Calendar of Events

Catron Gallery, R. Jack Fishman Library
Jason Brown is an associate professor of Art at the University of TN, Knoxville. His work explores the impact that extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas have on the ecosystems and watersheds of Appalachian landscapes. Coal mining and mountaintop removal are especially compelling subjects for his sculptures and installations, which challenge viewers to engage in a civic dialogue about individuality, community and place.

Walters State Community College, 500 S. Davy Crockett, Morristown
www.ws.edu

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture is proud to announce the special exhibition, The Sculpture of William Edmondson: Tombstones, Garden Ornaments and Stonework, in partnership with Cheekwood Estate & Gardens. The exhibition is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Division of Diversity and Engagement and will run from January 13 to May 14, 2023.

The exhibition reexamines and recontextualizes the life and work of African American artist William Edmondson (1874–1951). Edmondson is the most significant sculptor to emerge from Tennessee during the 1930s and 40s and remains one of the leading American artists of the twentieth century.

This is the first large-scale museum exhibition of the artist’s career in over twenty years. During Edmondson’s life, he was well known for his yard art, including whimsical birdbaths, fanciful "critters," sculptures of everyday people, and grave markers he carved for African American families.
https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/2022/12/13/mcclung-museum-to-feature-one-of-the-most-significant-collections-of-tennessee-artist-william-edmondson-in-new-exhibition/

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 12–4 p.m.

Featuring Steve Olson's first solo photography show!
Reception on Sun Jan 22, 2-4 PM

The Center is the second building on the right when you turn into Rarity Bay. The Center is open Monday thru Friday 9 to 4. It is best to call ahead because the Center often has meetings or events going on: 423-884-3800

150 Rarity Bay Pkwy, Vonore, TN 37885

JERRY DROWN WOOD STUDIO GALLERY | JANUARY 2 – MARCH 3, 2023

Rob Millard-Mendez was born in a New England textile town with an incredible industrial past. From an early age, he was enthralled with mechanics, motion, and the wonders created by practical, no-nonsense makers.

“The primary aim in my work is to illustrate and analyze concepts that I find enthralling. The resulting objects deal on many levels with formal and conceptual issues. In my work, I hope to show an equal blending of art, craft, and the presentation of engaging ideas in intriguing ways. The works are meant to involve the viewer visually and intellectually. My sources include mythology, science, history, and American Folk Art (among others). The objects I make reflect the sensibilities of a person steeped in New England practicality who (for better or worse) ended up learning about things like art history, existentialist philosophy, and post-structuralist theory. Some of my sculptures are based on themes from classical mythology viewed through the lens of contemporary events. I have a strong interest in how mythemes surface and re-surface throughout human history in many varied (but related) guises. Craft is an important aspect of my work. I identify strongly with the idea of the artist as a kind of Daedalean hybrid: artist/artisan/shaman. Visual art, like mythology, has the power to compel us with its resonant imagery. It is my hope that my works will, in some small way, enrich the viewer and make her/him see the world as slightly more tragic or laughable (or possibly both at the same time).”

Rob’s work has been shown in over 500 exhibitions in all fifty states as well as internationally. He has had many solo exhibitions and he has received over 120 awards for his art and his teaching. Rob’s sculptures are in over sixty private and public collections and images of his work have appeared in Sculpture Magazine, American Craft, two Lark Books, Art New England, and many other publications. Rob is a Professor of Art in the Art and Design Department at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana. He teaches 3-D Design, Woodworking, and Sculpture. He received an MFA in Sculpture from UMASS Dartmouth. https://www.arrowmont.org/story-sticks/

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org

JANUARY 2 – MARCH 3, 2023 | GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY

Lauren Kalman is a visual artist based in Detroit, whose practice is rooted in contemporary craft, sculpture, video, photography and performance. Through performances using her body, her work investigates constructions of the ideal and the feminine and their impacts on self-image and identity, the politics of craft, and the built environment.

“I use assertive and powerful performances of the female body in relationship to wearable objects, functional objects, and environments. I make objects and then use those objects in performance videos and photographs. My body is the site for these performative interactions. I use a variety of methods in my work including traditionally fabricated metal objects, textiles, beading, and ceramics folded together with installation, 3D printing, computer-controlled objects, performance, photography, and video. Over the years, my work has transitioned from jewelry as the format of my work, to adornment and decoration as a subject of my work. I work with craft materials as a strategic choice, because of their strong tie to the body through their proximity to bodies through jewelry, cutlery, vessels, hygiene implements, and clothing. Devices for Filling a Void, combines a jewelry vocabulary with forms reminiscent of reconstructive surgical devices and body-like growths. Rather than presenting or holding the body in an ideal position, they distort the body through actions that are sometimes grotesque or violent. The objects literally fill the voids of the body, but the forms also imply a psychological filling of emotional or erotic voids. The work points to ideas about women being incomplete or lacking, requiring augmentation by men, objects, dress, makeup and adornment.”

Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Kalman completed her MFA in Art and Technology from the Ohio State University and earned a BFA with a focus in Metals from Massachusetts College of Art. https://www.arrowmont.org/devices_kalman/

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org

Landfall Press: Five Decades of Printmaking celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the country’s most renowned printers-publishers. Founded in 1970 by Jack Lemon, Landfall Press played a key role in expanding the geography of the American postwar print renaissance. In the late 1950s and 1960s, new printmaking workshops, including Universal Limited Art Editions, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and Gemini G.E.L., opened on the East and West Coasts. Jack Lemon helped bring this printmaking revival to the Midwest. He learned lithography at the Kansas City Art Institute, then later established and directed lithography workshops there in 1965 and at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1968. He opened Landfall Press in Chicago, effectively creating a new hub for printmaking that attracted artists from around the country.

Landfall Press is known for its outstanding innovation and exacting technical standards. It specializes in lithography but has also produced etchings, woodcuts, books, and multiples that have often redefined what a print can be. As a publisher, Lemon has collaborated with a diverse range of international artists, introducing many of them to the process of printmaking. Landfall operated out of Chicago for thirty-five years and, in 2004, relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it continues to serve new generations.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org. Admission and parking are free.

Every Saturday, December 3-17 and January 21 – March 25, 2023*
10 am – 2 pm
* NO WINTER FARMERS’ MARKETS ON 12/24/2022, 12/31/2022, 1/7/2023, OR 1/14/2023

2022 – 2023 Location: Outdoors on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville

Nourish Knoxville’s Winter Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Everything at the WFM is grown or made by our vendors in the East Tennessee region. Products vary by the seasons and include produce, eggs, honey, herbs, pasture-raised meat, plants, bread, baked goods, salsas, coffee, artisan crafts, and more!

Public restrooms are available on the ground floor of the Market Square Garage.
https://www.nourishknoxville.org/winter-market/

DECK THE HALLS... The KMA's Thorne Rooms are all decorated for the holiday season! After Thanksgiving, Knoxville Museum of Art pulls out the tinsel and trimmings to get our collection of Thorne Rooms ready for the most wonderful time of the year! Thank you to East Tennessee miniature artisans and Thorne Room experts Annelle Ferguson and Jolie Gaston for making it all possible. On view through December 30.

The Thorne Rooms were developed in the 1930s and 40s by Narcissa Niblack Thorne, Chicago, IL, who loved dollhouses as a child. After extensive travels in Europe where she collected miniature furniture and accessories, Mrs. Thorne had over two dozen miniature rooms created by cabinetmakers from her own drawings. They were made in a scale of one inch to one foot. She painted and stained woodwork, papered walls, and made textiles for the rooms. Read more: https://knoxart.org/exhibitions/thorne-rooms/

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org. Admission and parking are free.

Our relationship to moving images is constantly evolving. Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, for example, our use of–and reliance on–streaming services to access Hollywood blockbusters not only changed how we watch movies but also disrupted traditional models for financing and distributing such productions.

How did our relationship with moving images begin? What technological and cultural events sparked our interest in motion pictures as entertainment? And what role has East Tennessee and its people had in moviemaking?

Lights! Camera! East Tennessee!, a new feature exhibition at the East Tennessee History Center, answers these questions by chronicling Knoxville’s contributions to film from the promotion of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in 1895 to its use as a location for major productions currently in development. At the heart of the story is 35 mm film, shown both in urban theaters and suburban cineplexes and shot by itinerant filmmakers, documentarians, industrial filmmakers, and news reporters. Multiple screens featuring highlights from these genres anchor the exhibition.

Equally intriguing are the stories of how Knoxvillians made Hollywood history. Learn about Clarence Brown, a graduate of Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, who became one of MGM’s most prominent directors. And see why James Agee, known to us today as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, was better known as a film critic and screenwriter during his life.

Lights! Camera! East Tennessee! will also spotlight the numerous actors from across East Tennessee who became Hollywood A-listers and the variety of films that were shot in East Tennessee, including A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) and That Evening Sun (2009), both of which premiered in Knoxville.

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/lights-camera