Calendar of Events
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Art Market Gallery: Patrick Deason & Dennis Sabo
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
First Friday Reception: September 1st, 5:30 – 9:00 pm, with complimentary refreshments and music
Patrick Deason’s creative kinetic sculptures will be featured during the month of September. From a small birthday piece for his wife, Patrick’s art evolved through welding and shaping metal into creative kinetic art. Says Patrick, “Some of my methods are traditional blacksmithing, while others methods are unique tools and techniques, I've developed over the 20 plus years I've been involved in metal sculpturing. I most enjoy the challenges of kinetic art, requiring imagination and engineering along with ideas and inspirations." Patrick has received honors from the Georgia Coastal Art League as Artist of the Year, and has had his wonderful kinetic art featured in galleries in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Dennis Sabo’s stunning photography titled “Iceland- Earth, Water, and Ice” will be featured during the month of September. Dennis Sabo is an internationally honored photographer specializing in contemporary abstract, landscape, and seascape photography. His award-winning work has appeared in multiple national publications. Locally his work has recently been seen in the 2023 Dogwood Regional Fine Art Exhibition, Arts in the Airport- Spring/Summer 2022 Exhibition, and the 2022 National Juried Exhibition. Says Dennis, “My goal is to help other people celebrate their love and passion of nature and the natural world through my photographic artwork.” Dennis’s photographic fine art can be found in many private collections internationally and throughout the U.S., as well as within the healthcare and corporate industries.
Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-6, Su 1-6. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net, www.Facebook.com/ArtMarketGallery
Rala: Through the Looking Glass by Blanket Fort Studio
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
Opens 6-8 PM on Fri Sep 1
Join us for September's First Friday show "Through the Looking Glass" by Blanket Fort Studio. Kendra is known for her fun and colorful ceramic pieces. This show will be no exception! Friday will be the first night of this month long show. Come on down to see the show, meet Kendra, or maybe even bring home an irresistible piece of art!
Rala: Regional and Local Artisans, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat 11-6, Fri 11-8, Sun 11-5. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com or www.instagram.com/ShopRala
Mighty Mud Studios: Maggie Connolly Solo Exhibition
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
Reception: First Friday, September 1, 6-9pm
Mighty Mud, 126 and 127 Jennings Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Hours: Tu-F 11-6, Sat 9-5. Open studio time on Thu 6-9. Information: 865-595-1900, www.mightymudclay.com
Dogwood Arts: Shaped Like Light by Annie Rochelle & Summer Small
Category: Exhibitions, visual art and Free event
Opens FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 AT 5 PM – 8 PM
Regular Gallery Hours: M-F | 9AM-5PM
Shaped Like Light is an exploration of the cultural and physical landscape of East Tennessee. These paintings shimmer though landscape and folklore in a mirage of incandescent color and pattern.
Annie Rochelle is an artist living and working in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA in Painting and Art History. With an education in art conservation and art history, Rochelle’s work is an optical investigation that strives to both celebrate and break traditional painting into refracted color and shape. Like light caught in a prism, the shifting perspectives, double imagery, refracted and faceted compositions strive to capture the ephemeral nature of the environment around us. These artworks works to combine naturalistic imagery such as scientific illustration and landscape painting with the sharper geometry of traditional barn quilt composition and rigid tessellation in an prismatic palette to create a visual and thematic kaleidoscope. All of these visual elements work to celebrate the singular uniqueness of East Tennessee’s biodiverse environment, pay homage to agrarian art traditions and revel in the dizzying colors of Appalachia in her warmer months.
Summer Small is a self-taught visual artist from East Tennessee. Her work unfolds a complicated but passionate relationship with modern Appalachia and the people and places that call the Tennessee valley home. In 2021 she began her freelance career and has since been featured in many exhibitions, publications and public art projects in Knoxville and around the greater south.
Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com
Ewing Gallery: Audacious Black Freedom Dreams
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
Afrofuturist, artist, educator, graphic designer, and DJ, Stacey Robinson will be having exhibitions at the UT Downtown Gallery, Ewing Gallery, and a 5-day artist residency in Knoxville, during fall of 2023. Robinson’s time in Knoxville will coincide with an intentional Afrofuturist takeover of the galleries with the presentation of his exhibition projects, Black Audacious Freedom Dreams and Black Utopia: Black Distractions & Disruptions in Time Space, to be on view in fall 2023. Infusing downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee campus with Afrofuturistic imagery, Robinson and the galleries will build a critical mass of Black thought and creativity to amplify and center Black voices.
The Ewing Gallery, located in UT’s Art + Architecture Building will present Black Audacious Freedom Dreams by BLACKMAU, a creative collaboration between Stacey “ Blackstar” Robinson and Kamau “DJ Kamaumau” Grantham. This exhibition features a multimedia projection and seven 7-foot banners created using digital collage. These images visually mimic the audio sampling used throughout hip hop musical production and the process of crafting a tight DJ set, which inspire the duo. This work prompts a conversation about Black liberation as a reality not yet fulfilled. By centering Black people within the narrative, BLACKMAU prompts the audience to imagine themselves in the spaces with the subject. Robinson and Grantham reference Black liberation texts with With Black Audacious Freedom Dreams, including Freedom Dreams by Robin D.G. Kelly, and We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina L. Love, which they include in a study area and curated library of Black texts in the exhibition.
