Current + Past Exhibition Images

January 6 - 26, 2017

Meandering Mythologies is a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Timothy Massey and Gary Monroe. Timothy Massey is the associate professor of art and chair of the Art Department at SUNY Brockport. He also serves as the director for the Tower Fine Art Gallery at SUNY Brockport. He studied printmaking and drawing at the University of Tennessee and Ohio State University. Gary Monroe is an artist from Knoxville, Tennessee who has exhibited nationally since the 1980’s. Most recently Monroe’s work has been featured in one-person exhibitions at the Estel Gallery, Nashville, TN, in 2011; the Clayton Center for the Arts at Maryville College in 2011; the Leu Art Gallery at Belmont University, Nashville, TN in 2009; and the Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY, in 2006. 

February 3 - 25, 2017

Ball State University Glick Center for Glass opened in fall 2011 and this relatively new program has made significant grown and national recognition with the support of fellow educators and artists using this medium. Joining Ball State University faculty and students in this exhibit are Jonathan Chapman and Kristin Thielking from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens-Point, and Eoin Breadon from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. It is through the intersections of Ball State University's students and their mentors that the glass program is evolving from its regional prominence to national recognition.  The glass program, and the Glick Center for Glass at Ball State marks a return of glass production to Muncie. The university gets its name from the Ball brothers who had a food storage manufacturing business in New York and Muncie that made sealable glass jars for home canning – colloquially known as ball jars. In the 1880s glass manufacturing was moved from New York to Muncie due to an abundance of natural gas in the area. By 1917, the brothers had bought the foreclosed Indiana Normal University and gave it to the state of Indiana, creating what would become Ball State University.

March 3 - 31, 2017

With a sense of place and historical research, Kevin Jerome Everson's films combine scripted and documentary moments with rich elements of formalism. The subject matter is the gestures or tasks caused by certain physical, social-economic, and environmental conditions in the lives of working class African Americans and other people of African descent. Instead of standard realism he favors a strategy that abstracts everyday actions and statements into theatrical gestures, in which archival footage is re-edited or re-staged, real people perform fictional scenarios based on their own lives and historical observations intermesh with contemporary narratives. The films suggest the relentlessness of everyday life—along with its beauty—but also present oblique metaphors for art-making. This exhibition is in partnership with The Public Cinema and Big Ears music festival.

April 7 - 29, 2017

Alison Saar weaves narratives relating to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 into the mixed-media sculpture and paintings featured in Breach. Saar explores issues of gender, race, racism, and the African diaspora. She mines mythology, ritual, history, music, and her biracial heritage as sources for her work. During a 2013 residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Saar was dismayed to see how little had been done to rebuild African American communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina eight years earlier. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she began researching the histories of American floods and the effect on African Americans. The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, described as one of the worst natural river disasters in U.S. history, piqued her interest. Heavy rains resulted in the river breaching levees, creating a historic catastrophe that had a profound impact on the life of African Americans living in the Mississippi Delta. The flood exposed the conditions of poor African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers and their relationship with cotton plantation owners. The flood also resulted in social, cultural, federal policy, and political changes. With water imagery woven throughout, Breach is the culmination of Saar’s creative research on American rivers and their historical relationship to the lives of African Americans. Through mixed media sculpture, paintings, and works on paper, she explores floods not only as natural phenomena; but also the complex interaction of social, cultural, and political factors associated with flooding and its aftermath.

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students. For more than a decade, Art Source, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

June 2 - July 27, 2017

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present Living On an exhibition of 24 portraits of holocaust survivors and liberators living in Tennessee by Robert Heller. Heller, a professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee since 1986, received his B.S. and M.A. degrees in photojournalism from Syracuse University. He taught photography and graphics for five years at the University of Miami, and was publications designer and photographer at the State University of New York College at New Paltz, and Elmira College in New York. Heller also taught photography at The Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York. His photographs have been selected for numerous juried exhibitions and he continues to do freelance work in both graphic design and photography. Living On is a project of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, which is funded by an annual appropriation from the Tennessee State Legislature and by private donations. Assistance in the development of this documentary project was provided, as well, by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. The traveling exhibition was curated by Susan W. Knowles.

August 4 - 19, 2017

September 1 - October 7, 2017

Dual Current: Inseparable Elements in Painting and Architecture, curated by Gabriele Evertz, examines the relationship between painting and architecture in a contemporary context through color, shape, and theory. The artists whose works are featured in this exhibition are: Josef Albers (American, born Germany, 1888–1976), Matthew Deleget (American, born 1972), Peter Dudek (American, born 1952), Cris Gianakos (Greek-American, born 1934), Michelle Grabner (American, born 1962), Lynne Harlow (American, born 1968), Changha Hwang (Korean, born 1969), Russell Maltz (American, born 1952), Rossana Martinez (Puerto Rican, born 1969), Kristine Marx (American, born 1969), and Manfred Mohr (German, born 1938). Their works link three-dimensional space and the picture plane to create radical new forms. 

October 20 - November 22, 2017

Morehshin Allahyari is an artist, activist, educator, and occasional curator. She is the recipient of the leading global thinkers of 2016 award by Foreign Policy magazine. Morehshin was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her work deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. She thinks about technology as a philosophical toolset to reflect on objects and as a poetic means to document our personal and collective lives struggles in the 21st century. Morehshin is the co-author of The 3D Additivist Cookbook in collaboration with writer/artist Daniel Rourke– (published on December 2016 online in 3DPDF format and in print by the Institute of Networked Cultures). Her modeled, 3D-printed sculptural reconstructions of ancient artifacts destroyed by ISIS, titled Material Speculation: ISIS, have received widespread curatorial and press attention and have been exhibited worldwide.

