Calendar of Events

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from May 3-31, 2024. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features music by Nicholas Horner, DJ Morrison and Maggie Tharp.

M. Kobe is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They earned an MFA in Painting from Boston University, a BFA in Painting, and a BA in Art History from Louisiana State University. Kobe is a storyteller and multi-disciplinary artist working primarily with textiles, found natural materials, and lucky objects. Drawing upon her experiences growing up in the American South, her work contends with the religious mythologies of her upbringing, superstition, notions of home, and cultural inheritance. Kobe is currently an Artist in Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and was recently a resident at Azule.

As an artist from the American South, primarily Louisiana and North Carolina, I make work that is informed by my own natural history and questions what it means to live in these regions now. Building off the myths of my religious upbringing, folk tales taught in elementary school, and my love for country music, I navigate these superstitions and examine what it means to write my own. The art objects I make, tapestries and sculptures, are embedded with found natural or "lucky" materials and imbued with personal narrative. I am learning what it means to love a place that can be hard to love, to love a landscape that loves me back. I make my work with gratitude and admiration and as a critical yet redemptive response to the complicated places I call home.

www.madelainekobe.com | Instagram @madelainekobe

Dongyi Wu was born and raised in China. She is a contemporary jewelry artist and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She received her master's degree in Metal and Jewelry Design from Rochester Institute of Technology; a bachelor's degree in Jewelry Art Design from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in China; and a dual degree in Fashion and Engineering from the same undergraduate school in China. Wu has shown nationally and internationally and recently presented her sixth solo exhibition at the Clamp Light Studios & Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. Her works have been featured in many publications, such as Chinese Contemporary Jewelry Design and New Brooches: 400+ Contemporary Jewellery Designs. Her work is permanently collected by Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School & Academy, in Florence.

My works span across contemporary jewelry, body jewelry, fashion art, sculpture, and conceptual installation, and contemporary jewelry is the primary medium of my current artistic research. I treat jewelry as a tool to explore the relationship between human bodies and their surrounding spaces as well as a visual language that is delivered to others without real words. I liken myself to a storyteller who narrates stories that seem to be trivial and common but express strong and genuine emotions. I categorize materials according to their colors/shapes/texture and spend time exploring the connections between the selected materials and my personal experiences/preferences. In this case, all the materials that appear in my work speak of my personality and feelings.

www.dongyiwu.com | Instagram @dongyi.w

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; and 5:00-7:00 PM on Fri May 10 for a Gallery 1010 opening. Most of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

Dogwood Arts is proud to announce the 2024 Epiphone Guitar Design Contest. The contest is open to all high school and middle school students living in East Tennessee. Several guitar designs created by youth artists will be selected for implementation and exhibition. The art guitars will be displayed at the Dogwood Arts Gallery in Knoxville, TN. The guitars will be auctioned to benefit Dogwood Arts’ youth art programs.

Online auction will be live from May 3-31, 2024

Guitars will be displayed in the Dogwood Arts Gallery (Knoxville) May 3-31, 2024

An exhibition reception and awards ceremony will take place on Friday, May 3rd at the Dogwood Arts Gallery from 5-8 PM (Awards at 6 PM)

Select guitars will also be on display at the Southern Skies Music Festival (May 11, 2024)

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from May 3-31, 2024. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features music by Nicholas Horner, DJ Morrison and Maggie Tharp.

CT Kellar was born the son of a Southern Baptist minister and counts as his heritage the red dirt and green pines of the Sierra foothills. Wanderlust has led him to live on a boat in Monterey Bay, a repurposed orphanage in Northern California, a restored Victorian in Juneau, Alaska, and now in his current art-filled bungalow in Knoxville. Kellar has reinvented himself multiple times, on both the professional front as sportswriter, house painter, high-tech sales guy, and social worker as well as creatively as frontman for an indie rock band, poet, playwright, and currently: collage artist.

Servitude to the muse is nothing new for me, but working as a visual artist was not something I had done until 2022. Two things happened that lit my creative fuse: I watched a documentary about collage artist Lance Letscher, and I moved to Juneau, Alaska. The lack of sunshine there due to the weather and the shortness of days became a bit debilitating. The idea of assembling elements of color without being constrained by form or direction was an immediate mood lifter. Snow, rain and darkness become much more bearable when caught up in the work of creating pieces leaning heavily on primary colors. While I now live in Knoxville, my immersion in this medium has continued. The satisfaction I gain from making art owes much to randomness, spontaneity and surprise.

