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October 2007Pictures from First Friday, October 5
Arts & Culture Alliance Presents "Channeling the Madness" Joyce Gralak, born and raised in the Chicago area, now lives, works and exhibits in Knoxville and the surrounding region. She uses candle wax, found objects, photocopies, and oil paint on plywood, and all materials are recycled with the exception of photocopies and a bit of acrylic or oil paint. “My work stems from a desire to order a messy world, to make sense out of our culture's sensory overload. The images and objects are chosen by gut level reactions and it is their juxtaposition that creates the subject among the elements, though not necessarily the same for viewer as for artist,” she says. Because her images are chosen on an emotional level, the subject tends to be personal and of Gralak’s own experiences, even if seeming more global. The use of different amounts of wax over or under an image/object can create varying levels of recognition, from painful clarity to almost complete obscurity, just as memories and perspective can change reality. Gralak’s piece, “A Good Year for Blackberries” (wax, found objects, photocopies, oil paint on plywood, 24" x 24"), received first place at the Arts & Culture Alliance’s National Juried Exhibition of 2006. Gralak works at the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge.
"Mad Mission" by Joyce Gralak Richard Whitehead, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, moved to Spain in 1983 to continue his art and settled in Knoxville in 1998. He will exhibit numerous techniques, including oil, sumi, pencil, watercolor, gouache, charcoal, red chalk, silverpoint, acrylic, interference, iridescent, pumice, collage, silk, multimedia board, and limited edition Light Jet Prints. “I am working on a current body of work inspired by aboriginal art and thought (dreams). Recent landscapes come from a more visionary stimulus,” he says. Locally in the Knoxville area he has shown with the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, A1LabArts, the Farragut Arts Council, The Art Market Gallery, Kaleidoscope, the Knoxville Museum of Art, Oak Ridge Fine Arts Museum, the Nomad Gallery, and the Liz-Beth Gallery. Whitehead has won numerous prizes and scholarships from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, as well as awards from other competitions in the eastern United States. His work has been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Delaware, Belgium, and Spain. Whitehead’s piece, “Disrupted Space” (gouache on stretched paper, 19" x 22"), received second place at the Arts & Culture Alliance’s National Juried Exhibition of 2006.
The opening reception on Friday, October 5, from 5-9 pm, is free and open to the public, and complimentary hors d’oeuvres are served. “Channeling the Madness” is on exhibit October 5-26 at the Arts & Culture Alliance’s Emporium Center. |
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