Calendar of Events

The Bagwell Gallery will be hosting a solo exhibition of Prints and Collages by Aaron Coleman from September 25th through October 20th, 2023. The exhibition showcases Coleman’s virtuosic work in lithography as well as a small sampling of his collages, which are by turns hilarious, vivid and thought provoking. In addition to being arresting images the work also is technically masterful and shows his incredible depth of skill.

Aaron is a multi-disciplinary artist, Associate Professor and Kenneth E. Tyler Endowed Chair at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. He received his MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2013. Aaron has participated in international residencies and exhibitions and has received numerous awards for his work in printmaking, sculpture and installation including 2021 Black Box Press Foundation’s Art as Activism Grant. He is a 2022 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship semi-finalist and the recipient of the 2023 New Voices Fellowship from the International Print Center New York. His work can be found in the collections of The Janet Turner Print Museum, the Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi, Japan, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, The Yekaterinburg Museum of Art in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the National Library of France, and the Artist Printmaker and Photographer Research Archive in the Museum of Texas Tech University among many other public and private collections.

Aaron was a co-founder of the Sienna Collective for Students of Color in the Arts at the University of Arizona and in 2021 received the Provost Award for Innovations in Teaching as well as the College of Fine Arts Undergraduate Mentorship Award. Aaron’s hobbies change from year to year but currently include the cultivation of rare, terrestrial, African orchids. He is a husband, dog lover and workaholic.

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Bagwell Center Gallery hours: M-F 9-5. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Family festivals, musical performances and guest speakers are among the events Pellissippi State Community College has planned for Hispanic Heritage Month – and all are free and open to the public. Themed “Todos Somos Familia” (We Are All Family), Hispanic Heritage Month at the college will celebrate the rich and beautiful complexity of Latino and Hispanic culture at Pellissippi State as well as recognize the importance of the contributions of Latino and Hispanic culture to the local community and the world.

Keynote speakers Karen Ocon-Mora, community schools site coordinator for Knox County, and Megan Barolet-Fogarty, director of youth and family engagement for Centro Hispano de East Tennessee, will kick off the month’s festivities Tuesday, Sept. 19, with an address on “Familia: Relationships and Resilience in Latino Culture.” The event will be held 10:30-11:15 a.m. in the Goins Building Auditorium on Pellissippi State’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, and livestreamed on Zoom.

Families have two opportunities to come out to Pellissippi State for festivals including games, activities, food and a screening of the film “Encanto” at sunset: 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus and again 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, on Pellissippi State’s Strawberry Plains Campus, 7201 Strawberry Plains Pike

And don’t miss a lively performance by Knoxville’s own Latin jazz band Candela on Wednesday, Sept. 27, in the Hardin Valley Campus Courtyard. Candela will play 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., and refreshments will be served.

For a full list of Pellissippi State’s activities planned for Hispanic Heritage Month, including concerts and lectures, visit www.pstcc.edu/hispanic-heritage. To request accommodations for any campus event, call 865.694.6411 or email accommodations@pstcc.edu.

Featuring varied works by current faculty: Heather Hartman Folks, Matthew Jessie, Julie L. Rabun, Jennifer Stoneking-Stewart, and David Underwood.

Opens Thu Sep 7, 3-5 PM and closes Sat Oct 28, 9:30 AM - 12

The Michael Alvis Art Gallery at Carson-Newman University, Warren Art Building, corner of Branner & Ken Sparks Way, Jefferson City, TN 37760. Gallery hours: M-F 8-4. Information: 865-471-4985, www.cn.edu

Local-scape is an exhibition of works illustrating the beautiful and poetic places in and around East Tennessee. These places have inspired Berry to use his own personal language of color and composition to create unique works that are created from everyday scenes to become a work of the local-scape. These works fix one's memory onto one particular moment that in turn inspires a thousand interpretations of place or experience through expressive color application. Mike Berry received his M.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art & Design in 1997, and has been managing the University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery since 2004. Berry’s artwork has been exhibited regionally, including solo and group exhibitions throughout the southeast during the last 20 years. Berry maintains a studio in Knoxville TN and works with private collectors and corporate businesses on commissioned pieces. Berry also is the official framer for the Beauford Delaney Estate located in Knoxville. Knoxville has been the main subject of Berry’s work for more than a two decades and he has made Knoxville his home since 1999.

Linda Sullivan has a Bachelor of Arts and Math from the University of Evansville (Indiana) and a Master of Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University where she focused on glaze chemistry and glaze testing. Her functional pottery has evolved to include interpretations of landscapes through the glazing process. All her glazes are self developed and poured to overlap each other in a painterly way. She especially draws inspiration from the landscapes of the Southwest.

Works will be on view in the Schilling Gallery Monday-Thursday, 9-4; and Friday, 9-noon.
Westminster Presbyterian Church Schilling Gallery, 6500 Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919
Information: 865-584-3957.

