Category: events

I hope that most of you reading this are from the Triangle and will be able to come out and see my “next” foray into curating, an exhibit I’ve titled Open Source**. I write “next” because technically I developed and began shopping around the proposal for this exhibit (checks email archives…) in early 2022, before I even thought up or proposed ExtraSpectral, which ended up being my initial foray, at least on the execution side. The show is currently programmed for two venues in 2023 and another in 2024; the group will use the latter show to further develop ideas around our relationship to each other, abstraction as a modality and the idea of “source” (being shown at a post-secondary institution will also hopefully give us a chance to interact with art students).

Show Statement

In the world of software code (the hidden structure of much of the world as we view it) Open Source is source material that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Open source is a decentralized software development model that encourages users to take a set of tools and custom-fit them for a new purpose. At our current point in the history of making Art, there is also a decentralized framework within which abstract artwork can be and is made. No single artist or group owns the source of meaning for this modality, and a wide range of collaborations with and utilizations of the elements developed out of the historical canon is possible, as well as incorporation of content and materials from outside that world. In the space needed for and occupied by abstraction, an openness is required, for creator and audience. The artist must be open to the ways in which the source materials of the work, including subjective content, inform decisions about everything from composition to titles. And the audience must be open as well since abstraction’s signifiers (color, shape, surface) are non-literal. Perhaps most importantly though, the title of this show brings our awareness and acknowledgement to- celebrates- the variety of source material possible in our time of art making. Artists (in alphabetical order and repeated below) Freddie Bell, Sterling Bowen, Natalia Torres del Valle, Jason Lord, Peter Marin, Jean Gray Mohs, Cindy Morefield and Carson Whitmore all approach non-figurative artwork from different vantages, personal and conceptual.

• Lump Project Space (Raleigh)- July 2023
• Sertoma Art Center– Jul/Aug 2023
• Wilma W Daniels Gallery, Cape Fear Community College- Fall 2024

I owe special thanks to so many people- especially the artists in both shows!- who have taken this ride with me and provided support. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, the arts community in the Triangle is really special. I love you guys!

**BTW, did you know the phrase Open Source was coined by Christine Peterson?

So I will be the first to grant that in this day and age creatives sometimes refer to curating in the context of their Instagram feed. I don’t know if my feed comes off as “curated” and I am very intentional about it. I post every 4 days (3 posts) with every third one featuring other creatives.

Curating also obviously refers to organizing an exhibition. When I first began studying art in an academic setting, this activity was reserved for art historians and professionals involved in the critical discourse. I feel like that has shifted over the last decade, possibly sooner (which I wouldn’t know because of the long break I took in practicing) towards artists themselves organizing and curating exhibits.

I got back into this game to create culture- to not only make but teach about, talk about and write about creative activity that makes this life more. No there’s not a word missing in that sentence. This reason and the general context I outlined above is why I made a commitment to trying my hand at curating in 2023, and I was fortunate to have a proposal accepted by the Durham Art Guild for a show this spring, which is titled Extra Spectral.

Extra-spectral colors cannot be evoked with a single wavelength of light, rather, they can only be seen and created by a combination of them, so you won’t see them in the fantastical prismic illusion we call a rainbow. The exhibit highlights artists Jane Cheek, Jerstin Crosby, Zach Storm, Tonya Solley Thornton and Leif Zikade. All five ask color to play a primary role in drawing audiences into their work, colors in most cases that are “extra” in the recent, common parlance. This is where their commonality ends.

There is a pre-opening and artist talk on 4/6 that you can register to attend and otherwise I hope to see many of you on Third Friday in Durham (gallery will keep normal hours including recognizing Monday the high holy day of museums by being closed).

BTW, I was also successful as part of this goal in getting another show programmed at several venues, this one including my work. Open Source will open this summer at LUMP project space and Sertoma Art Center.