Monday, August 23, 2010

September: Petillo, Gosnell, Chen and more...

September at the Fayetteville Underground:
First Thursday Opening reception Sept 2nd 5-8pm.

This September will be another exciting month for the Fayetteville Underground. The Hive gallery will host Nashville, Tennessee based photographer Thomas Petillo. In the Revolver gallery painter Lin Chen will present her exhibition of still life paintings. The Fayetteville Underground's own Jan Gosnell will present his most recent work in an exhibition in the Vault gallery, entitled
Past Forward. Join us First Thursday on September 2nd from 5-8pm for our opening reception and meet these talented artists.

Thomas Petillo

Hive Gallery
Thomas Petillo : North, West, East, South

Thomas Petillo is perhaps best known for his strikingly intimate portraits of great musicians (Robert Plant, Ben Folds, John Prine, Kid Rock and Porter Wagoner, to name only a few).Thomas has spent fifteen years honing the skills necessary to produce these beautiful images for record labels, magazines, and ad agencies. These portraits have come to define his style. But a very different Petillo has emerged in the last few years as the result of a series of commissions by Hammock, the ambient duo, who asked him to create images for their recordings. No matter his subject, Petillo's images are characterized by a delicate balance of stark realism and magical wonder, as if he stands with one foot in the spirit and the other in the flesh. This rare talent has given his work a singular imprint and has earned for him a distinguished place among contemporary photographers.


Jan Gosnell

Vault Gallery:
Jan Gosnell: Past Forward

Jan Gosnell will be exhibiting a selection of paintings he has completed during the past year. They are the results of the desire to explore subject matter chosen intuitively from a lifetime exposure to the written word, media imagery, and the works of other artists. This series of paintings represents a development along a natural path, primarily with regard to the resolution of opposites. This direction is reflected in an attempt to resolve the use of masculine subject matter exhibiting aggressive spatial confrontation with a more sensitive usage of line and a richness of color. While these paintings are apparently straight forward in their imagery, they are also an engaging invitation for personal interpretation.

Jan Gosnell received a B.F.A. from the University of Texas and an M.F. A. from the University of Arkansas. His professional personae includes that of college level art instructor, gallery owner, commercial art director, movie sketch artist, and editorial cartoonist. He presently lives in Fayetteville, teaches painting and drawing at NWACC, and is a resident member of the Fayetteville Underground.


Lin Chen

Revolver Gallery:
Lin Chen

Artist Statement:
"When I set up things to paint, I have a vague idea about how I want the picture plane divided depending on the shape and attitude of the figure, still life, etc. After spending a brief time looking at the setup, I establish a vision. All I do after that is geared toward realizing that vision.

Vision is bigger than sight, or, what meets the eye. It can also be fragile and elusive, and paradoxically, can only be made visible through sight. I try to hang on to that vision because it is what has stirred my imagination in the first place. In the meantime I remain open to necessity for revisions, even serendipitous happenings. Not infrequently I find myself, half-way through a composition, stopping to completely revise a setup or color scheme. When the established vision is too forced, or worse, false, I have no choice except to adjust or throw it away and start over upon the realization of it.

Painting from observation requires the process to be dynamic. Sight is physical, empirical to the extent applicable to the structure of the human eye. Vision wants purging, clarification, eventually, crystallization. The painter moves between the tension of the two forces, slowly peeling away and discarding the false and the incidental. An apple must look like an apple, also a globe, a circle, a crucial participant in the poetry of the picture’s totality.

As a painter I am not a rationalist. What’s being purged and discarded are confusion, false notions, melodrama, bravado, etc., not mystery.

I paint to understand who I am, how I relate to the external world, with which I am smitten. But more often than not I paint to overcome boredom, to combat ennui."

As always there are open studios to tour, work in progress to see, and artists to meet. There will be new work by the talented underground studio artists in the back Vault gallery and the fine crafts you have come to expect in the E Street Gallery.

Once again this is all a part of the cultural amenity that is the visual arts on the First Thursday of every month at the Fayetteville Underground on the Fayetteville Square from 5-8p.m. After the reception be sure to come back and visit the galleries during our regular business hours of W-F 12-7 and Sat 10-5.

Tell your friends and see you there!
The exhibitions will remain up through October 2nd

The Fayetteville Underground
Basement of One East Square Plaza
East side of the Historic Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gallery Hours W-F 12-7pm
Saturday 10-5pm
4 galleries: Open Studios
www.fayettevilleunderground.com
www.fayettevilleunderground.blogspot.com



August Art talks: Fayetteville Undergound


One of the Fayetteville Underground's goals is to present more regularly scheduled artist talks in the coming months. We really want to engage the community, allowing potential patrons to learn a bit more about the artists and the work that the Fayetteville Underground represents. Our first Thursday opening receptions each month are a fun and lively event, but sometimes due to the crowds and the reception atmosphere it is hard for those who are truly interested in learning more about the artists and their processes to connect.

Last month, we gave a talk about the photographs by the Institute du loop, the exhibition that was visiting from Taiwan. Visiting artist Matthew Lyman spoke about his paintings in the Revolver, and Gailen Hudson spoke about his pottery that was featured in the E Street.

For the month of August, Leilani Law will be speaking about the Shift Gallery Collective,visiting from Seattle, currently in the Revolver and Gregory Moore will be speaking about his paintings on metal in the Vault. Their talk will be Thursday night August 26th 6:30pm.

Megan Chapman will be speaking about the photographic works in the Hive Gallery by Christian Demare, a photographer from Paris, France and his exhibition,
Ghosts in the Landscape #2 on Saturday morning August 28th at 11am, on the final day of the exhibition.

In the future we plan to have dedicated days once or twice a month when we will have the artist's talks so that people can depend on them as easily as first Thursday. We are excited about offering these casual and more intimate gatherings for those in the community interested in learning more about our current exhibitions at the Fayetteville Underground.

Upcoming Talks:Hosted by the Fayetteville Underground
Thursday August 26, 6:30pm

Leilani Law
and Gregory Moore

Come to Fayetteville Underground for a Thursday night art talk with Fayetteville Underground artists Leilani Law and Gregory Moore. Leilani will discuss the current show entitled "Continental Shift" which features work from a Seattle art collective Shift in the Revolver Gallery at the Underground. Gregory will discuss his exhibitiong of paintings on found objects,"Reclaimed Surfaces" in the Vault Gallery.

Saturday August 28, 11:00a.m.

Megan Chapman


Pop in from the Farmer's Market and come to the Fayetteville Underground for an informal Saturday morning
art talk with Fayetteville Underground studio artist Megan Chapman. Megan will discuss the photographic works of French photographer Christian Demare in his exhibition Ghosts in the Landscape #2 currently on display in the Hive Gallery. Megan will talk about Mr. Demare's process as well as answer any questions viewers may about the artist's work during the final day of the exhibition.

Please join us Thursday August 26th at 6:30pm and Saturday August 28th at 11:00am to learn more about these wonderful exhibitions. Dig deeper at the Fayetteville Underground.

Once again this is all a part of the cultural amenity that is the visual arts presented by the Fayetteville Underground.

Tell your friends and see you there!
The exhibitions will remain up through August 28th.

The Fayetteville Underground
Basement of One East Square Plaza
East side of the Historic Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gallery Hours W-F 12-7pm
Saturday 10-5pm
4 galleries: Open Studios
www.fayettevilleunderground.com
www.fayettevilleunderground.blogspot.com