Instagram @juneau.blade.runner

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; and 5:00-7:00 PM on Fri May 10 for a Gallery 1010 opening. Most of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from May 3-31, 2024. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features music by Nicholas Horner, DJ Morrison and Maggie Tharp.

Rulla Habiby is a multi-media artist, painting in abstract and figurative styles, working with concrete and various clays, and using experience with Graphic Design in her works. Her paintings are characterized by bold and dramatic colors, combined into a fluid harmony. She was born and raised in the city of Haifa, Israel, and moved with her family to Knoxville over twenty years ago.

Early in life, Habiby showed a passion and talent for painting and strives to paint her life onto the canvas. Her unique background brings together the East and the West into a dazzling blend of her colors, feelings, and soul.

www.rullahabiby.com | Instagram @art_by_rulla | Facebook: Art by Rulla

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; and 5:00-7:00 PM on Fri May 10 for a Gallery 1010 opening. Most of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from May 3-31, 2024. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features music by Nicholas Horner, DJ Morrison and Maggie Tharp.

Virginia Derryberry: Private Domain
The large scale figure narrative paintings in this most recent series of paintings blend elements from mythology and alchemy, the forerunner of modern science. Among the Greek and Roman myths that inspire me are The Seven Virtues, Naiads, and Mercury As Messenger. In all my “re-enactments”, I place the characters in contemporary clothing and scenarios. The intent is to suggest multiple interpretations rather than create straightforward illustration of a specific narrative, a fitting choice in that alchemy and mythology by nature are about the process of transformation. Passages of volumetric rendering set next to more abstract, painterly areas, result in the creation of a virtual, shifting world where nothing is quite what it seems. Over the past few years, these paintings have become more complex and have begun to incorporate multiple canvases as well as fabric, embroidery and found objects as a way to expand the idea of traditional narrative. Suggesting Renaissance altarpiece panels or graphic novels, these images imply a conversation between fact and illusion and pull the viewer in to ask questions about what is being revealed and what is being concealed.

Virginia Derryberry’s work is shown regularly in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and has been written about in an extensive list of publications including exhibition catalogs, New American Paintings magazine, and Oxford American magazine. Solo exhibitions have traveled during the past five years to venues in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. Three of these solo exhibitions have been held in museums: Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL; Piedmont Museum in Martinsville, VA; and Marietta Cobb Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. Among her awards: North Carolina Artist Support Grant; Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award from the Southeastern College Art Association; Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome (2010 and 2016); Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award from UNC-Asheville; Annual Artist Fellowship from the Southeastern College Art Association. In 2023, she was named a finalist for the annual grand prize at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Her drawings and paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Asheville Art Museum, Tennessee State Museum, State of West Virginia permanent collection, and Morris Museum of Art. Two public art installations include sixteen paintings at the Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport and a ten-piece multi-panel painting at the Knoxville Convention Center.

www.virginiaderryberry.com

Lisa Kurtz: Earth and Fire
As a clay artist and a maker of pottery, I strive for the human connection between my work and the user of my pieces: if I make a handle that beckons you to pick it up and fits so comfortably in your hands you want to use it every morning – or a bowl that you want to serve food in at every family celebration – then I feel successful. I often use scraps of old fabric salvaged from my mother and grandmother’s houses to impress textures into my clay work, connecting to the many generations of my family. Textures and colors in water, sand, shells, rocks, sea birds and marine creatures also inform my work in clay and my glazes. I mix all my own glazes and enjoy tweaking them to emphasize the textures and designs that I put on my pieces. I throw and hand build and often combine the two methods to create my pottery. I welcome happy accidents that occur while working in the medium and in the firing processes, which has led me to explore different types of firing such as soda firing, wood firing, pit firing and electric firing. The pieces in this exhibition were chosen for the atmospheric effects obtained in the kiln that show through on the clay and/or glazes.

