FICTIONS OF FAUNA: Animals in Five Contemporary Artists’ Works
Anne Berry, Todd Frahm, Lisa Hager, Bryant Holsenbeck, Barbara Schreiber
Curated by Lili Corbus, PhD, and Will Barclift
Runtime: September 16 to November 1, 2023
Public Reception: September 15, 6-8 pm
Main Gallery: Fictions of Fauna
Side Gallery: Call-to-Artists (one piece per submission): “Animals in Art” Theme, Judge: Susan Jedrzejewski, Charlotte NC
Click Here to View the Call-to-Artists Entry Form. >>
PROGRAMMING
September 16, 10am-12pm Workshop – Wrapping the Wild Exhibiting Artist Bryant Holsenbeck
In this workshop Bryant will introduce you to the technique of wrapping fabric she uses when she makes her animals. Using old fabric scraps, and yarn she will introduce you to how she sculpts through wrapping. This is an experimental class—an adventure is finding out what you can make with cloth and something to wrap it with. Click the above link to read more and to register.
October 11, 10am-3pm Adoption Event – Foothills Humane Society at TACS
Foothills Humane society will hold a dog adoption event outside of TACS’ main entrance. The event is free and open to the public.
October 19, 6-7pm Lecture – “The Yard and the World”, by Exhibiting Artist Barbara Schreiber
About a decade ago, Barbara Schreiber began to make satirical paintings that depict suburban development encroaching on native habitats and displacing wildlife. In the intervening years, sudden widowhood and global catastrophe have caused her to work to take a moodier path, with her cast of animal characters showing up in less specific but often more ominous scenes. In this informal talk, Schreiber will discuss how her work has changed, while still addressing a consistent set of the themes. Schreiber’s paintings are open-ended; she takes great interest in viewers’ novel and personal interpretations of her work.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
There is a long, rich history of animal representations in art that has inspired viewers and artists through time, from ancient Lascaux cave paintings to the present. Such images often touch upon deeper concerns, reflecting not only on the creatures depicted but on human issues such as ecology, politics, and more. This exhibit highlights the work of five contemporary artists who use animals as imaginative vehicles of expression in a variety of media. The artists include Anne Ellis Berry (photography), Todd Frahm (stone, wood, metals), Lisa Hager (ceramics), Bryant Holsenbeck (fiber), and Barbara Schreiber (painting).
Anne Ellis Berry is an internationally recognized photographer based in Georgia who creates haunting, compassionate images of animals, often in peril. She has investigated a variety of animal worlds, from primates in captivity in small zoos in Europe (her Behind Glass series) to feral horses on Cumberland Island and feral donkeys on Ossabaw Island.
Todd Frahm mixes media and techniques such as stone and wood, blacksmithing and metals at his collaborative Stone Cloud Studio in Asheville, NC. He has completed many monumental public art commissions, often depicting unique animal forms. Inspired by Aesop, Dr. Seuss, and others, Frahm’s creatures metaphorically engage in philosophical and existential dialogues.
Lisa Hager, an earthenware ceramist who lives at Lake Lure, NC, celebrates the natural world with a whimsical, other-worldly sensibility. She finds that the transformative nature of clay is conducive to her explorations and inspires her creation of imaginative, mysterious creatures such as opossum, bats, vultures, and sheep.
Bryant Holsenbeck is a mixed media environmental artist who started her art career as a basket-maker and is now a widely exhibited and recognized artist and educator. Her creatures, often birds, rabbits, opossum, and more, are constructed from recycled scraps and cast-off materials. They become transcendent, transformed by humble materials. She will also be teaching a 2-hour workshop, “Wrapping the Wild,” at TACS on September 16.
Barbara Schreiber is a Charlotte-based painter whose work can be found in many prominent collections. Her depictions of animals often touch on how humanity’s urban development has encroached and endangered native habitats. In her most recent work, her brightly colored animals, usually small, alone, and vulnerable, are painted on paper cut-outs in the shape of flames, creating a potentially dire sense of their situation.
Curated by:
Lili Corbus, PhD, Emerita Associate Prof. of Art History (UNC Charlotte) and Board member, TACS.
Will Barclift, TACS Executive Director, MFA, MAT