Quad No. 1, Peter Roux (Riverview Station)
The hills are bare, but the town is still humming. It’s a vibrant time for Asheville and surrounding areas, with abundant opportunities for giving, learning, and growing — even in the coldest months. Highlights include DIY ornament making in the River Arts District, winter exhibits at the newly opened Asheville Art Museum, and, in February, the National Arts & Crafts Conference at the Omni Grove Park Inn.
Keeping the Craft in Christmas
Ornament by Emily Yagielo, Burnt Toast Fused Glass (Riverview Station)
The artists of Riverview Station, with more than 65 studios and galleries, will hold a Holiday Open House on Dec. 15, 12-5pm, that includes an artist meet-and-greet and displays in painting, pottery, jewelry, mixed media, fiber art, photography, and more (191 Lyman St., www.riverviewstation.com).
Mountain Rhythms, running through Dec. 29, is for musical shoppers: The fine-art treasures, unique ornaments, and stocking stuffers throughout the Red House Gallery in the Swannanoa Valley are either shaped like instruments or have music motifs (310 West State St., Black Mountain, www.svfalarts.org).
On view through Jan. 7, the inaugural exhibit of the John Cram Partner Gallery at the Center for Craft (67 Broadway), Making Meaning: Works from UNC Asheville Alumni, brings together 14 artists whose pieces shift perceptions of material, method, and meaning, creating new vocabularies in clay, digital media, photography, printmaking, assemblage, and textiles. Also, to celebrate the “Building a Future for Craft” campaign and renovation of the building, the Center for Craft invited 10 local and national artists to predict what craft will represent in 80 years. For more information about Craft Futures 2099 and other exhibits, see centerforcraft.org.
Asheville Art Museum
Left: Zen & the Art of Stock Horse Maintenance, Meredith Elder; Top Right: Bridge, Tom Shields; Bottom Right: My Big Black America, Wesley Clark
The inaugural regional showcase of the newly reopened, massively renovated Asheville Art Museum, Appalachia Now! An Interdisciplinary Survey of Contemporary Art in Southern Appalachia, runs through Feb. 3 and features 50 regional artists at the height of their game, situating the makers within a regional and national dialogue that, according to the curators, “spans time and socioeconomic status.” New and familiar names include Colby Caldwell, Glenis Redmond, Ursula Gullow, Bear Allison, Valeria Watson, Ted Pope, and Rachel Meginnes. Mediums range from avant-garde textiles to visual/literary hybrid installations to painting all through the spectrum; several pieces encourage noisy and enthusiastic viewer engagement.
Also at the museum: Collecting Craft & Recent Gifts, up through late winter, presents some of the recent treasures to enter the museum’s house collection, with a special focus on craft. The collection numbers work by WNC’s best-known makers, including pieces in wood, ceramics, folk art, carving, and jewelry.
Another ongoing exhibit is the definitive reinstallation of the museum’s original collection. Intersections in American Art is the largest presentation ever drawn from the museum’s holdings of more than 5,000 works and 4,000 architectural drawings.
False Faced God, Joshua Adams
Borrowing a sentiment from the U.S. motto E Pluribus Unum, meaning “out of many, one,” the artists who created the public works seen in the Windgate Foundation Atrium and Plaza unified disparate parts in contributing to Many Become One. These large-scale works —Wesley Clark, “My Big Black America,” and Maya Lin, “Pin River — French Broad” among them — suggest navigation, the microlocal forever connected to the universal.
Still another exhibit, Points of View: Recent Gifts to the Photography Collection, running through late winter, debuts works recently donated to the new museum in a simpatico configuration. And the stunning 50 Years of Western North Carolina Glass: The James D. & Judith S. Moore Collection highlights the beauty of the Moores’ collection, including pioneers of the studio-glass movement: Mark Peiser, Harvey K. Littleton, John Littleton and Kate Vogel, Richard Ritter, and more.
Asheville Art Museum, Pack Square, downtown Asheville. For more information about these and other launch events, see ashevilleart.org.