Lisa Kurtz has lived in Knoxville for nearly 30 years. She received a master’s degree in Ceramics from the University of Louisville and there began her pottery business, Highland Pottery, in the eclectic Highlands neighborhood. She has taught at community colleges in Tennessee and at art centers in both Kentucky and Tennessee. Currently she teaches functional ceramics classes at the Oak Ridge Art Center and recently taught a community clay class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She has been an active member of several professional juried guilds, artist associations and boards, including the Kentucky Crafts Guild, Foothills Craft Guild, Kentucky Department of the Arts Marketing Program, Arts & Culture Alliance, New Prospect Craft Center, Tennessee Craft, Knoxville Museum of Art, Art Market Gallery and Terra Madre: Women in Clay. Her clay work has exhibited and sold in galleries and shops across the U.S. and in national and regional juried fine art shows and craft fairs.

https://lisakurtzhighlandpottery.weebly.com | Instagram @lisakurtzhighlandpottery

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; and 5:00-7:00 PM on Fri May 10 for a Gallery 1010 opening. Most of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from May 3-31, 2024. A free gathering with the artists will take place on Friday, May 3, from 5:00-9:00 PM and features music by Nicholas Horner, DJ Morrison and Maggie Tharp.

Tennessee Watercolor Society (TnWS), a statewide artists’ organization, will showcase 50 original watercolor paintings selected by distinguished juror, Don Andrews. While the paintings include a wide variety of styles and subject matter, all are completed using a watermedia on paper, which is the founding requirement of all entries into the prestigious Biennial Exhibition.

TnWS has more than 250 members throughout Tennessee encompassing five regions centered around the principal cities of Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the Tri-Cities. The biennial exhibition locations are rotated around the state. At the close of the 2024 exhibition in Knoxville, 30 paintings will be selected by the juror to travel to other art venues around the state for the remainder of the year. The traveling exhibit has been funded by a grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation since 2014.

Juror Don Andrews of Austin, Texas is an accomplished watercolor artist and book author who has garnered numerous national and international awards and published several books on watercolor methods. Highly coveted prizes will be awarded during the annual TnWS Membership Meeting on May 18, including a $2,000 cash award for Best of Show.

www.tnws.org

The exhibitions will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. The Emporium is open to the public Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM; and 5:00-7:00 PM on Fri May 10 for a Gallery 1010 opening. Most of the works on exhibition will be for sale and may be purchased by visiting in person or the online shop at www.knoxalliance.store. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.

Reception on MAY 3, 5-9 PM

It is an attempt to compile abstract experiences and concepts in an encyclopedic approach to symbology. These prints emerge from a desire to pay attention and to emphasize observation of the world around us with the hope of establishing a connection with the spiritual form of the self.

https://holahoralatina.org/current-exhibit/
Info: 865.335.3358 or enrique.cruz@holafestival.org
HoLa Hora Latina’s Casa HoLa Art Gallery and Artisan Gift Shop
Bottom floor of the Emporium for the Arts (corner of Gay and Jackson streets in downtown Knoxville)
100 South Gay Street, Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902

Every Wednesday, May 1 – November 20, 10 am – 1 pm
Market Square in downtown Knoxville

Every Saturday, May 4 – November 23, 9 am – 1 pm
Market Square, Union Avenue, and Market Street 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/

Get ready for an exciting kickoff to the 2024 season of the New Harvest Farmers Market! Join us on Thursday, April 25th, from 3-6 PM at New Harvest Park for a fantastic event packed with fun activities and fresh, local goods! Here's what's in store for you:
FARMERS MARKET: Explore a diverse array of local produce, baked goods, meat, eggs, crafts, and more at our vibrant market stalls!
NOURISH MOVES: Lace up your sneakers and join us for the launch of the 2024 season of Nourish Moves! Learn more about how you can turn your steps into Produce Bucks by visiting nourishknoxville.org/nourish-moves/
SNAP & SNAP DOUBLING: shoppers with SNAP benefits (formerly known as food stamps) are able to swipe their EBT cards at the info booth for tokens to spend on groceries at the market! Plus Nourish Knoxville will be doubling those dollars, up to $20/day, in Double Up Food Bucks tokens to spend on fresh fruits & vegetables! Learn more about this program at nourishknoxville.org/programs/snap/

Thursdays from 3 pm – 6 pm
New Harvest Park, 4775 New Harvest Lane, Knoxville, TN 37918

https://www.nourishknoxville.org/new-harvest/

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

Reception Friday, April 12, 2024, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Free and open to the public, Gallery hours: 9:30-4:30 Monday through Thursday and 9:00-1:00 Sunday

Pamela Salyer: A View Through the Trees

This series uses mixed media (acrylic, collage, photo transfer) to explore the relationship between bare trees and their surroundings—how a tree, a group of trees, or even just a few branches, can change our perspective on the world around us. Pamela Salyer studied with UK’s Open College of the Arts and was juried in as a member of the Art Gallery in 2017. She has been part of many juried exhibits in the Knoxville area, including the Arts & Culture Alliance National Alliance National Juried Exhibition, Arts in the Airport, and The District Gallery’s “The Big Tiny Show.”

