towering, dissipated Barrymore whose Hamlet was the greatest of his time, and Andrew Rally, hot young television star, leads to a wildly funny duel over women, art, success, duty, television, and yes, the apartment.

Reviews
…unapologetically silly and at times hilarious…affectionately amusing about the theatre…
—NY Times

“…fast-mouthed and funny…It has the old-fashioned Broadway virtues of brightness without pretensions and sentimentality without morals.”
— Village Voice

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 800 S. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information & tickets: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com

Celebration of the pieces at a reception on Sunday, April 3 from 2 to 4 PM.

The show is intended to answer the question: “What do you love?” We have asked our members to lend us up to six of their favorite pieces to share with the community to show a range of what speaks to and moves each of the individuals. In essence, it will be curated by the larger group, rather than a single person and, therefore, we are hoping it will be both diverse and dynamic.

There are all sorts of reasons people collect art. In most cases, artwork is displayed in our homes or work spaces, but in others it may not be. Most people buy art because they love the imagery and want to live with it to create a feeling or mood in their living space. The work may echo feelings, emotions, or memories they cherish. They may offer a range of emotions from comforting and soothing to exciting or invigorating. Work may also titillate the imagination, beckon stories, or challenge viewers to define or describe their subject matter. These may inspire ever changing reactions or a sense of renewal and inspire different feelings as one looks at the work over the long term. Some of us own pieces that have familial ties or generational importance. These items may involve references to one’s heritage or aspects from the culture or cultures from which they hail. Still others invest in artwork, hoping it will rise in value and that they will see a large return on that investment. While I concede this happens, I believe these individuals are in the minority. What we choose to love and live with says a lot about each of us—who we are and how we live. For this reason, we are asking our member collectors to select what they would like to show. We want your/their choices to make sure we do not slant the exhibition through a single individual’s filter.

One collector has offered to show a series of 13 Dali works that Dali created as illustrations for Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. The set is delightfully colorful and depicts the chapters of the book. These should be as enchanting to view as the book was to read! We are looking forward to sharing in the joy these pieces will bring to everyone who sees them. Other items that will be exhibited include a piece or pieces that were purchased while traveling. For one of the owners, her work takes them back to that experience, the newness and freedom the trip inspired. In addition it was a new type of work that has inspired her own thinking and creations since. It is those anticipated experiences that prompt us to offer this exhibition. To share these works our members are opening their experiences to others and allowing our viewers to make that journey with them. That communication should be as interesting or thought – provoking as the works themselves.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage Artist-of-the-Year: Alex Foster
March 21 – May 1, 2022

GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org/visit/galleries/exhibition-schedule/

In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair, the Museum of East Tennessee History announces the opening of a new, one-of-a-kind exhibition, "You Should've Been There!," in the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery from March 19 to October 9, 2022.

The exhibition’s theme is not only a nod to the international exposition’s marketing catchphrase, “You Have Got to Be There! The 1982 World’s Fair!,” but also an acknowledgement that four decades removed, there is a generation of East Tennesseans who were not alive to experience the historic event.

Organized by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Knox County Public Library, “You Should've Been There!” traces the fair’s development from conception to the pivotal moment when The Wall Street Journal referred to Knoxville as a “scruffy little city” and questioned its ability to host an international event. More than 11,000,000 visitors from around the world were informed and entertained in the various pavilions, exhibitions, and attractions put on by 22 countries and some 50 private organizations. Popular souvenirs were shirts and buttons proclaiming, “The Scruffy Little City Did It!”

The fair’s theme, “Energy Turns the World,” played to the region’s reputation as a technology and science center. For example, it was at the 1982 World’s Fair that users were able to try out a touchscreen for the first time. Elo, a Knoxville-based company, debuted the touchscreen technology, then known as "talk back" computers, in the United States Pavilion. To honor this spirit of innovation, “You Should've Been There!” incorporates engaging touchscreens alongside displays of original fair materials from pickle pins to deely bobbers and everything in between.

To learn more about the exhibition, please visit: https://www.easttnhistory.org/1982worldsfair

"You Should've Been There!" is an official event of the 40th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair. To learn more about upcoming commemorative events, please visit: http://www.knoxvilleworldsfair.com.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: M-F 9-4, Sa 10-4, Su 1-5. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

In a year like no other, Arrowmont's 2021-2022 Artists-in-Residents lived and worked together in the intimate environment of shared housing and adjoining studios. Their 11-month residency culminates in a group exhibition, now on display in the Sandra J. Blain Galleries at Arrowmont.

