Weizenblatt Gallery Schedules Wide Variety of Art for 2019-20

August 5, 2019

Mars Hill University’s Weizenblatt Art Gallery will have a wide variety of exhibitions during the 2019-20 school year, showcasing to students, staff, and the local community some of the exceptional artists who are based in western North Carolina.

The season will start with Cleaster Cotton, an Asheville-based contemporary primitive multimedia artist, educator, and author. Cotton is a high-energy individual whose work explores her personal life as well as social issues. She has exhibited her work in commercial galleries, non-profit spaces, and other venues across the country. Cotton’s positive outlook and high energy are the perfect way to start the new school year. Her work will be in Weizenblatt Gallery from August 28 to September 19.

The second exhibition (September 25 to October 18) will be the Southern Murder Ballad paintings by British-born artist Julyan Davis. This series, which has been created and developed over many years, is based on old Southern and Appalachian songs of murder, loss, and heartache. The exhibit will include musical performances that tie in with the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival, which will take place during the exhibit timeframe.

The Potters of Madison County will showcase their work from October 30 to November 14. This group of nine professional craftspeople is making some beautiful functional and sculptural ceramics.

The last exhibit for the fall semester will be the photographs of Colby Caldwell. Caldwell graduated from the Corcoran School of Art, taught photography in colleges, and then relocated to Asheville. He co-founded the REVOLVE artspace in Asheville in 2014. His photographs will be in Weizenblatt Gallery from November 20 to December 20.

After the Christmas break, Weizenblatt Gallery will host the North Carolina Glass Center from January 15 to February 6. The Glass Center, founded in 2014, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to education, exploration, and collaboration in all forms of glass. It’s the artistic home of more than 30 professional glass artists and since its inception has delivered educational programming to more than 7,000 students and artists.

From glass to metal: the next exhibition will be by the Foxfire Metal Works. Foxfire is an art-focused foundry and metal fabrication shop in Spruce Pine. They cast iron, aluminum, and bronze, and create fabrications with steel, stainless steel, and other metals. Their exhibition, which runs from February 12 to March 6, will feature a variety of sculptural creations.

The next event will be the annual Student Art Exhibition. This will feature works by Mars Hill University students in all media: photography, drawing, painting, ceramics, graphic arts, sculpture, and more. The exhibition is open to all Mars Hill students. It will run from March 18 to April 9.

Our final event of the school year will be the annual Senior Exhibition, featuring work by MHU art department seniors. All aspects of this show are done by the seniors, including planning, publicity, preparation, hanging, and running the reception. It’s the culmination of their Mars Hill University art careers.

Paintings, photography, pottery, photography, glass, and metal: Weizenblatt Gallery will have quite a variety of works on view this school year. The gallery is open 10-5 Monday through Friday and admission is free. For more information, contact gallery director Skip Rohde at (828) 273-6476 or williamskip_rohde@mhu.edu.

Established in 1991 as a gift from the estate of Dr. Sprinza Weizenblatt, Asheville physician and philanthropist, the primary function of the Weizenblatt Gallery at Mars Hill University is to educate through art. Weizenblatt Gallery hosts exhibitions of work in a variety of styles and mediums by artists of local and national prominence.