in the Upfront Gallery...

Empty & Full
Encaustic Paintings by Celia Gray (Asheville, NC)
Nov 11 – Dec 30

These landscape inspired, abstract, encaustic paintings investigate a balance between repair and decay, lightness and weight, and private and public. These ideas are realized in the physical process of the wax material and investigated conceptually as they relate to time, memory, and routine.

These paintings grow from process. The method of the wax medium is one that invites scraping, scaring, melting, and rebuilding, used interchangeably and indefinitely. Without a preconceived vision of a final result, this back and forth method between wrecking and repair, or disorder and control, alternately conceals and reveals layers of drawing and mark-making in the wax material. While allowing space for intuitive progression, I draw upon a vocabulary developed from my drawings. These preliminary drawings are guided by my observations of landscape; domestic, urban, and rural, and the subtle movements within them. The finished work offers a slow, concentrated moment of observation and connection to a slight shift or rhythm.

Celia Gray is a teacher and studio artist living in Asheville. Celia was a Core student fellow at the Penland School of Crafts and received a BA in painting and drawing from University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2008.  She was a recent resident at the Vermont Studio Center. Regionally, her work can be seen at the Blue Spiral 1, Penland Gallery, and Rebus Works.

OPEN STUDIOS

BCAC studios will be open with recent work on display and for sale, including "509" a limited edition book of photographs by Pamela Pecchio that Horse & Buggy Press just finished working on. The hand-bound, hardcover book is cloth-bound with a silver foil stamp and printed in full colour.

Also on display will be hand-printed DVD packages for "Blackbirds, Bottle Caps, and Broken Records" a film by Margaret Morales about enviornmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck. This is being produced by The Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South.