Please join Elizabeth Belz, Horacio Casillas, Kyle Cottier, Naomi David Russo, and Lena Schmid at the closing reception for their exhibition, "Party of Five." The reception is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!
May 13, 2022, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Sandra J. Blain Galleries
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org/visit/galleries/exhibition-schedule/

SUNDAYS 11 AM – 3 PM

Grab brunch from your favorite food truck and browse creative vendors from the local area!
Local Love Sunday: 1$ off local beer at the bar all day

https://www.facebook.com/knoxfoodpark

900 N. Central Street Knoxville, TN 37917

RED Gallery is proud to announce the opening of UnNatural History, a photography exhibition by Diane Fox. The show will open on March 4 (First Friday) and run through April 23. It will feature two bodies of work within the larger collection: portraits of taxidermied animals, and photographs of dioramas featuring taxidermied animals in natural history museums.

Diane Fox is an artist whose work speaks to the perpetually dissolving connection of humanity to the natural world. Solo exhibitions of her photographic body of work, UnNatural History, have been shown nationally and internationally including at the Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Dom Muz Gallery, Torun, Poland; Santa Reparata Gallery, Florence, Italy, and more. In 2017, her work was shown internationally at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfort, Germany as part of their exhibition “Dioramas.” Fox is a Distinguished Lecturer Emerita in the College of Architecture and Design at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she taught photography and graphic design. Fox has a MFA from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a BFA from Middle Tennessee State University.

Fox was inspired to make what she describes as confrontational animal portraits while in the Uffici looking at historical paintings of people long dead. “I felt that animals should also be honored in their death,” says Fox. What makes them confrontational in nature is their large scale, and the fact that the animals are gazing directly at the viewer. Fox explains, “When something is looking directly at you, you have to engage with it.” While individual portraits in the collection are striking, viewing them all together brings another experience. Fox says that many of the animals look alive, but when viewers see a portrait of an aged taxidermied monkey, they notice cracks in his face. These cracks, or the portrait of a jackalope (a mythological creature) “give it away” that these are all taxidermied animals.

For images of dioramas, Fox was interested in working with layers to confuse the space. None of the photographs are manipulated, or even cropped, and none of them encompass the entire diorama. “I include reflections from other cases, as well as elements meant to remain unseen to confuse the space,” says Fox.

“I want you to approach each piece thinking, ‘That’s beautiful.’ Then, ‘What’s going on?’ Then, ‘Wait, this isn’t right!’” The reflections pull other dioramas into the case, creating layers of imagery and layers of reactions within the viewers. Fox emphasizes that after studying the history of the natural habitat diorama, she has deep respect for people who made these dioramas; she says the art that goes into creating the taxidermy and the painted background is incredible. Ultimately, Fox hopes visitors will walk away from UnNatural History with deeper empathy and consciousness about animals’ lives. www.dianefoxphotography.com

Hours: Fridays 5-9pm, Saturdays 1-5pm and Sundays 1-5pm, and by appointment through the week (until April 23).
RED Gallery, 130 E Jackson Ave, Knoxville. 865-524-0146 or robin@robineaster.com

Charlotte Rollman Artist Statement
All of these paintings are plein-air (painted outside and on-site). You may notice all of the seasons are represented here, as I try to paint all year long. The two largest paintings are from my backyard and all of the work is from East Tennessee. I paint often, and particularly enjoy my weekly meet-up with the Tuesday Painters group. We are a lucky bunch. We mostly share our work, painting ideas, studio tips and discuss art events, and over lunch we share our lives outside of painting. We discuss abstract things like color, contrast, value, reflections and the weather. The wind joins us too and is not usually my friend, but it does chase away the bugs. I like to paint in the early morning light but I am not always the first person to our destination for the day. Sometimes I am distracted driving to our painting destination on Tuesday mornings and see other places I would like to stop and paint, but I don’t because I would miss the others if I did.

Debbie Whelan Artist Statement
I’m a dancer who makes pots. The human body and the clay body both have form and shape, both seek to fill the space with dynamic design, movement and meaning, and the color on the pot is like the music to the dance. The dancer informs the potter, and the potter informs the dancer, culminating in a lovely duet!

Westminister Presbyterian Church, 6500 S Northshore Dr, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: M-R 9-4 and Sundays. Info: (865) 584-3957 or www.wpcknox.org

Tri-Star Arts invites you to the First Friday reception for "From Wonder To Wonder" feat. Carl E. Moore and David Jon Walker (images 1-2 above) and "The Gallery of the Thieves: Recto / Verso" by Andrew Scott Ross (image 3 above) at the historic Candoro Marble Building, Friday, April 1 from 5:00- 8:00pm. (photos: Bruce Cole)

The Tri-Star Arts gallery and studios are located in the historic Candoro Marble Building, 5 minutes from downtown Knoxville at the corner of Maryville Pike and Candora Avenue. Parking spaces are limited and visitors may park along Candora Avenue as needed.

This exhibition is open to the public regularly from Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am until 5:00 pm, alongside iconic spaces within the Candoro Marble Building ~ located in the Vestal neighborhood of Knoxville. (photo: Bruce Cole)

Tri-Star Arts at Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. https://tristararts.org/the-gallery