Press release from the North Carolina Arts Council:
The NC Artist Fellowship: Escapes and Revelations will be presented at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) from Thursday, Feb. 13 to Sunday, June 7 and features the work of five artists working and living in Western North Carolina.
The exhibition features the work of five Western North Carolina artists: photographer Susan Martin from Cullowhee, craft artists Seth Gould and Rachel Meginnes from Penland, choreographer Kate Ware and craft artist Eric Knoche, both from Buncombe County.
The exhibition features 60 works in a variety of media ranging from video to installation, ceramic, textiles, ironwork, painting, film and dance from the recipients of the North Carolina Arts Council’s 2018–2019 Artist Fellowship.
Susan Alta Martin is a photography from Cullowhee in Jackson County. She received her MFA in photography from San Francisco Art Institute in 2010, and she has a BA in anthropology from the University of Arizona, Tucson (1987). Her solo exhibitions include Open for Interpretation displayed at the Jackson County Arts Council Rotunda Gallery in Sylva, N.C. (2014), Cycles at the The Skinny Gallery in Sylva, N.C. (2012), Pieces: Recent Work by Susan Alta Martin at the Durham Arts Guild and Golden Belt (2011) and Comfort and Consumption at the Still Lights Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute (2008.)
Seth Gould, Penland, finished his BFA in metalsmithing and jewelry from Maine College of Art, Portland in 2009. His works were recently featured in the Japanese Traditional Art Metal Exhibition, Tokyo Japan in 2018. His works have provided significant acclaim and a reputable status for him in the art world and can be seen in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, the National Ornamental Metal Museum, and the Arkansas Art Center.
Rachel Meginnes, Penland, is an artist and educator. She received her BA in Art at Earlham College in 1999, and her MFA in Fibers at the University of Washington, Seattle in 2005. In between, she spent two years studying traditional Japanese textile processes in Morioka, Japan. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Thailand and Hong Kong and can be found in the collections of the United States Art in Embassies Program in Amman, Jordan and various locations in N.C. and beyond. As an educator she has taught workshops at craft schools and colleges across the U.S. and Canada. She also developed an arts educational partnership between Earlham College and Penland School of Craft to promote craft education within the context of academic art.
Kate Weare is an award-winning choreographer raised by a painter and printmaker in Oakland, California, now living in Buncombe County. She draws on visual art, poetry, contemporary music, psychology, and nature in creating her dances. She founded Kate Weare Company in New York City in 2005 as a vehicle for her own choreographic research, while creating commissions around the world, most recently The José Limon Company, Scottish Dance Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, and Union Tanguera in France. Weare is currently one of the artistic directors for ODC.
After Eric Knoche touched clay for the first time, he could not imagine doing anything else with his life. He subsequently worked for two years with ceramist Jeff Shapiro, and for six months with Isezaki Jun, Living National Treasure in Bizen, Japan. In 2011, he discovered the Argentine tango and now splits his passions between clay work and dancing and lives in Buncombe County.
Other artists featured in the exhibition include visual artists Endia Beal, Joelle Dietrick and Owen Mundy, Andrew Etheridge, Sabine Gruffat, Susan Alta Martin, Mario Marzán, Renzo Ortega, Mariam Stephan, Barbara Campbell Thomas, and Montana Torrey, and Christina Weisner; film/video artists Kelly Creedon, Rodrigo Dorfman, and André Silva; and choreographers Anna Barker and Duane Cyrus.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. Several of the artists featured in the exhibition will be on hand to discuss their work. The exhibition will be displayed in the Main and Potter Galleries at SECCA.
SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive in Winston-Salem and is free and open to the public Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
How does Kate Weare’s company, based in New York, qualify for a NC Arts Council Grant?