Group Show In The Gallery

Now through June 15, a group show featuring work by:

Richard Jolley • Andrew Saftel • Maggie Taylor • Margaret Scanlan • Denise Stewart Sanabria • Michael Poness • Eric Pardue • Jenifer Theom • Denise Riddle • Sally Brogden

Richard Jolley

Born in 1952 in Wichita, Kansas, Jolley moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in his youth. In 1970, he began learning under glass artist Michael Taylor at Tusculum College in Greenville. He followed Taylor to George Peabody College—now part of Vanderbilt University– in Nashville, Tennessee and completed his BFA there. Later, he learned more about glasswork under Richard Ritter at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Jolley has now lived in Knoxville, Tennessee since 1975.

Jolley’s works often focus on natural subjects like birds, dogs, plants, and the human form. Even though he is a skilled master at various techniques for creating glass sculptures, Jolley says he hopes to disguise the techniques used in the finished works. “I want the work to feel free, not labored over. I want it to not reflect the tedium of life.”

Andrew Saftel

Andrew Saftel, born in New Bedford, MA in 1959, earned his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1981. From there, he continued to hone his skills by displaying his abstract colorful pieces in galleries across the country, largely in the Southeast.

The layering of Saftel’s paintings is geological, a build-up of thoughts, emotions and physical interactions buried in layers of paint. Only the surface is visible, but everything underneath influences what the surface eventually becomes. Saftel uses color to represent time, the spectrum representing it’s change as the day moves on; this cyclic nature creates an atmosphere of hope and reassurance.

Maggie Taylor

Maggie Taylor, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1961, is an artist who lives at the edge of a small swamp on the outskirts of Gainesville, Florida. She moved to Florida at age 11, where she spent countless hours watching situation comedies and science fiction on television. Later in life, she received a philosophy degree from Yale University, followed by a master’s degree in photography from the University of Florida.

Taylor’s creations exemplify fantastical art, finding inspiration in 19th century photographs, taxidermy specimen, insects, vintage toys, sea shells, and organic artifacts from her own backyard. She enjoys creating “dreamlike worlds inhabited by everyday objects” using digital technologies such as Photoshop to create her visions. Her whimsical prints pull the viewer into the composition, generating an entirely new world before one’s eyes.

Margaret Scanlan

Margaret Scanlan has been doing Color Field painting for more than thirty-five years, often times depicting natural feats like poppy fields or quiet cows watching the viewer. She states how, “I return to them over and over, aiming for perfect balance and images in which you can become lost.”

Margaret Scanlan is a full-time studio painter from Knoxville, Tennessee. Scanlan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Webster University and a graduate degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Denise Stewart Sanabria

Denise Stewart-Sanabria was born in Massachusetts and received her BFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. She has lived in Knoxville, TN since 1986.

Sanabria paints both hyper-realist “portraits” of everything from produce to subversive jelly donuts. The anthropomorphic narratives often are reflections on human behavior. She is also known for her life size charcoal portrait drawings on plywood, which are cut out, mounted on wood bases, and staged in conceptual installations.

Michael Poness

Award winning architect, Michael Poness draws on many sources of inspiration in his pottery. Ranging from the obscure, like ancient war machines, to the familiar, like the paintings of Jasper Johns and Paul Klee, these sources look outside the discipline of pottery. Vessels typically begin as wheel thrown forms that are then altered to produce nontraditional pottery.  Mr. Poness works out of the Glen Echo Pottery, Glen Echo, Maryland.

Eric Pardue

Eric Pardue is an artist based in Milton, WV. After receiving a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Alfred University in Alfred, NY, Eric went on to serve a year’s residency at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine and a year’s apprenticeship with New York based ceramic artist, Jeff Shapiro. Returning to his home state, Mr. Pardue set up a studio where he has pursued various ideas in clay and currently works in low fire earthenware with applied imagery. These images, covering a broad range of topics, serve to tell stories that share interests both specific to the maker and, hopefully, that engage the viewer to develop their own narratives from the pieces.

Jenifer Theom

Jenifer is a multifaceted creator, encompassing roles as a maker, collector, and storyteller, specializing in pottery, sculpture, and assemblage. Her work delves into the intricate connections between individuals and their surroundings, a reflection of personal experiences, thoughts, and emotional responses to life’s circumstances. Texture captivates her, particularly the common urban and environmental textures often overlooked in daily routines – manhole covers, children’s shoe soles, car tire treads, tree bark, and industrial machinery grunge. These elements serve as the narrative palette, recounting the artist’s journey and aspirations, with a mission to inspire connection, evoke memories, and prompt contemplation in our fast-paced world.

Denise Riddle

Denise Riddle is a painter, clay sculptor and a designer. There is a spiritual element present in all that Denise creates. Her work is heavily influenced by nature and indigenous cultures. The highly textured and brilliantly colored work possesses whimsical and industrial components.

Sally Brogden

Sally Brogden received her M.F.A. in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics; she received an A.B. in art history and a B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Michigan. She has exhibited widely, including Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY; University of Michigan School of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; National Museum of Slovenia – Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI; Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT; The Nevica Project, thenevicaproject.com; Beijing International Art Expo, Beijing, China; Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM; Vertigo Gallery, Denver; Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR; South Bend Art Museum, South Bend, IN; Maryland Arts Council, Baltimore, MD; Phillips Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA; Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; Northern Clay Center, St. Paul, MN; and the Icheon World Ceramic Center, Kyonggii Province, Korea.