FOLLOWING THREADS | FIBER ART AND DRAWING
September 19 - November 9, 2014
Following Threads highlights four artists, Harriet Hoover, Becky Joye, Leigh Suggs, and Jason Watson, who investigate the drawn and stitched line in figurative and abstract works that stretch the definitions of drawing. Hoover, Joye, Suggs and Watson all have artistic practices that embrace several mediums, producing studio drawings as well as works utilizing fiber, collage, hand and machine sewing, and installation. Thematic threads link their graphic and fiber work as well as their multidisciplinary approaches which explore personal narrative spaces.
Following Threads, curated by Edie Carpenter, was developed concurrently with Line, Touch, Trace, at the North Carolina Museum of Art, an exhibition presenting thirteen NC artists: Tamie Beldue, Selena Beaudry, Lori Esposito, Kiki Farish, John Gall, John Hill Jr., Fritz Janschka, Kenn Kotara, Krey Mellick, Matthew Micca, Ippy Patterson, Isaac Payne and Jason Watson. Drawing has played a vital role in the history of modern art from the automatic drawings of the surrealists to the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt. Contemporary drawing encompasses any number of practices with the term used to describe marks made by mechanical means, residues of physical actions or ephemeral lines in space. Line, Touch, Trace focuses on draftsmanship and presents thirty hand-drawn studio drawings in a wide range of media. Works in graphite, ballpoint pen, conté crayon, ink and charcoal explore the expressive possibilities of the artist’s hand. Line may be used to precisely render contours or as a gestural calligraphy on the drawings surface; touch builds tonal values and erases edges, and traced marks evoke elements of an imagined topography. Far from marginal, drawing informs all aspects of artistic creation as reflected by the range of approaches in both the exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art and at Greenhill.
Harriet Hoover’s works combining several media are informed by the artist’s desire “to uncover stories of a place and its history.” In Following Threads Hoover associates drawing and collage in a new group of works that may be viewed from two sides, including large-scale floor to ceiling collages. Hoover’s assemblages, like her 2-d works, are composed from found materials and often bear the names of the places where the artist gathered them. These cast-off remnants are “manipulated, stitched and bound” by the artist in free-standing sculptural pieces that possess a strong material presence and poetic resonance.
Greensboro-based artist Harriet Hoover has attended the Penland School of Crafts and studied landscape architecture at The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She holds a bachelor’s degree in textile technology and fiber arts focus from NC State University and a MFA from UNC-Greensboro. She currently teaches at NC A & T State University. Recent exhibition venues include LIGHT, Art and Design in Chapel Hill, Art in Odd Places in Greensboro, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro.
Becky Joye’s acrylic and pencil drawings on paper depict imaginary structures resembling farm silos, communication towers, or fairgrounds. Nostalgic machine-age constructions are depicted with precisionist line. Ductwork and pylons are often festooned with floating kite-like appendages in bright colors evoking aerial circuses and dreams of flight. At Greenhill Joye will present a new group of larger drawings on paper inspired by “industrial winding towers and vintage toys” from a recent trip to Germany. These works on paper will be seen in association with the artist’s machine-sewn fabric collages in vivid patterns and new three-dimensional works. Charlotte native Becky Joye graduated from the UNC-Charlotte with a Bachelor of Architecture in 2003. She is currently a member artist at Artspace in Raleigh after being a Regional Emerging Artist-in-Residence in 2013. She recently was in the exhibition Thought Maps & Ladders with artist Ray at Artspace. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including The Drawing Show, Pump Project, Austin, TX; a solo exhibition at Designbox, Raleigh; Unraveled at the Block Gallery in Raleigh and Contemporary South at the Visual Arts Exchange in Raleigh. She was a 2014 Artfields finalist, in Lake City, South Carolina.