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

RECEPTION: Friday September 8th, 5-7pm
https://art.utk.edu/printmaking-faculty-present-retrospect-exhibit/

“RETRoSPECT” surveys recent and past works by UT Printmaking faculty members Beauvais Lyons, Althea Murphy-Price and Koichi Yamamoto, as well as 2D Printmaking Technician Elysia Mann. Included in the exhibition are both traditional print processes, from engravings and intaglios, to screenprints and lithographs, as well as experimental uses of print media. The UT Printmaking program is consistent ranked among the top graduate programs in the United States. It has a long-standing exchange program with the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and is a project of the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation. For more information on the UTK Printmaking Program, see: https://art.utk.edu/printmaking/

Pienkow Art Gallery, 7417 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37919
Hours: Mon-Fri 8-5 and Sat 8-11

Opening Night, September 1, First Friday, 5 - 8pm

Please join us for the unveiling of our new exhibition, Metamorphosis, which features creations suspended on the precipice of blossoming—encapsulating hibernation, transformation, and rebirth. At 6:00 pm, Hungarian artist Eszter Bornemisza will give a gallery talk about her mixed media fiber works. Dress Code: Exquisite Autumn Colors with Gold Accessories

Metamorphosis is a familiar occurrence in nature, as the changing seasons bring leaves from vibrant greens to the subdued, regal hues of ochre, amber, and earth tones. Nature evolves silently before one's eyes, a constant process of metamorphosis. Like a breath held in anticipation, the moment before transition is pregnant with possibility and quiet vitality. The very change itself holds an extraordinary power– energetic hope and new life. These works, made with raw materials, are suspended on the precipice of blossoming, encapsulating hibernation, transformation, and rebirth.

FEATURED ARTISTS:
Eszter Bornemisza
Alke Reeh
Martha Rieger

Lilienthal Gallery, 23 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-200-4401, https://lilienthalgallery.com

An opening reception will be held for all new exhibitions on Friday, September 1, from 5-8 PM with all 3 artists in attendance.

UNTITLED HAM BY MICHELLE GRABNER, Main Gallery. Curator: Brian R. Jobe.
The Wisconsin-born and based artist Michelle Grabner is known for her broad perspective developed as teacher, writer and critic over the past 30 years. The site where it all comes together is the studio. Her art making—which encompasses a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, video and sculpture—is driven by a distinctive value in the productivity of work and takes place outside of dominant systems. Grabner instead finds a creative center in operating across platforms and towards community. Central to the work is the process. Grabner uncovers new dynamic relationships through her visionary practice of repetition. With a deep attention to abstract patterns and all the metaphors they conjure, Grabner pushes the limits of compositional structures to discover the tipping point between stability and precariousness; between continuance and wondrous difference.

MOVING IN BETWEEN BY GRIFFIN ALLMAN, Project Space
This show is located within the unique architectural space of a narrow wooden stairwell. Allman states of his work, “The making of a mark is not an isolated event, but it instead requires action to take place in order to ignite its existence. This action could be a simple move or a choreographed performance, and the action ultimately reflects upon the person who created it. A mark, whether it be a word or an image, can be reproduced hundreds of times, and it will lose its original meaning while simultaneously gaining a new meaning that births a life of its own. Therefore, the hand of its creator holds the power to not only repurpose a gesture, but to also incorporate newfound identity that becomes increasingly personal as a mark is made. My practice is currently focused on investigating the immediacy of drawing as a performance that enables its creator to develop identity through a repeated gesture. My previous body of work has consisted of hard-edge geometric abstraction that showcased a need to control and organize the picture plane. Through this process, my personal identity as an artist became lost, as I navigated a seemingly clear-cut landscape that did not necessitate a need to showcase the spontaneity that I desire. I am looking to the history of graffiti, specifically the fast-paced mechanics involved in its creation, as a method to circumnavigate the slow speed of hard-edge painting and ultimately shape the development of images that allow intuition to be a driving force. I am interested in how the compartmentalization of shape can work in tandem with quick mark-making to develop an artistic language that reflects both of these interests."

ROOT BY JASON SHERIDAN BROWN, Grounds
Opens Friday, September 1, 2023 and will remain on view through Tuesday, December 31, 2024. This large sculpture has been placed in sync with the exhibitions on view, extending the conversation outdoors to an accessible public space adjacent to the driveway entrance. Brown states of his work, “This site-specific sculpture titled Root, was created with materials that were scavenged, harvested, and manufactured from raw elements that have been mined and extracted from wild places. In the process of uncovering or exposing layers of geological information and materials in the natural landscape, I hope to reveal a new understanding about our human relationships to our environment.” The large piece of Tennessee marble was cut from a quarry in South Knoxville, not far from Candoro. The tree branch was harvested from a wooded area in South Knoxville and some of the steel was salvaged from the local steel mill scrap piles in Lonsdale.

Tri-Star Arts exhibitions are 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). 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920 and admission is always free of charge. www.tristararts.org

Drink Up The Moon celebrates how life can be better lived when we are in tune with the world around us. In this exhibition, a two-channel video installation captures the magic and mysticism of sunlight on choppy seas, rambling on the seashore, and deeply listening to our environment.

“This body of work began by filming my winter Atlantic swims at Salt hill Beach in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. This creative habit changed how I experienced my time in the frigid water and kept me cycling to the sea, even during a blizzard. The luscious slow-motion video captures glistening light, the sensation of waves crashing, and the aggression of hailstones on open water. “You never regret the swim,” is a mantra I was once given and this project is indebted to those wise words.In tandem with my swims, I began studying our moon, filming its phases and finding an embodied connection with it. The more I paid attention to our magnetic satellite, the more I heard birdsong when I usually slept, and the more in tune I was with the cycle of my body and the tides that drew me to the sea. I filmed the moon rising behind mountains and shining across beaches, from my city doorstep and camping on cliff tops. By tracking the moon,I found a stronger connection to myself, my ancestors and my environment and I encourage us all to explore this connection and keep looking up.” —Jane Cassidy

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.

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: Black Utopias: Black Distractions and Disruptions in Time Space
Artist: Stacey Robinson
Dates: September 1 - October 21, 2023
Location: The UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay Street
Times: W-F: 11am - 6pm, Sat: 10am - 3pm
The Gallery is open on the First Friday of every month from 5-9pm as part of Downtown Knoxville’s First Friday Art Walk
For more information: ewing@utk.edu | https://downtown.utk.edu

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

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