Concurrent with Black Audacious Freedom Dreams, the UT Downtown Gallery will present Robinson’s new solo project, Black Utopia; Black Distractions & Disruptions in Time Space. This exhibition is a design research project looking at systems of oppression and resistance through black and white logo designs and illustrations that use the emptiness of white gallery walls as the backdrop for extracting Black resistance commentary. The systems examined springboard a burgeoning theory comprised of Black-created systems that can function as a form of Black liberation government in lieu of Black Reparations, justice, and failed integration.
Exhibition: Audacious Black Freedom Dreams
Artist: Stacey Robinson / BLACKMAU
Dates: August 22 - October 29, 2023
Location: The Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, 1715 Volunteer Boulevard
Times: M,T,W,F: 10am - 5pm, Thur: 10am - 7:30pm, Sun: 1-4pm
For more information: ewing@utk.edu | https://ewing-gallery.utk.edu
McClung Museum: In Conversation: Will Wilson
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Free event and History, heritage
The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is proud to announce that it will bring the acclaimed exhibition, In Conversation: Will Wilson, to the local community. With over $35,500 in grant support, the museum will feature the powerful works of Diné (Navajo) photographer Will Wilson in a moving exhibition exploring the importance of self-representation.
In Conversation: Will Wilson opens at the McClung Museum on August 18 and will include a range of engaging programming for both the university and the Knoxville community. The exhibition was made possible through Art Bridges, a foundation created by philanthropist Alice Walton that is focused on expanding access to American art. Showcasing 17 portraits from Wilson’s Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange project, the exhibition is dedicated to capturing a contemporary perspective of Native North America. In Conversation: Will Wilson challenges viewers to think critically about how Native peoples have been portrayed in photography over time. Through portraiture, Wilson responds directly to the works of early 20th-century photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1869–1952). Curtis’ photographs simplified and romanticized Native American life, whereas Wilson has created rich, complex portraits from Indigenous perspectives. Visitors to the exhibition will witness some of Wilson's portraits come to life through an augmented reality app, providing an interactive experience known as "Talking Tintypes."
In Conversation: Will Wilson is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and curated by Mindy Besaw, Curator of American Art/Director of Fellowships & Research from Crystal Bridges, and Ashley Holland, Associate Curator from Art Bridges.
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. https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu
TVUUC Gallery: Chicago and Beyond: The Sylvia and Jan Peters Collection
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts, Free event and History, heritage
Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, August 18, 2023, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Collector’s talk at 6:30 p.m.
Show: August 13 - October 4, 2023
Gallery hours: 10-3 Monday through Thursday and 10-12:30 Sunday
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918
Sylvia and Jan Peters have been collecting art for more than five decades, including notable works by Chicago-based African-American artists Fred Jones, Steve Walker, and Dale Norman, and a lithograph by Charles White. The exhibit includes paintings in a variety of media, prints, and photographs.
As educators, Sylvia and Jan Peters advocated for arts in community and educational programs in Chicago. Since moving to Knoxville in the early 1990s, Sylvia has been involved with the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the Links, the 100 Black Women, and the Knoxville Botanical Garden. She initiated the Delaney Project and Days of Dialogue.
Of their early days in Chicago’s art world, Sylvia said, “We held Sunday Salons at our home where artists were invited to eat, drink, and discuss their work. It was almost an out of body experience to participate in these discussions. Richard Hunt, Ralph Arnold, Margaret Burroughs, William Carter and many others visited our home.”
Market Square Farmers' Market
Category: Culinary arts, food, Exhibitions, visual art, Festivals, special events, Fine Crafts, Free event, Health, wellness, Kids, family and Science, nature
Every Wednesday, May 3rd – November 15, 10 am – 1 pm
Every Saturday, May 6 – November 18, 9 am – 1 pm
Market Square in downtown Knoxville
The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market managed by Nourish Knoxville.
Everything at the Market Square Farmers’ Market is grown, raised, and/or made by our vendors within a 150-mile radius of Knoxville, Tennessee. Products vary by season and include fresh fruits & vegetables, eggs, honey, pasture-raised meats, edible & ornamental plants, cut flowers, bread & baked goods, jams & jellies, coffee, artisan crafts, and more!
We offer SNAP & SNAP Doubling services every Wednesday and Saturday, and Nourish Kids – a free kids activity on the 2nd Saturday of each month. https://www.nourishknoxville.org/market-square-farmers-market/
Printshop Beer: Explore Knox Bike Rides
Category: Culinary arts, food, Free event and Health, wellness
Year-round, join us Saturdays at 11:00 for our weekly slow ride through different Knoxville neighborhoods as we explore our city via bike. Although distances and routes vary, most rides last for 60-75 minutes (4-8 miles) and potentially include a stop at various landmarks, sites of interest, and even other breweries!
Please note that rides will be cancelled in the event of inclement weather to ensure the safety and comfort of all participants. (If it's raining or snowing, we'll cancel the ride. When the temperature is below about 40 or so at ride time, it's usually too cold for our group to want to ride.) We'll announce any cancellations on our Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/printshopbeer/
Knoxville Museum of Art: Thorne Rooms + Miniatures
Category: Exhibitions, visual art, Fine Crafts and Free event
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.