SPRING Exhibitions - Dates: April 11 - June 8
Opening Reception - Thursday, April 11, 5:30 PM - 7 PM |
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HOMEGROWN Featuring artists who are all raised and educated in Gainesville. They are from every decade. From the twenties through the eighties!
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PORTRAIT WORKS BY ABNER COPE
Abner Cope’s professional academic experiences include 30 years of teaching drawing, and painting in the Art Department of Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. And within that span of time, he also taught drawing and painting in the art departments of; Clarke State Community College, in Springfield, Ohio, and Sinclair Community College, and the University of Dayton, both in Dayton, Ohio. Abner Cope has taught numerous portrait painting classes at the Riverbend Art Center, and the Dayton Art Institute, in Dayton, Ohio. He has also taught several portrait painting classes at the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, in Watkinsville, Georgia. Abner has taught several portrait painting workshops at various venues in Ohio, and Georgia. Throughout his career, Abner Cope has received numerous awards for his drawings, and paintings of the figure, at various venues, including: the Museum of Science and Industry, in Chicago, Illinois; the African American Visual Artist Guild, in Dayton, Ohio; the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors, in Dayton, Ohio, the Greater Toledo Arts Commissions, in Toledo, Ohio, Clarke State Community College, in Springfield, Ohio, the Actor’s Theatre Guild, in Louisville, Kentucky, the Portrait Society of Atlanta, in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, in Watkinsville, Georgia. Abner’s portrait work can be found in many public, and private collections. |
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WORDS AND STORIES Featuring works by Joel Barr
Born in Miami and raised in Orlando, Florida, Joel Barr graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a B.A. degree in English and Economics and earned his masters degree in City Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He left an early career in city planning to run his family’s business, Barr Display, in Orlando, and during those years began writing full time. His novel, Chapters and Verse, was published along with his poetry and non-fiction essays. Joel began painting in his early forties, drawn by his experience of the intense blues of the skies and water and fiery sunsets in his native Florida. Initially, he enrolled in workshops at the Maitland Art Center near Orlando, and he has continued to study, being largely self-taught. Joel works exclusively in oils, which lend vibrant, natural expression to his work. His bold, contemporary canvases invite the viewer to join him in exploring a world of the imagination and the human spirit, one that is at times surreal, and frequently symbolic. As Joel says: "If I were to ask anything of the viewer, it would be that they bring their own thoughts, questions, investigations, and heart to bear on what they see in my work." Joel’s work is represented in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Canada, England, and Mexico, as well as galleries in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Grace, a writer, and paints full time as part of a consortium of artists at Above Ground Studios in nearby Chamblee. |
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REFLECTION --> EXPRESSION Featuring artwork by Jo Mitchell. A native New Yorker, Jo Mitchell has also lived in Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia and Massachusetts. Jo has resided in Rabun County, GA since 1989. With an art major, she graduated Queens College, CUNY, and attended graduate school at Hunter College, NYC. She was awarded a graduate scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum School of Art.
While growing up, Jo frequently visited her (late) uncle Sacha Moldovan at his upstate NY artist’s compound. Moldovan was a noted Russian postimpressionist who affected her greatly with his talent, total commitment and fearless explorations. After Moldovan’s passing, a retrospective of his work was held at the Allan Rich Gallery in Manhattan. A biography and collection of his work was published by Museum International Books (New York, Paris). Jo’s expressionist paintings have been/are exhibited at the Bascom (center for visual arts) in Highlands, N.C., the Spring Festival of Arts at the First United Methodist Church in Cumming, GA; the Calderon Art Gallery in Sky Valley, GA, Dream Givers Gallery, Toccoa, GA; The Blue Eyed Buffalo, Clayton, GA; Art at the Inn (Old Clayton Inn); Art at City Hall, Clayton; Arts and Heritage Center, Helen, GA; Burton Gallery, Rabun County, GA; Tsartistry Gallery in Franklin, NC., the Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA and Center for Life Enrichment in Highlands. Jo has participated in numerous public art events. She has been accepted into national juried exhibits and won a first place in oil/acrylic division. She is corresponding secretary (Board of Directors) with the North Georgia Arts Guild; member of the Quinlan Visual Arts Center, and the Currahee Artists Guild. She authored monthly-featured artist articles for the Georgia Mountain Laurel Magazine for four years, as well as selected features. She was the featured artist in the March 2013 issue of the Georgia Mountain Laurel Magazine and cover artist for July 2013. Jo is also a former private investigator, investigative journalist, crime reporter, columnist and news editor. Her writing has appeared in nationally circulated publications, on educational television--and has earned commendation from the United Nations Press. She was a corresponding reporter for several newspapers, a staff writer with The Sun Chronicle in southeast Massachusetts, and was later appointed to the District Attorney’s Office as a victim/witness advocate. Jo is the author of two novels, A Dark Shade of Justice, and Dark Winds/Yellow Birds. Both are available in hard and soft cover, and e-books via Internet booksellers. |
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