Jack Retterer

Jack Retterer says his goal as an artist is simple: “Use photography to help others experience and understand life more deeply and more completely by making it easier to ‘stop and smell the roses.’” He maximizes the emotional impact in his photography to increase the viewer’s awareness. Retterer is a fine art photographer, teacher and poet. His American Impressionist style photography and large canvas prints have been displayed at the Art Market Gallery, the Arts & Culture Alliance, Arts at the Airport, and many other locations in East Tennessee. He is an active member of both the Professional Photographers of America and the Professional Photographers of East Tennessee.

Tri-Star Arts is pleased to present the next exhibition in their Main Gallery at the historic Candoro Marble Building. A two-person show, Extended Materiality, featuring recent works by artists Mie Kongo (Evanston, IL) and Althea Murphy-Price (Knoxville, TN) opens Friday, April 5 and will run through Saturday, June 1, 2024. Curator: Brian R. Jobe.

https://www.miekongo.com/
https://www.altheamurphyprice.com/

An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 5, 2024 from 5:00—8:00 pm (artists in attendance). There will be an artist talk by Kongo and Murphy-Price beforehand at 3:30pm. The address is 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920 and admission is always free of charge.

The artists will also appear at an event at the Beck Cultural Exchange Center on Friday, April 5, 2024 from 12:00—1:00 pm. Attendees are welcome to bring their own brown bag lunch. The address is 1927 Dandridge Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37915.

Mie Kongo grew up on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan, and now lives and works in Evanston, IL. She creates multidisciplinary works that have been exhibited nationally and internationally. This includes two solo exhibitions at 65Grand in Chicago, IL, a recent two-person Exposure booth represented by 65Grand at EXPO Chicago, and participation in NADA Miami represented by The Landing Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Her other selected solo and group exhibitions were held at Harper College in Palatine, IL; Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, MO; Audible Gallery at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, IL; Devening Projects + Editions in Chicago, IL; Arts and Literature Laboratory in Madison, WI; and 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago, IL. She completed residencies at Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Park in Shiga, Japan, and the European Keramic Work Center in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Mie Kongo received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Currently, she serves as an Associate Professor, Adjunct, in the Ceramics Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2021.

Althea Murphy-Price began her studies in Fine Art at Spelman College before receiving her Master of Arts in Printmaking and Painting from Purdue University, and later studying at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University where she earned her Master of Fine Arts. Murphy-Price maintains an active exhibiting practice. She has exhibited in venues throughout the country and abroad such as the Weston Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Howard Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Wellesley College, Boston, MA; Wade Wilson Art Gallery, Houston, TX; Indiana University Art Museum; The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA; The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC; and the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN. International exhibits include the International Printmaking Exhibition, Jingdezhen China; the American Youth Printmaking Exhibition, Lui Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China; and Print Resonance, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan. In addition to her exhibition record, she has been an artist-in-residence at the Frank Lloyd Wright School; University of Hawaii, Hilo; the Vermont Studio Center; and the Venice Printmaking Studio. Her writings and work have been featured in such publications as Art Papers Magazine, CAA Reviews, Contemporary Impressions Journal, Art in Print, Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Process, and Printmakers Today.

Tri-Star Arts at Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-5. Information: https://tristararts.org/visit

DUSK BY SHAHNAZ LIGHARI
Project Space, Apr. 5 - Jun. 1, 2024

Tri-Star Arts is pleased to present the next exhibition in their Golden Chain Gallery project space located at the historic Candoro Marble Building. Dusk by Shahnaz Lighari (Nashville, TN) opens Friday, April 5 and will run through Saturday, June 1, 2024, with a thematic focus on the transitional moment between day and night. This show is located within the unique architectural space of a narrow wooden stairwell.

https://shahnazlighari.com/

Shahnaz Lighari is an artist based in Nashville, TN. She is self taught as a painter but attended Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film where she became inspired by art history and film. Incorporating a cinematic time-based approach to 2D media her work embodies the process of creation highlighting the many phases and layers involved in the evolution of each piece. Her work has been featured in publications and has shown in galleries nationwide, especially in the southeast. She has taught painting and printmaking at Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center and recently attended a workshop on Byzantine Iconography and sacred arts.

Tri-Star Arts at Candoro Marble Building, 4450 Candora Drive, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Tu-Sa 11-5. Information: https://tristararts.org/visit