William King Museum Center for Art and Cultural Heritage photos
Crutch table
Cabinetmaker Jake Cress creates furniture with a whimsical twist. “Mischief-Making,” an exhibit of his works, is on display through June 19 at the William King Museum Center for Art and Cultural Heritage in Abington, Va.
The William King Museum Center for Art and Cultural Heritage in Abington, Va., offers an interesting take on craft with two exhibits now on display.
In “Mischief-Making,” cabinetmaker Jake Cress’ whimsical works are carved out of a world in which chairs carve their own arms, clocks swat at mice with their pendulums, and tables have crutches for legs. The exhibit closes June 19.
In “Paper Forest,” Travis Graves and Jackson Martin of Johnson City, Tenn., create multi-media installations with materials ranging from dirt and plants to steel and video. These disparate materials together incite a dialogue regarding the human footprint and its affect on the environment. Their works cross many genres by fusing Modernist sculpture, Earthworks, video and behind-the-scenes performance in order to call attention to the impact our consumer culture has on the world we live in.
The William King Museum offers three galleries that each focus on a different aspect of its mission.
The first is the Legard and United Company Gallery, which focuses on rotating exhibitions of world art and, through July 10, hosts “Goya, Dali, and Warhol: Masterpieces of World Art” from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The United Company Regional Art Gallery offers the best new contemporary regional artwork and hosts the “Paper Forest” exhibit.
The final gallery is the Price-Strongwell Gallery, home to the “Mischief-Making” exhibit. This gallery centers on decorative and folk arts based on the findings of the Betsy K. White Cultural Heritage Project. The Cultural Heritage Project, begun in 1994, seeks to document the cultural and artistic legacy of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee from 1780 to 1940 and to foster a full and accurate appreciation of the region’s role in American decorative and folk arts. The museum’s permanent collection of regional decorative and folk arts is housed at the Fields-Penn 1860 House Museum, an historic house museum owned by the Town of Abingdon.
An average of nine exhibitions are mounted each year, showcasing art of the region and of the world. Programming includes artist talks, lectures, workshops, and other special events. Two additional, informal galleries include the Student Gallery, which displays works from area schools and colleges, and the Panoramic Gallery that features self-curated shows by local artists. These two galleries offer up to 24 additional exhibits a year.
For more information about the museum, visit williamkingmuseum.org or call 276.628.5005.