New exhibitions in Knoxville

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present five new exhibitions at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from January 4-25. A reception will take place on Friday, January 4, from 5-9 p.m., as part of First Friday activities downtown to which the public is invited to meet the artists and view the artwork. Local musicians Kelle Jolly and The Will Boyd Project will perform at the opening. Most of the works are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission Gallery of Arts Tribute in the main gallery 

The MLK Gallery of Arts Tribute exhibition will kick-off the 2019 King Week Celebration (January 16-21). The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission is partnering with the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville to provide this fifth annual exhibition. The Galley of Arts Tribute is a juried exhibition developed to recognize local artists and, most importantly, honor the legacy of Dr. King. The exhibit will feature works by local artists reflecting the 2019 theme, The Courage to Lead with a Greater Determination. Works in the exhibitions may also be a reflection of the life and legacy of Dr. King and have pertinence to the themes of Unity, Community, Love, Reconciliation, Social Justice, and Civil Rights. For more information, please visit http://www.mlkknoxville.com/.

Chris Hornsby: Fracture-Recontextualized in the Balcony 

Fracture-Recontextualized is an experiment that joins Chris Hornsby's pre-existing paintings into larger, more complex compositions. Hornsby explains: "I was inspired by the kinetic technique of

Alexander Calder’s mobiles and how he overcame the static nature of art. The modular forms I’ve conceived within each of my paintings have the potential to continually vary and evolve through perpetual redesign and placement. They are not fixed entities, but objects of change. With every fluid unfolding, I believe they are the embodiment of performance and installation art. The modularity of my forms opens the door to the possibility of co-creative art, in which collectors/exhibitors/other artists and I collaborate to jointly determine the appearance of the work. This collective evolution, with each turn of recomposing and decomposing, offers an alternative perspective and interpretation. The original paintings can be re-contextualized by the rearranging of their parts, thereby providing unlimited possibilities not yet imagined.”

Chris Hornsby’s creative passion permeates his professional and personal life in a variety of expressions. Having studied graphic design at the University of Georgia in Athens, he has worked with a host of ad agencies and design studios across the Southeast, including those in Atlanta, Knoxville, and Mississippi. In 2003, he launched his own creative firm, Hornsby Brand Design, LLC. This American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame inductee answers each of his professional challenges with creative solutions that not only achieve results, but also break the ground of conventionalism. He’s garnered more than a 130 local and international design awards for his creative solutions, along with being published in several prestigious design annuals. Hornsby has cultivated his many years of design experience through producing superior creative work from corporate identity and websites to TV commercials. In addition, Hornsby, the fine artist, enjoys the freedom and renewed energy that comes from creating his own personal artistic expressions. His pieces range from installation art to paintings and sculptures. As a problem solver, he also enjoys the technical challenges that come with installation art as well. His work has appeared in museums, exhibitions, and has been displayed in numerous venues.

For more information, visit www.hornsby.gallery or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hornsby_gallery.

Bill Capshaw: The Journey in the display case

Bill Capshaw earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 1971 and a Master of Fine Arts in

Printing Processes in 1974 from East Tennessee State University. For more than 30 years he has served as pottery chair and instructor of the Oak Ridge Art Center. Capshaw has volunteered with the Tennessee Arts Commission to review grant applications for At-Risk Youth and other grant programs. He has conducted workshops at the Appalachian Center for Craft, Arrowmont School, Vanderbilt University, Virginia Intermont College, Oak Ridge Art Center, Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, and various area middle and high schools. Capshaw’s works have been included in the Governor’s Inaugural Ball, countless fundraisers, private collections, and permanent collections such as ETSU Slocum Gallery, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Huntsville Fine Arts Museum.

Karen Ann DuGuay: Following your inner voice in the Atrium

As a child, Karen Ann DuGuay’s mother shared with her a passion for drawing. She showed DuGuay how to understand composition, lighting and color balance by studying the Masters. She

also taught Karen by a technique referred to as “master copy drawing”. DuGuay’s natural curiosity and these early lessons honed her skills in “seeing” and expressing her artistic vision. Over the years, her artistic talent has been expressed in media such as drawing, painting and ceramics. She is always seeking new ways to express herself artistically.

After moving to Tennessee in 2014, DuGuay began hiking in nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On her hikes, she would hear an inner voice urging her to follow a sound, a ray of light or even the wind. The voice would say, “There’s something there, there’s something to this.” Sometimes it is a snail smaller than a pea making its way across a rock; at other times it is a 200-year old Beech tree highlighted by the early morning sun. They each have something to say, something to share. DuGuay’s photographs give them a stage, a venue, a spotlight to be seen and heard. In the fall of 2017, she traveled across the United States exploring landscapes, cityscapes and street photography. Wherever life takes her, she always listens to that inner voice… “there’s something there”.

In this exhibition, DuGuay will feature photographs of the things she has been drawn to on her travels. She hopes viewers will be moved to follow their inner voice, pause and take notice, and “see” more closely the world around us. For more information, visit https://www.pinterest.com/KarenADuGuay/karens-photographs/.

Regina Tullock: Life Around A Little Pond & Big Birds of the Lake on the North Wall

Gina Tullock has been exploring the ways life becomes art for the past 28 years, beginning with her work as a middle school educator. She has nurtured young people to give expression to their

creativity through art, drama, and photography. Her pioneering work with students, when computers were first developing into a viable artistic medium, paved her own way to her current mode of artistic expression. Through combining photography, graphic art, and a fine artist’s eye for texture, color, and composition, Tullock creates photographic prints that take on the look and character of oil paintings. Her work blends both a photographic realism with an artistic interpretation, creating a medium that uniquely engages on both levels, leaving the viewer to experience a deeper truth behind what meets the eye.

Tullock’s artwork includes images take around a little pond around her garden, bird life on Fort Loudon Lake, and along roads around the lake. For more information, visit http://www.ginasnook.com/.

The exhibitions are on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543, or visit the website.