Submitted by Melissa Howsam — Correspondent
LOCAL COLOR GALLERY: Blues Celebrations, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 26.
Local Color Gallery presents members expressing the color blue in different media. Local Color is a Co-Op run gallery by (14) local women artist that work in a variety of mediums. "The Holidays are over and we are taking "Blue" to a new level. Blue skies, blue water and the musical blues. Come join us!"
— Adrien Montoya, manager, Local Color Gallery
BLAKE STREET STUDIOS: Drenched with Color: Exhibiting the works of Edward Baxter, Joe Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Sanderson and Jane D. Steelman, 6 to 10 p.m. Runs until Jan. 27.
We're starting 2013 off right with bold abstracts, luminous photography and contemporary drawings. Come down and enjoy the show!
— Jen Hales, gallery manager, Blake Street Studios
GALLERY C: Double Feature: Vincent Daddiego and Gloria Roberts, New Paintings and Sculptures, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Feb. 10.
Like other lovers and spouses in art history who have collaborated on their mutual passion for creating works of art, Vincent Daddiego and Gloria Roberts have an enduring and lifelong bond. They have worked together and inspired each other throughout their marriage and yet you can still see the divergence of their own styles in their pieces. Gloria’s work has soft edges and colors and is both fanciful and dynamic. Vincent’s work has a sharp and masculine feel to it, particularly when he works in metals and steel, the material taking center stage and the painted objects on the piece being more subtle. This exhibition will include paintings on canvas and steel and sculptures of wood, polyfoam and mixed media.
Please come to the opening reception on First Friday to meet this pair and discover how a creative and romantic partnership endures and generates so much creativity.
— Sharon Bell Glazener, art and framing associate, Gallery C
ARTSPACE: January First Friday Exhibitions. Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. First Friday reception kicks off at 6 p.m. Includes four main events:
Education Room: Figure Study Exhibition. Runs until Jan. 19.
The Artspace Figure Study Exhibition showcases artwork by participants of Artspace’s Figure Study programs and highlights the diversity of work being produced during these programs. Artspace's Figure Study programs include Life Drawing, Long Pose Figure Study and adult figurative classes. Life Drawing is a non- instructional session that includes short gestures and longer poses that is offered Tuesday nights from 7:30-10 p.m. Offered each spring and fall, Long Pose Figure Study sessions are geared towards artists, working in wet or dry media, who want the opportunity to work on one extended pose and to complete a figurative work. Adult Figurative classes are offered periodically throughout the year.
Gallery One: “Fine Contemporary Craft,” National Biennial Juried Exhibition. Runs until Jan. 12.
Fine Contemporary Craft is Artspace’s national biennial juried exhibition. Craftspeople and artists working in a variety of craft media were encouraged to submit both functional and nonfunctional works. Juror Gwynne Rukenbrod selected 34 works for exhibition, including award recipients, from a pool of more than 430 works of art. Receiving honorable mentions this year were Abigail Heuss' “Spoon Collection Family Tree,” and Melissa Vandenberg's “Sink or Swim: Family Style.” Third place went to Mindy Herrin for her work “Ring Worm.” Alysia Fischer's work “Curtain” was awarded second place. This year's Best in Show was awarded to Geoff Riggle and Lisa Wilson for their artwork, “2012.”
Gallery Two: New Works by Chris Watts. Runs until Jan. 26.
Chris Watts appropriates imagery from vintage popular magazines such as Ebony, Life, and Essences to create commentaries on the peculiar nature of his present-day social reality as an African-American man living in the American South. In reframing these narratives to comment on sociopolitical issues that are simultaneously singular and universal, these images sarcastically seek to expose the hypocrisy of the “glam” and “artificial” backdrops from which these media constructs are pulled.
Upfront Gallery: Twenty-Five Years at Artspace, Anne Jenkins. Runs until Jan. 26.
Anne Jenkins’ exhibition “Twenty-Five Years at Artspace” presents a sampling of 25 years of work, created all while a member of the professional Artspace Artists Association. Jenkins holds bachelor’s of arts degrees in music and early-childhood education. She is a self-taught artist, though she has studied under nationally recognized teachers, including locally with Joe Cox. Jenkins began her life in the art world as a school teacher using tempera paints with her students. Jenkins’ first real attempt to paint was in oils, with a set her husband gave her for Christmas. She later worked exclusively in watercolors for many years, teaching watercolor classes at Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh. In the 1990s, Jenkins returned to oil painting and gradually began working in acrylics. For years, her work has been impressionistic, focusing mostly on landscapes and florals. More recently, she has experimented with abstraction, enjoying the effect of transparent colors on watercolor paper in the creation of these abstract works.
Lobby: The Game of Politics by Susan Farrar Parrish. Runs until Jan. 26.
“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” – Thomas Jefferson to Col. Yancey, 1816. In Susan Farrar Parrish’s new body of work, she attempts in a humorous and satirical way to express her growing concern with the problems in the nation and the world. She caricatures attributes of many highly visible political figures, to draw attention to the absurdity of the state of politics.
