Photographs, Floyd art on display for First Friday
By Susan Pugh on Jul. 30, 2008
From staff reports
The Academy of Fine Arts’ First Friday offerings feature the work of Floyd potters and woodworkers, as well as the pictures of a local man who photographed his way through China this past winter and spring.
The Academy will open both shows Friday.
The first, called “Sixteen Hands,” will be in the Academy Gallery, and will display the work of eight potters and woodworkers from the Blue Ridge Mountain community that has become a hub for the visual arts and music. The artists are Silvie Granatelli, Ellen Shankin, Stacy Snyder, Donna Polseno, Richard Hensley and Brad Warstler.
The Academy’s Up Front Gallery will show “re-Made in China,” the photographs of Steve Coates. The images catalog Coates’ 69 days traveling through one of the world’s oldest cultures during a period of monumental growth and change. The opening reception, from 5 to 8 p.m., will include music by The Robbie Wells Clan.
Other First Friday events:
— At the Academy’s satellite galleries, the oils and watercolors of Seymour Woodnick are hanging at UBS, while the mixed-media paintings of Phyllis Hollenbeck are on display at Magnolia Foods.
— The Lynchburg Art Club, 1011 Rivermont Ave., will welcome First Friday visitors to its annual summer Artist Showcase with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m.
The show, which has been up since opening in mid-July, features the work of the club’s members. The show’s organizers encouraged those who are showing to put up fresh work for First Friday, Mary Ann Battaglia, one of the show’s co-chairs, said earlier this month.
The works’ subject matter and media are diverse.
“I think there’s something for everyone,” she said.
Unlike most shows, the showcase is cash-and-carry. So instead of waiting until Aug. 17 when the show closes, the buyer can take his purchase home.
Visitors also may enter a drawing, to be held Aug. 10, to win a painting valued at up to $150 from the show.
— Although its current show opened last month, Riverviews Artspace will throw open its doors for this First Friday, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
In the Riverviews Main Gallery, “The Vanishing Landscape” displays the works of three artists, who use landscape painting to comment - to varying degrees - on the effects of environmental degradation and climate change.
The artists are Ed Epping, Shirley Nisbet and Ryan Russell. Nisbet, for instance, has work that features images of melting glaciers in Alaska. The show will be up until Aug. 24.
— Over at 921 Main Street Fine Art, an exhibit of paintings and constructions by Michael Mewborn will be hanging, with a reception set for 5 to 8 p.m.
“Mewborn’s current work is informed by the influences and experiences of his earlier work, as well as by the rich context of 21st-century science and technology,” according to a statement from the gallery. The artist often offers viewers a paradox of the mating of precise geometrics with random pattern selection.
The show will be up through Aug. 29.
— At the Maier Museum of Art, water games will be held on the lawn in conjunction with “Water Marks: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” from 5 to 8 p.m.
The Greater Lynchburg Transit Company’s free Art Trolley will follow a route with stops at galleries downtown and on Rivermont Avenue from 5 to 8 p.m. A new stop has been added at Amazement Square. The trolley also stops at participating restaurants.
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