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‘Point Time’ highlights Knoxville artists’ workBy Staff Report | Thursday, January 6, 2011 | Categories: Art, Johnson City“Point Time: A Geographic Confluence of Artists,” featuring works by Knoxville artists, will be on display at East Tennessee State University’s Slocumb Galleries and William King Museum in Abingdon through January.

Billed as “an innovative showcase of visual artists representing a specific micro-locus in East Tennessee,” the exhibit is co-presented by Slocumb and the William King Museum, with the sponsorship of the Carnegie Hotel. Knoxville arts writer and painter Jean Hess, whose own work and interests focus on geographic linkages and historical memory, is the invited curator.

Hess has taken the unusual curatorial track of seeking out 38 Knoxville-area artists operating at myriad levels of public awareness to create work ranging from experimental media to traditional crafts.

Rather than attempt to focus on work that proves a curatorial point, or that supports a personal agenda, Hess has chosen to make a painting that encapsulates in abstract form the geographic coordinates of specific places where the show's artists have lived before moving to Knoxville.

In her original proposal for the exhibition, Hess wrote, “How refreshing ... to be asked to showcase the visual artists of a particular locale, with no other agenda than to select a coherent showing of what is being created there. While an area-specific selection may seem spurious because it is limiting and random all at once, it also presents an opportunity to look at the geographic context in freeze-frame, as it were. That is, a show representing artistic output in a specific place can function as a sort of core sample that might reveal interesting, unexpected patterns after the fact of selecting the work. It can only add to the resonance of such a show when the mobility of present-day populations is taken into account.



“So many residents of any city come from elsewhere, bringing with them influences and ideas new to the area in which they find themselves. Therefore, any place at a specific point in time functions as a nexus of all of the influences brought from other places that are in play at that moment.”

The show’s title was chosen to express those ideas.

All of the “Point Time” artists are united by a bond of devotion to process and experimental development. The artists in the show have lived in a wide variety of places, yet they have converged in Knoxville and have actively contributed to the fabric of local and regional arts at many levels. While some teach art or work in the non-profit arts sector, and others support themselves by jobs unrelated to their artistic practice, many in the show are solely supported by their art.

Several have owned and operated galleries that showcase the work of other artists, several have curated shows of the work of area artists, while many are active in local and regional arts collectives. The artists range from self-taught to those holding graduate degrees. They have won awards in local, regional and national exhibitions, and hold other honors such as artists residencies, government grants and prestigious fellowships.

Participating artists are Chad Airhart, Emily Bivens, Sara Blair, Shirley Brown, Robmat Butler, Bill Capshaw, Nick de Ford, Don Dudenbostel, Alan Finch, Stacey Fletcher-Reynolds, Diane Fox, Thaddeus George, Marcia Goldenstein, Carl Gombert, Jorge Gomez del Campo, Joyce Gralak, Barron Hall, Amira Haqq, Briena Harmening, Brian Jobe, Lauren Karnitz, Cindy Latham, Beauvais Lyons, Deborah McClary, Fritz Massaquoi, Evan Meany, Jessica Meyer, Althea Murphy-Price, Alison Oakes, Denise Sanabria, Zachary Searcy, Jason Shoemaker, Jered Sprecher, Emily Taylor, Patricia Tinajero, Jessie Vanderlaan, Hawa Ware and David Wolff.

For more information about the artists and the exhibition, e-mail Hess at [email protected].

William King will hold an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 11, with the exhibit on display there from Jan. 11-31. The Slocumb Galleries’ Curator’s Lecture and Closing Reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m., Jan. 28. The exhibit will remain at Slocumb from Jan. 12 through Jan. 28.

For information about the William King Museum, call (276) 628-5005. For information about Slocumb, call (423) 483-3179.