LENOIR, NC (September 28, 2016)…The Caldwell Arts Council, located on 601 College Avenue, SW, Lenoir will open the art exhibit “2 SQUARED” on Friday, October 7, 2016 with an opening reception from 5-7pm hosted by Foothills Performing Arts and live music by pianist Richard Pinson. The exhibition will continue through Saturday, November 19, 2016 and will feature artwork by Jon Sours (Asheville, NC), Mercedes Jelinek (Penland, NC), Tamie Beldue (Black Mountain, NC) and Rob Amberg (Marshall, NC).
About the artists:
JON SOURS spent his formative years in New York and Nebraska, where he received his BFA in 2006 at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He has worked as a landscaper, film projectionist and obituary clerk, but currently works as an art handler and gallery curator in Asheville, North Carolina. He considers painting his main preoccupantion. Jon’s work has been exhibited across the country, and extensively in North Carolina. He was awarded an Artist Residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in 2013.
Jon says, “I paint figures but try to avoid literal depictions of people. A common theme in my work is the act of judgment or appraisal. Reference materials such as photographs, film stills or magazine clippings serve as a jumping off point. The details inherent in these materials are essential to making a convincing picture, but tend to be distorted or made inaccurate in my depiction.” www.jonsours.com.
MERCEDES JELINEK is a photographer who is currently a Resident Artist at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina. She received a BFA in photography from the State University of New York at Purchase and an MFA from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally including exhibits at the Ogden Museum, Gaston County Museum, Soho Photo Gallery and numerous private collections. She was also recently shown in the the 30-Under-30 exhibit at the Vermont Center of Photography, the “This is a Photograph” exhibit at the Penland Gallery, and was chosen as an artist for the NEXT Gala at the Asheville Art Museum.
Mercedes’ Neighborhood Photo Booth Project “began with a goal: to try and make a new home more inviting by meeting and photographing all those that live in my neighborhood. I have continued this project for the past four years in three separate locations: Baton Rouge, LA; Brooklyn, NY; and now to my new home as a Resident Artist at Penland School of Crafts. My tools of choice consist of multiple film-based cameras, a homemade photo booth backdrop, and a sign that reads, “Photographs for Neighborhood Photo Project,” announcing the project to everyone who passes by. In return for helping me build a sense of community, I give a silver gelatin filmstrip print to every one of my neighbors in person or by mail. I see this as a chance to break away from today’s digital media, and a way to give a tangible gift that can be passed down for generations. This project will always remain free to all the people who sit for me. Print sales go towards funding film, photo chemicals, and postage for the project.” (www.mercedesjelinek.com)
Born in upstate New York, TAMIE BELDUE (Black Mountain, NC) is a contemporary American artist focused in mixed media drawings. Beldue received a BFA at the Columbus College of Art & Design and earned her MFA at the University of Cincinnati. Beldue has exhibited extensively in the US in group and solo exhibitions, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art Realism Biennial, Southern Ohio Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, the Arnot Art Museum’s Re-Presenting Representation and the Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Arnot Museum of Art, The DeYoung Museum, Howard & Judy Tullman Collection, James T. Dyke Collection of Contemporary Drawings and the Sandy & Diane Besser Collection. Currently she is represented by Blue Spiral Galleries in Asheville, NC and is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
Through drawing, compiled layers of diligent perception are rendered to depict an image of a complex individual. The model’s independent thoughts and feelings are expressed through their body language in either fleeting or gradual changes. Perhaps a transitory interruption in the rise and fall of breath, or the disappearance of a bone that was once pressing against the skin – these subtle nonverbal clues, instabilities, and movements are recorded over time with the intention to build an illusionary space of breathable air in which an inhale could be palpable. The artist, as well, also approaches each juncture with fluctuating perceptions demonstrating that reality is fundamentally immeasurable; therefore, the accumulation of marks presented extends the work beyond traditional portraiture discussing contemporary social contexts through distinct bodies of work. (www.tamiebeldue.com)
ROB AMBERG was born in Washington, DC, in 1947. Educated in Catholic schools, he graduated from the University of Dayton in 1969. He moved to Madison County, North Carolina, in 1973 and began what has become his lifetime project – writing and photographing about the evolving culture and environment of his adopted county. His first book, Sodom Laurel Album, was published in 2002 by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and the University of North Carolina Press. It won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association. His second book from Madison County, The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress in Appalachia, was published in 2009 by the Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Georgia Press. To complete the trilogy, a third book, tentatively titled Little Worlds, is in progress.
Throughout his career Amberg has been on staff or done assignment work for non-profit organizations and philanthropic foundations. His work has largely focused on rural communities, family farms, and the environment. His work is regularly published in books, magazines, and journals and is exhibited internationally. He is the recipient of awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Humanities Council, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Center for Documentary Studies, and others. Amberg’s photographs are in numerous permanent collections and his archive will be housed in the Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Room at Duke University. In 2004, he had the honor of presenting Sodom Laurel Album at the Library of Congress. Amberg lives on a small farm in Madison County, North Carolina. (www.robamberg.com)
About the Caldwell Arts Council:
The Caldwell Arts Council mission is to establish and maintain an awareness and appreciation of cultural arts in Caldwell County, to encourage participation in art events, and to offer various educational opportunities and administrative services in support of artists, arts agencies, and audiences. Located at 601 College Ave SW in Lenoir, operating hours are Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 10am-2pm.