State of the arts

Josh Spiceland’s life is a blaze of art-making and public display.

The Asheville painter and muralist had a lengthy roster of exhibits in 2012, including shows at the One Stop Deli and Izzy’s Coffee Den, along with public murals and other gallery showings. He also pieced together a unique collection of architecturally-based en plein air paintings of Asheville that hung at Cafe 64 during its switch from Cafe Ello last fall.

He’s wasted no time starting off this year, with a new collection of works that utilizes gallery walls for more than hanging the work. “My Name Is A Verb,” a title that serves as a testament to his active painting style, opens this Friday at the ARTery.

The collection is largely figurative, with classically derived portraits and natural landscapes. Many, if not most, are intertwined with the mathematical, yet abstract designs that have become synonymous with Spiceland’s name. (Witness them in his work on the Lexington Avenue Gateway Mural, or the just up the street in front of Izzy’s.)

“The geometric patterning is pretty pervasive,” Spiceland says of his newest work.

He’s been incorporating such ornamentation into his work for years. Layers and multitudes of freehanded and loosely rendered lines, squares, triangles, diamonds and hexagons stretch across foregrounds and backgrounds, around figures or into their very structures. With this body of work he’s continuing to hone in and expand on this underlying spatial integration.

“The first highly disciplined geometric works were primarily composed of squares, and this is parallel to my quests to make art suggestive of musical rhythm,” he says. Spiceland refers to the repetitious shapes as visual records of both space and time. They draw from time signatures and key changes popularly used in western music. There is a slight disclaimer here.

“I don’t want anyone to think that I think of myself as some kind of visionary,” Spiceland says. “I try to stay away from the idea of ‘sacred’ geometry, as the word is over-used,” he says, adding that its use often has ties with an artist’s self-proclaimed clairvoyance. This is not a part of his work, nor his persona.

Many of his figures have passive, onlooking postures that bare resemblance to Ingres-like portraits. Their soft, almond-shaped eyes come across as entranced, putting the figures in a seemingly meditative state. Others take on robust, cubist aesthetics. Their faces are built upon foundations of repeated shapes. They dissolve facial features into planes. The basic, repeated shapes that form an angular portrait, as opposed to the smooth, curvilinear surfaces.

Spiceland is often drawing these portraits, opting to use archival ink over the brush to develop high, but softened cheek bones and the narrow gazes that appear in his work. It provides a stark contrast to the deep royal blues and dark umbers that surround the faces and their organically decorated busts before sinking into the backgrounds. They begin to take on spiritual overtones, and in a sense, mimic Madonna style religious paintings.

The works in My Name Is A Verb will be set against a not-so-ordinary backdrop in the ARTery’s Depot Street gallery. Spiceland got the go-ahead from Kitty Love, AAAC’s director, to install floor-to-ceiling murals similar in style and scope to his paintings. They’ll cover both of the gallery’s exhibition walls and the bathroom. “I want to make the borders of the canvas dissolve,” says Spiceland.

It’s not necessarily the first time that an artist has painted on the walls, but according to Love, not to this extent. “I think it is a fun surprise that breaks up the formality of the gallery setting,” Love told Xpress.

He’s utilizing the bathroom’s enclosed, cave-like atmosphere to paint icons and images from the likes of primitive, freehand motifs and, of course, ancient cave paintings. While he’s finished with the work in the bathroom, he didn’t start the main gallery’s walls until Tuesday. Though it seems like it’s more than enough time.

“I’ve got 3 days prior to the opening,” Spiceland says, “so I’m covering as much as I can.”

My Name is a Verb opens this Friday, February 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the ARTery on 346 Depot St. The show runs through Tuesday, March 5. For more information: ashevilleartscouncil.com

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Kyle Sherard
Book lover, arts reporter, passerby…..

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.