In a new exhibit at The Gallery at Flat Rock, three artists examine the patterns, forms and calligraphic tracings found in nature. Building a bridge between art and the biological sciences, ceramic artist Alice Ballard’s three-dimensional forms derive inspiration from the energy and spirit of living things; delicate paper works by Christina Laurel draw on the inherent beauty of fragments as clues to the whole; and the unwavering attention of Rosamond Wolff Purcell’s camera extracts the abstract from natural objects, yielding photographs that are as strangely beautiful as they are engaging. “Temporal Witness: Tracing Nature’s Path” opens Thursday, April 13, with a public reception from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm; and continues through May 14, 2017.
“Harmony with an edge” is how Alice Ballard describes both the appearance and the message behind her work. By closely observing the natural world, she taps into the energy of its varied forms and their metamorphosis from season to season. She states, “I am endlessly drawn to that universal world in which differing life forms share similar qualities.”
Having earned her MFA in painting from the University of Michigan, she turned to clay as her primary medium after taking ceramic workshops at Penland School of Crafts. A resident of Greenville, South Carolina, since 1996, Ms. Ballard taught ceramics at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities for 10 years and currently teaches art at Christ Church Episcopal Middle School. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright Grant to study in India, was one of eight ceramic artists invited to the prestigious International Ceramic Colony in Resen, Macedonia, and received two South Carolina Arts Commission Individual Fellowship awards. She has participated in numerous solo and group shows and has work in the collections of the Renwick Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., Arrowmont School, the Mint Museum of Art and the Greenville County Museum of Art.
Christina Laurel’s layered paper works are informed by Japanese aesthetics, often utilizing the kimono, the fan, the gingko leaf and – in this exhibit – the immediately recognizable butterfly wing as both motif and metaphor. “That which remains” is the subject of her collage series “Remnants” in which, she states, “fragments elicit memory and emotion. The mere remnant of a wing evokes the beauty of the living butterfly.”
A resident of Liberty, South Carolina, Ms. Laurel graduated with a degree in studio art from the College at Brockport, State University of New York, having originally studied fashion design, and remains fascinated with texture and layered surfaces. She has received several grants and awards and has been artist-in-residence at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts in Georgia, and the Paducah Arts Alliance in Kentucky. Her work can be found in private and public collections throughout the country.
Exploring the boundary between art and science, the mysteries of decomposition and metamorphosis, and the universal human need to collect and classify, Boston-based photographer Rosamond Wolff Purcell’s images are often unsettling, always strangely beautiful, and have earned her international acclaim. Books of her work include Egg & Nest; Illuminations: A Bestiary; Swift as a Shadow; and Owls Head: On the Nature of Lost Things, an account of her 20-year photographic “excavation” of a Maine junk yard – a project that is also featured in the documentary film of her work, “An Art That Nature Makes.”
Ms. Purcell’s work has been exhibited at museums throughout the United States and Europe, and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Academy of Science, and the Victoria and Albert in London.
On Saturday, May 6, at 1:00 pm, Alice Ballard and Christina Laurel will be in the gallery to lead a walking tour to talk about the inspiration and processes behind their work. A question and answer period will follow. This event is free and open to the public.
The Gallery at Flat Rock represents finely curated art and craft, and is located in Flat Rock Square at 2702-A Greenville Highway in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm; Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 pm; or by appointment. For more information on the gallery please visit the website at www.galleryflatrock.com or call 828.698.7000.
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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.