MetroPulse Stories: Art

Class Act: UT’s Honors Exhibition Delivers Once Again

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:54:00 -0000

For more than a decade, I’ve been reviewing the art, architecture, and design efforts of graduating University of Tennessee seniors selected for the Ewing Gallery’s annual Honors Exhibition, and not one show has been disappointing. Many pieces and projects this time around—the 22nd year of the exhibition series—are not only exceptionally good, they also seem to indicate a new direction for the annual show.

'Streetwise Knoxville' Explores Our Not-Always-So-Fair City

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:52:00 -0000

Streetwise Knoxville, at 2 Many Pixels Gallery on Jackson Avenue through June, is a striking collection of images being presented in conjunction with those at KMA's Streetwise. Taken between the mid-’60s and now, the works on display are by four photographers who have clearly been influenced by work now featured at the museum.

KMA’s 'Several Silences' Seeks Clarity and Relief From Our Culture of Distraction

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:44:00 -0000

John Cage’s “4’33””—the non-performance in which a pianist sits idle before an audience for four minutes and 33 seconds—is directly connected to works by two of the 11 international exhibition participants. Yet the spirit of the now-iconic so-called silent piece introduced by the avant-garde composer in 1952 permeates almost everything in Several Silences.

'Nexus 2012' Challenges Notions About Dogwood Arts Festival Art

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:12:00 -0000

Although sophisticated crafts have long been part of our city’s springtime festivities, unless I’ve overlooked ceramic wind chimes resembling Alexander Calder mobiles on Market Square, I don’t recall fine art from past festivals being particularly modern, let alone cutting edge, so Nexus represents movement in a stimulating new direction.

The Knoxville Museum of Art Presents a Luminous Selection of Watercolors From Its Vaults

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:12:00 -0000

Viewers who have considered watercolor somewhat less substantial than other mediums should be markedly surprised by what this exhibition has to offer.

2 Many Pixels’ 2011 Retrospective Highlights a Diverse Class of Photographers

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:38:00 -0000

Besides exhibiting diverse subject matter in color as well as black and white, Best Photographers of 2011 reflects a range of both artistic development and technical skill.

UT’s Ewing and Downtown Galleries Present Innovative Japanese Artists

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:10:00 -0000

Mention Japanese printmaking and Hiroshige’s iconic depiction of a wave comes to mind, if not scenes of Mount Fuji and pagodas in the rain. However, to consider Hiroshige’s almost-200-year-old image the epitome of all Japanese art would be akin to thinking that painting in France peaked with Claude Monet. Redefining the Multiple: 13 Japanese Printmakers, an exhibition appearing simultaneously at two University of Tennessee-affiliated galleries, turns that dated notion on its head.

Animal-Themed Art From UT Enlivens Downtown

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:51:00 -0000

It’s not every day that a person can stroll down Gay Street with nothing but plate glass between herself and art by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. Works in the University of Tennessee’s Downtown Gallery’s show Genus species: Ewing, on display through Jan. 14, are, for the time being, right there at street level, a part of Knoxville’s tattered urban fabric.

McClung's Russian Icons Resonate in the Holiday Season

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:50:00 -0000

The stunningly colorful two-dimensional pieces exhibited—primarily produced by Russian monks and dating as far back as 1590—really do suggest somewhat altered states.

Central and Eastern European Artists Emerge in KMA's 'After the Fall'

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:05:00 -0000

All the artists in After the Fall are men, and almost all are in their 30s, born during Soviet domination.

Wurmfeld's 'Immersed in Color' Brings UT’s Ewing Gallery to a New Level

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:05:00 -0000

Whether induced by peyote or Bernini, altered states have apparently been sought by humans beings since their beginnings, and Sanford Wurmfeld’s remarkable exhibition Immersed in Color: E-Cyclorama offers yet another way to transcend everyday reality.

Heather McClintock's Photos Bear Witness to Uganda's Long Civil War

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:18:00 -0000

An exhibition of McClintock’s photography opening tomorrow includes subject matter viewers might find hard to understand or accept.

Diverse Show of Latino Art at Emporium Center Might Be Too Diverse

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:56:00 -0000

For the most part, I view labeling tremendously diverse groups of people as ignorant, if not offensive; when it comes to art, it’s often simply irrelevant.

Fall A&E Preview: Art

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:00:00 -0000

While the fall’s colors riot outside, Knoxville’s intrepid gallery and museum curators are planning feasts for the eyes indoors.

Telecommunications Art Comes to KMA in New 'FAX' Exhibit

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:14:00 -0000

Originating at the Drawing Center in New Rork in 2009, FAX is a cumulative exhibition meant to evolve and expand into many venues at once; in Canada, England, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

Artist Joe Letitia Employs an Icon Both Spiritual and Secular

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:00:00 -0000

In Didymus—a word from both Aramaic and Greek meaning “the twin”—Letitia presents us with many versions of the hand of Christ’s apostle Thomas as it pokes at the savior’s lance wound to determine that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.

19th-Century East Tennessee Pottery Delivers a Message From the Past

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:38:00 -0000

I was struck by a curious and sometimes nerve-wracking contradiction: Among the show’s many pieces is a tremendous vessel that must have required considerable time and assistance to create, yet the letters individually stamped into its surface to spell out its provenance are crookedly placed. Likewise, hefty “harvest jugs” on display are well crafted, but their blue glaze markings look hastily applied. However, this combination of reliable functionality and countrified quirkiness might be what most distinguishes our region’s 19th-century pottery.

UT's Downtown Gallery Shows Richard LeFevre's Civil War Collages

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:34:00 -0000

Illustrating specific battles as near to one another as Franklin and Chattanooga and as far apart as Gettysburg and Vicksburg, pieces on view (drawn from a total of 91 created over a four-year period) consist mostly of watercolor, pencil, and copies of woodcuts, and they reveal the history-obsessed devotion of former University of Tennessee art professor and past Knoxville Civil War Roundtable President Richard LeFevre.

The Arts & Culture Alliance Presents a New and Diverse Group Show

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:19:00 -0000

Prior to the Arts & Culture Alliance, now in its 10th year, Knoxville had the Arts Council, established in 1974. If people involved with that original organization could have seen 37 years into the future and observed one of our city’s crowded and hip First Friday events, I think they would have been astonished.

McClung Museum’s 'Sudan: The Land and the People' Presents a Lovely But Incomplete Picture

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:25:00 -0000

Heading into the gallery that features visiting exhibitions at the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum a few days ago, I glanced at the guest book and noticed a comment reading, “Great show for my boys, too!” Given the violence, poverty, drought, and famine that have ravaged Africa’s largest country for decades, I was a bit thrown by the remark.