— Mary Poole, executive director, Artspace
VISUAL ART EXCHANGE: Includes two main events:
Contemporary South, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 24.
This show will highlight contemporary stylings of artists from across the South. Juried with JPEGs by Noelle Rice, Curatorial Assistant, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C.
Left Hanging, work by Aimee Hertog, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Feb. 15. Artist talk at 6 p.m.
Come check out a new installation by artist Aimee Hertog in the celito.net cube at Visual Art Exchange!
— Meredith Burgess, exhibitions director, Visual Art Exchange
LGBT CENTER OF RALEIGH: Featuring Artist Megan Otto, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until the end of January.
Please join the LGBT Center of Raleigh in welcoming artist Megan Otto for 2013's first LGBT Center of Raleigh First Friday Art Series show! Megan's vibrant, rich photography documents lesbian relationships—from daily, mundane activities to heartfelt celebrations. Be sure to stop by for Megan's wonderful work, along with complimentary refreshments and great company. See y'all this First Friday!
— Matthew Mirarchi, First Friday coordinator, LGBT Center of Raleigh
TIPPING PAINT GALLERY: The Color of Abstract, 6 to 9:30 p.m. Runs until Jan. 28.
Rebecca's process is a meditative study of color, value and composition. Her use of intense color reflects the influence of her childhood years in the Southwest.
— Susan Jones, gallery co-owner/artist, Tipping Paint Gallery
THE MORNING TIMES: Living For The Moment, Works by Constance Pappalardo, 6 to 11 p.m.
The Morning Times Gallery is excited to show Constance Pappalardo's tranquil abstract oil paintings. Gallery reception from 6 to 11 p.m.
— Casey Porn, gallery director, The Morning Times
ADAM CAVE FINE ART: Winter Group Show, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 29.
As Adam Cave Fine Art begins it's fifth year in business, the gallery will present a cross section of work from our 25 nationally renowned artists. Artwork on display will include paintings and original prints along with historic works from the 1930s and 40s.
— Adam Cave, gallery owner, Adam Cave Fine Art
FLANDERS GALLERY: Scott and Tyson Reeder, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 27.
Painters, sculptors, performers, the Reeder brothers stirred up the art world in their home town of Milwaukee with their creation of "The General Store" and "Club Nutz." They plan to make a debut in Raleigh with new paintings, sculptures and performances at the exhibit opening on First Friday.
— Kelly McChesney, proprietor/director, Flanders Gallery
CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM: First Friday at CAM, 6 to 10 p.m.
CAM Raleigh's January First Friday program includes after-hours access to the galleries (on view is GirlTalk: Women and Text and Angel Otero), new hands-on activities at the creation station, music by DJ Greg Lowenhagen/ Founder of Hopscotch, special pop-up performances with North Carolina Opera, food trucks and a cash bar.
Notes: Food trucks in the courtyard, 6 to 10 p.m.; DJ Greg Lowenhagen in the main gallery, 7 to 10 p.m.; Creation Station in the classroom, 6:30 to 9 p.m.; North Carolina Opera performances in the street gallery, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Cash bar in the street gallery from 6 to 10 p.m. The Museum is open until 10 p.m. First Friday admission $5, and free to members, 10-and-unders, and NC State College of Design students, faculty and staff.
— Elysia Borowy-Reeder, executive director, CAM Raleigh
LITMUS GALLERY & STUDIOS: Restless Obedience, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 23.
RESTLESS OBEDIENCE pays homage to the connectedness of restless energy and creative will. Contemporary abstract artist Clara K. Johnson presents big, bold offerings as studies in line drawings. Clara will be leaving our area in February, so don’t miss this opportunity to see the work of this wonderfully creative artist.
— Jim Fatata, director, Litmus Gallery & Studios
BUSY BEE CAFE: Ryan Cummings – Memory Dreamscapes, 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Runs until the end of January.
Using select areas of the local and regional landscape as a starting point, my intent is to paint scenes to inspire a dialogue rooted in themes of birth and mortality, creation and destruction, and our connection to the past as part of a larger human timeline. Some of these landscapes are painted in acrylic while others are painted using a secco fresco painting method where pigment is applied to a surface of dried plaster. Vintage between photos of past residents of the area are included in these works, adding the element of a human connection or timeline to the landscape depicted in them.
— Ryan Cummings, artist
BABYLON: The work of Marwen El Hicheri, 6 to 10 p.m. Runs until the end of January.
Babylon will feature the work of Marwen El Hicheri for the month of January. Marwen’s newest series, “Blast of Energy,” will be on display and is heavily influenced by his culture and upbringing in Tunisia, North Africa.
— Melinda Stike, artist representative, Babylon
311 GALLERIES AND STUDIOS: domestic entropy, New work by Brian Gonzales, 6 to 9 p.m. Runs until Jan. 26.
{d 'mestik 'entr pē}-noun: 1. The tendency to become increasingly disorganized, untidy, and unmanageable. Rather than organize into separate, homogeneous, and classifiable collections, items tend to mix into heterogeneous open sets and redistribute to evenly fill all available space.
— Judy Jones, co-owner and curator, 311