High-Concept Holidays
Kitty, Mary Engel (Toys at Blue Spiral)
Blue Spiral 1’s Into the Blue: Artist Invitational returns Jan. 10 through Feb. 28 with works by ten artists new to the gallery. During the same time frame, in its Lower Level Gallery, Blue Spiral will host a ten-year reunion exhibit, Invitational All Stars, highlighting the artists who were invited to join the gallery after being introduced via the annual showcase Into the Blue. Another Blue Spiral show, Toys, invites viewers to enter a realm of play where pop culture, nostalgic Americana, and “mass-produced plastic fun” are at the forefront. Makers elevate what is deceptively childish into fine art with rendered hyperrealist paintings, ceramics, and assembled sculptures. All of Blue Spiral’s winter exhibits open with a reception on Jan. 10, 5-8pm (38 Biltmore Ave., www.bluespiral1.com).
At Momentum Gallery, this year’s curated exhibition of intimately scaled works by gallery artists and special guests addresses themes of memory, the passage of time, mortality, and the natural world. Although small, these works radiate presence. Delicate wood feathers, atmospheric landscapes, narrative figurative work, haunting photography, and works addressing climate change come together to form a provocative collection. Samantha Bates, Jessica Calderwood, Miriam Carpenter, Linda Davidson, Rosa de Jong, Ivy Jacobsen, Pam Longobardi, Mark Matthews, Greg Sand, Paul Sattler, David Shingler, Brian Sostrom and Heather F. Wetzel. Momentum Gallery, 24 N Lexington Ave., Asheville. Small Works/Big Impact continues into the new year. www.momentumgallery.com. 828-505-8550.
The dramatic installation Völuspá, at Pink Dog Creative’s gallery through Jan. 5, presents Valeria Watson as she continues her epic reinterpretation of Norse mythology (342-348 Depot St., www.pinkdog-creative.com.)
Winter Workshops
Andrea Kulish’s Pysanky eggs are not just for Easter.
Participants in the Wicker Basketry Workshop at Local Cloth (207 Coxe Ave., Asheville) will learn the fine points of the medium, as celebrated basketmaker Carla Filippelli teaches the art using hand-dyed reeds; it happens Dec. 13, 9am-4pm. See localcloth.org for cost information.
First-generation Ukrainian-American Andrea Kulish of Studio A in the River Arts District (344 Depot St. #100) teaches her popular workshop, the intricate art of dying Pysanky eggs, tailoring them with folkloric designs for the season. The Pysanky Ornament Winter Workshop, for beginning and intermediate students, continues through mid and late December; see the website for dates and times: www.ashevillestudioa.com/workshops.
The North Carolina Glass Center’s team of artists has collaborated to make limited-edition blown-glass ornaments and sculpted candy canes, with an eye toward give back to the community. Organizers of the Gift for Giving Ornament event, happening daily through Dec. 31 (closed Christmas Day), will donate 50 percent of proceeds to local nonprofits Open Doors and Pisgah Legal Services. (140-C Roberts St., www.ncglasscenter.org.)
The growing never stops at Bullington Gardens, which has multiple classes in the works for 2020. Visit Bullington’s greenhouse on Jan. 10, 1-2:30pm, to create a miniature garden in a glass jar with Mary Martin: All materials are supplied in the popular Terrarium Workshop, which is $50 per person. A pair of March workshops at Bullington are all about berries: Growing Blueberries in the Home Garden (March 25, 3-4:30pm) and Growing Raspberries and Blackberries for the Home Garden (March 26, 3-4:30pm) will help participants learn how to successfully harvest these juicy favorites in the tricky regional gardening zone. Area Extension Specialized Agent Craig Mauney presides. A spring workshop on Growing and Propagating Dahlias on April 7, 2-3:30pm, will be led by Dahlia guru Brian Killingsworth. Bring last season’s clumps of tubers. For more information on happenings at the Henderson County educational venue, 95 Upper Red Oak Trail, see bullingtongardens.org.