Leigh Suggs produces painstakingly crafted works involving “the use of singular pattern producing gestures such as weaving, wrapping, stitching, and adhering.” Ink pen line drawings in geometric patterns form polyhedrons and subtle variations in the flow of ink create pulsating effects of light line against a dark ground. In some of Suggs most well-known works, hundreds of petal shaped paper elements of are stitched in concentric circles, overlapping petals varying in opacity and density forming large circular wall constructions. Seen together Suggs’ works reveal a practice both precise and obsessive, in which light as much as line is enlisted by the artist to produce subtle shifts in reading and evoke organic as well as celestial metaphors. Leigh Suggs is currently an MFA candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University and holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Leigh is a recent recipient of the NC Arts Council Fellowship Grant and has shown her work at LIGHT, Art and Design in Raleigh, the Weatherspoon Museum, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh.
Jason Watson is a mixed-media artist, whose work combines interests in the figure, found objects, and text fragments as visual material. Watson’s drawings and collages are visual assemblages of remnants of our collective cultural past. Starting with historic statues and portrait busts sketched in museums or at historical monuments, his works serve as storybook-like illustrations providing a pictorial space for various cultural artifacts to inhabit. The artist’s interest in the object is pushed to the extreme in new works combining drawing, stitching and assemblage. Watson has exhibited in galleries, universities and non-profit spaces including in Drawing Revisited at Greenhill in 2010 and Jason Watson: A Second Look, at the Jersey City Museum in 2007-2008. Watson recently completed an artist residency at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, NC where he was the Wesley Mancini Artist in Residence for 2013.
This exhibition was developed concurrently with Line, Touch, Trace at the North Carolina Museum of Art and examines the importance of line in drawing and fiber art.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING
Following Threads Exhibition Opening: Friday, September 19, 2014 | 5:30 - 8:30 pm
You are invited to The Gallery at Greenhill for an intimate and exclusive first viewing of Following Threads: Fiber Art and Drawing. Between 5:30 – 6:30 pm Greenhill Members are invited to hear Curator Edie Carpenter’s comments in The Gallery. At 6:30 pm The Gallery opens to the public. Cash Bar and light hors d'Oeuvres.
Parents Night Out: Friday, September 19, 2014 | 5:30 - 8:30 pm
Parents Night Out is an opportunity for parents to attend the exhibition openings while their children are participating in ArtQuest. Trained ArtQuest staff will ensure a safe and creative experience for your child(ren) while you enjoy adult-time in The Gallery. Reserve your child(ren)'s spot for Parents Night Out. The charge is $10 per child and is open from 5:30 - 8:30 pm for Members, and 6:30 - 8:30 pm for Non-Members. As the parent, you must remain within the footprint of Greenhill the entire time. In order to reserve your spot, please register below and pay using PayPal checkout. Reservations must be made by 4pm on September 19. There are 15 spots available. If you have any questions call Jaymie Meyer at 336-333-7460 x109.
Register here: CLICK HERE
First Friday at Greenhill – Live Music with Farewell Friend: Friday, October 3, 2014 | 6 – 9 PM
Join us for First Friday in The Gallery from 6-9 pm to check out Greenhill’s current exhibition, Following Threads: Fiber Art & Drawing, and a live music by Farewell Friend, a folk and indie collaboration from Greensboro, NC. Farewell Friend will perform from 6:30-7:30 pm. First Friday at Greenhill is free and open to the public. Cash Bar. Donations appreciated.
Following Threads Artist Talk: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 | 5:30 - 7:00 pm
Following Threads artists, Harriet Hoover and Jason Watson discuss the themes, intentions, and material processes employed in their artworks. Click Here for images from the talk.
Following Threads Artist Talk: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 | 5:30 - 7:00 pm
Following Threads artists, Leigh Suggs and Becky Joye discuss the themes, intentions, and material processes employed in their artworks.
First Friday at Greenhill – Live Music with Triangle Improvisation: Friday, November 7, 2014 | 6 – 9 PM
Join us for First Friday in The Gallery from 6-9 pm to check out Greenhill’s current exhibition, Following Threads: Fiber Art and Drawing, and live music by Triangle Improvisation Collective, from 6:30-7:30 pm. First Friday at Greenhill is free and open to the public. Cash Bar. Donations appreciated.
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