Point Of View, artist curate artists

The AAAC introduces Point of View a curatorial approach to exhibitions. In the Spring of 2013 Asheville Area Arts Council gallery exhibitions will be developed by collection of creative professionals representing various disciplines acting as curators. Their selections are based on artistic merit and pursuant to the AAAC’s intent to illuminate the breadth and depth of Asheville/Buncombe’s creative sector.

The Staff and Board of Directors of the Asheville Area Arts Council, as well as Point of View Curators, strive to show work which is well crafted, shows an unusual perspective, utilizes unique methods, is powerfully expressive, interesting, challenging, and engaging. We are inspired to show work regardless of its commercial value, though we hope that work in our gallery will attract patrons who are interested in something new and exploratory. We see our exhibition space as a showcase for the talent of our area of service, Buncombe County.

Point of View Curators

Peter Parpan

Peter’s art traverses mediums and genres creating imagery and forms that celebrate the basic elements of art and design. Peter first started taking art seriously around age 13. He was growing up in the suburbs of New York City in the early 90′s at a time when graffiti, hip hop and club culture were about to explode.Peter studied animation in Philadelphia and worked in New York City making digital illustration and animation for clients such as The Roots, Jib Jab and Mark Bode. Tired of sitting in front of a computer all the time, he sought an apprenticeship with renowned studio craft woodworker David N. Ebner. During four years working for Mr. Ebner Peter received the education of a lifetime.Peter moved to Asheville in 2006 in search of a place where he could live closer to nature and afford space to make art. Since moving to Asheville Peter has established himself as a visual artist and a commercial designer, fabricating signage and interiors for restaurants and businesses in Asheville and the greater region. Peter lives with his daughter and works from a newly built home studio in West Asheville.

Leah Leitson

Leah Leitson teaches ceramics full time at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.  She received her M.F.A. in ceramics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1996, and her undergraduate B.F.A. in ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, New York, in 1984. Leah completed residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. and Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, CN.  She is a member of the Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc. and the Southern Highland Craft Guild.  Leah has led many workshops through out the U.S., including Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, Arrowmont School of Crafts, Gatlinberg, TN, and has taught workshops in Italy and Israel.

Leah works exclusively in porcelain. Her work is predominantly inspired by the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century decorative arts, particularly utilitarian table wares and Sevres porcelain as well as being inspired by plant forms in nature. Her work has been featured in many exhibitions Nationally and Internationally. Her work can be seen in arrange of publications of books and magazines. She is also represented in ceramic books and her work is found in Museums and private collections.

Robert Tynes

Robert Tynes is currently Professor of Art in Painting and Drawing and Director of the S. Tucker Cooke Gallery at UNC Asheville. He began teaching at UNC Asheville in 1987, after previously teaching at the University of Hawaii, Humboldt State University in California and East Carolina University’s School of Art, where he earned an M.F.A. degree in Painting. He received a B.A. degree in Art from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.  Tynes has held over twenty-five solo exhibitions of his work. He has also participated in more than a hundred and fifty group shows from Hawaii to New York City.

Tynes has served on many Board of Directors in the region, and is currently serving on the College Art Association’s Professional Practices Committee, and recently edited revised versions of both the Artist Resume and the Curriculum Vitae for Visual Artists which appear on the CAA website at collegeart.org.

Kathryn Gremley

Since 1996, Kathryn has curated and installed over 70 invitational exhibitions and 144 instructor exhibits at the Penland Gallery. Off-sight projects include “Penland: Mind, Hand, Materials” at SOFA Chicago 2004, “Iron: A New Vocabulary”, an exhibition of contemporary iron which traveled in the south in 2004-05, “Identity: Narrative explorations by four Penland artists”, at the Milton Rhodes Center in Winston-Salem in 2010, and curatorial assistance for “0-60: The Experience of Time Through Contemporary Craft” at the North Carolina Museum of Art and Penland School in 2013. Kathryn also serves as a consultant for other arts organizations; assisting with curatorial projects, exhibition design, grant reader and exhibition juror. On campus, she works with Community Education on craft/business programs, lecturing student groups on business practices, and one-on-one assistance for local artists.

Taiyo Lepaux

Life is so sad, so short, so fragile. Yet, love is so beautiful, friendship so precious. I live in fear of dying and of losing loved ones, and I hold on to the little time we have, and try to be as good as I can to people, especially to those dear to me. I don’t know what else to do.

As in life, my art is a tempest of sadness and joy. Thank you for seeing my art–I hope it offers something of sympathy or encouragement while we are here together.

Ralph Burns

Ralph Burns is a documentary / fine art photographer. His photographs have been widely exhibited, including, among others, solo exhibitions at The Cleveland Museum of Art, California Museum of Photography, Asheville Art Museum, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Blue Spiral 1, San Jose Museum of Art and Orange County Museum of Art. Burns’ photographs have also been in many group shows, including in the Tate Gallery Liverpool, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Kumamoto Museum of Art, Mitsukoshi Museum of Art, The Light Factory, Honolulu Academy of Art , Mint Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston), and Asheville Art Museum.

A frequent instructor at Penland School of Crafts, Burns currently lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina.

If you are interested in showing your work at the Asheville Area Arts Council gallery we invite you to complete an online exhibition form that we will then forward to our Point Of View Curators!