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Pullen Art Center's new August, September, October Exhibitions feature work from Cheryl Prisco, George McKim, Karmyn Sessoms, Krystal Boney, and Field Studies, a collaboration of Julia Einstein, Amy Axon, and Dawn Marie Rozzo as well as Art Center staff artists Tasha Aaron, Natasja Brezenski, Lynn Casper, Nick Collier, Jabari Harris, Cara Hoey, Hannah McCarthy, O.Rae, Lucy Osborn, and Jocelyn Steslicke.
Artwork will be on display from August 3 to October 26, 2024. A closing reception will be held at Pullen Arts Center on Saturday, October 26, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Exhibition Details
Join us at Pullen Arts Center on Thursday, September 12, 5:30-7:00 p.m. for an artist talk with Field Studies artists Julia Einstein, Amy Axon, and Dawn Marie Rozzo. Add event to your calendar.
Join us at Pullen Arts Center on Saturday, October 26, 2:30-4:30 p.m. for a closing reception. Add event to your calendar.
About the Artists
Krystal Boney is an interdisciplinary artist whose work challenges the notion of beauty. Her work has been exhibited at ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL; Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT; Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC; Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL; Fotonostrum, Barcelona, Spain; Harper College, Palatine, IL; SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC and Artspace, Raleigh, NC.
"Braids, beads, and barrettes are my beauty markers. But it didn't take long to see their limitations. My hair is a sculpture that was neither long nor had movement. I did not want to be stationary but have a commonality with the rest of the girls.
Both curly-headed and straight-haired-me can be beautiful -
I lived in your world as I couldn't have the space to explore mine -
Did I ever have one?
The curls erased - calm, relaxed, it burns. Straight, silky me competes for the attention of others. My shortcomings are no longer apparent. My confidence has skyrocketed, and the playing field skews more in my direction. A new obsession, addiction in another form. A new obligation has formed - I have changed but I exist."
@krystal.boney | www.krystalboney.com
Cheryl Prisco was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a large extended family. She received her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the University of Bridgeport, where she was fortunate to meet her life partner. Cheryl’s circuitous journey to becoming a professional artist has included an interesting array of jobs, including senior package designer for Bristol Myers Squibb, promotions and PR manager for an amusement park, and a teaching assistant at a Montessori school. She unabashedly acknowledges the admiration and influence of children in her artistic practice, “I marvel at the artwork of children. Their creations reflect a raw emotion, spontaneity, and narrative. I approach making in the same manner, open and connected to the elemental.” Cheryl needs nature and space. The mountains of North Carolina will forever be her home.
George McKim earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1977 and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from East Carolina University in 1985. He received a scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1986 and the Vermont Studio Center in 2016. His work has been featured in the Southern edition of New American Paintings and in group exhibitions at the Painting Center Gallery in New York, NY, North Carolina Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, Fla., Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia, Pa. and Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh, NC. George lived in Raleigh for 35 years but now lives and has a studio in his home in Wilmington, NC.
George McKim is exhibiting a group of recent tondo paintings that speak to the push and pull relationship between painting and sculpture. These sculptural paintings are inspired by Cubism and are both serious and playful.
@gmckim | www.georgemckim.com
Karmyn is a SE NC native and alumna of UNC-Chapel Hill (B.A. Global Studies) specializing in oil painting. Karmyn’s heritage and cultural studies background attract her to diversity and intersections within the African diaspora, particularly Afro-Indigenous Americans. Her artistic inspirations include Harmonia Rosales, Thomas Blackshear II, Ernie Barnes, Amy Sherald, and her late great-uncle, Eugene Grigsby, Jr. Major themes throughout her work include culture, heritage & roots, spirituality, nature, nostalgia, storytelling, family & honor, and belonging. Karmyn studies Architecture and Urban Design at UNC-Charlotte and practices in Charlotte, NC, through her business, Native Mystik Studios.
@nativemystik
Field Studies
The paintings, pottery, and floral designs of three artists represent a season of collaboration to create an exhibition where visitors are transported into a garden studio, a place where what’s growing informs, inspires, and sustains each artist’s practice. As in the world of science, artists use field studies to observe and interpret their subjects of study in their natural environment.
Amy Axon has been an environmental scientist and a potter for more than 40 years. While these two careers are very different, she has gained enormous joy, inspiration, and satisfaction from these careers. In recent years, the artist has started to use her hand-thrown pieces as blank canvases to paint and etch the flora and fauna she observes in her garden. Amy received a BA in Geology with a minor in Ceramics from Guilford College, Greensboro, NC. She lives in Raleigh, where she has a ceramics studio in her home. The artist sells her work at craft shows in the community, including Boylan Heights ArtWalk, Raleigh Fall Arts Fair, and the Quail Hollow Neighborhoods Artwalk.
@bowlaxon | @fieldstudiesart
Julia Einstein is a teaching artist at Pullen Arts Center, and Artist in Residence at Raleigh City Farm. She paints from farm to easel; the growing season inspires her flower portraits and the floral motifs in her textile designs. Recent exhibitions in Raleigh include BLOOM at The Pocket Gallery, plants and birds, and rocks (and things) at the Block Gallery, and the Teaching Artist Showcase at Artspace. Her work is currently on view in a solo exhibition, Motif: Museum as Studio, at the Stanley - Whitman House Museum in Farmington, CT.
@juliaeinstein | juliaeinstein.com
Dawn Marie Rozzo has long been interested in hidden, intertwined or obscured imagery. She has also been deeply immersed in the natural world, her garden, and the local landscape since her childhood.The artist has exhibited extensively in the Triangle and currently has work at The Pocket Gallery at City Market in downtown Raleigh and at Ursipany in North Raleigh.Dawn received her BFA from Empire State College, NY in Graphic Design and Painting. She has taught drawing and painting for many years and now happily works out of her studio set amongst her extensive gardens in Raleigh, NC.
This show features ten unique artists and a collection of artwork that exemplifies and celebrates the diverse artistic talents of those who work and have worked at Pullen Arts Center: Tasha Aaron, Lynn Casper, Lucy Osborn, Cara Hoey, Natasja Brezenski, Jocelyn Steslicke, Nick Collier, Olivia Valiante, Hannah Mccarthy, and Jabari Harris.
Their mediums include ceramics, glass, wood, fiber arts, painting, drawing, and printmaking.
The artists in this exhibit have played vital roles at Pullen: preparing class materials, loading kilns, teaching classes, hanging past gallery shows, and running and participating in our annual arts fair. They’re proud to participate in Raleigh Arts through their support and creations. The gallery is meant to show off the front desk staff as pillars in the Pullen community that has been fostered with so much love, as well as being an outlet to show that they aren't just faces behind a desk, but artists as well!