December 1, 2017 - January 6, 2018

An exhibition of work by 4 professors from the University of Tennessee School of Art: Emily Bivens, 4D;  John Kelley, 4D,  Mary Laube, painting; and John Powers, sculpture. 

January 23 - February 28, 2015

The work in this exhibition explores the non-objective and propositional quality that sculpture can have, and the ways in which we can understand something devoid of specificity and illustration. Presented on custom-built risers and linear structures, individual components are often physically or conceptually networked together with arrangements of objects ranging from the random and chaotic to the precise and articulate. Through careful positioning and intentional framing the works are suggestive of abstracted models and diagrammatic systems that allude to a sculptural logic that is both pragmatic and allusive at the same time. 

March 6 - 27, 2015

Ruth Weisberg has been an important influence on printmaking both as an artist and educator. Her creative activity and scholarship encompasses not only studio production in printmaking, painting, and drawing, but central and influential articles, essays and book chapters that have played a vital role in advancing print theory. Her 1986 essay “Syntax of the Print” published in the Tamarind Papers is frequently assigned to students in printmaking programs and remains relevant almost 30 years after it was first published. As one of her nominators, Mark Pascale, Associate Curator of Printmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago, praised not only her work as a printmaker and draftsman, he also emphasized her writings as an important contribution to the field of printmaking. Ruth Weisberg is 2015 recipient of the SGC International Printmaker Emeritus Award.

April 3 - 17, 2016

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students. For more than a decade, Art Source, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

April 22-25, 2016

The three works on display express my desire to distill and undermine normative expectations about which behaviors and expressions are appropriate for whom. A choreographic example can be found in Presumptuous?, an ongoing video series shot in cities around the world which disrupts the codes of urban co-existence by inserting hyper-intimate and often queer interactions into public space.

May 1 - June 27, 2015

Richard J. LeFevre's Civil War Series presents the history of the War Between the States (1861 – 1865) through works on paper that depict 32 of the war's most significant battles. By combining his love of history and his skill as an illustrator, LeFevre used inventive mixed-media techniques to create these powerful images inspired by his personal investigation into that terrible and definitive era.

August 7 - 15, 2015

Life in Light is an exhibition of paintings inspired by the poetry of local doctor, Humayun Kabir. Dr. Kabir's poetry has been transformed into image by Bangladeshi artist, Mostafiz Karigar.

September 4 - 26, 2015

Our hardworking staff members step out from behind the scenes and exhibit what they work on when they're not at work. 

Media and subject matter were not stipulated at the outset of this exhibition. The pieces on display, therefore, represent an honest 'work sample' from a talented segment of the UT community in the School of Art and College of Architecture and Design whose artistic skills might otherwise remain unrecognized outside of their duties as staff members.

Devin Balara – Metal Shop Tech, Sculpture/Installation; Mike C. Berry – UT Downtown Gallery Manager, Painting; Eric Cagley – Ewing Gallery Staff, Painting; Debbie Cooper – School of Art Staff, Quilting; Heather Eades– Media Pool, Painting; Jeremy Hammond– Wood Shop Manager, Sculpture; Tally Locke – Fab Lab Manager, Sculpture; Sarah McFalls – Ewing Gallery Staff, Multi-media installation; Hannah Shimabukuro –Printmaking Tech, Installation/photography; Jason Tyler -School of Art Media Tech, Photography

October 2 - 31. 2015

Lorrie Fredette creates site-specific investigations that examine beauty, harmony, and comfort to comprehend the incomprehensible aspects of infection, pandemic and the plague.

Her pieces have been exhibited nationally and internationally including solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe. Exhibition venues include Cynthia –Reeves Project (Brattleboro, VT), Art Southampton (Southampton, NY), Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ), Bank of America Headquarters (Charlotte, NC) Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA), Cape Cod Museum of Art (Dennis, MA) and Jyvaskyla Art Museum (Jyvaskyla, Finland) Fredette holds a BFA in sculpture from the Herron School of Art / Indiana University. Cynthia-Reeves in New York represents her work.

November 6 - 28, 2015

John Messinger combines elements of photography and tapestry to create large-scale, 3-dimension mixed media artworks. His body of work consists of thousands of individual 3.25” x 4.25” instant photographs assembled together to create photographic tapestries that examine the proliferation and ubiquity of the photograph in the digital age.

Inspired by the notions of singularity and time, Messinger combines hundreds of varying images and transforms them into a single experience. His work fuses indexical and abstract imagery to question the notion of photography, photographer, and subject. 

December 4 - January 29, 2016

The exhibition featured a large selection of “Rosy’s Diner” cartoons as well as a variety of subjects and themes from the past two decades. Charlie Daniel came to Knoxville in 1958 as the editorial cartoonist for The Knoxville Journal. He moved to the Knoxville News Sentinel in January 1992 and has been the editorial cartoonist here ever since.

January 24 - February 28, 2014

Featuring new and recent work, Death Rock City examines how New York artist Dannielle Tegeder challenges the two-dimensional boundaries of traditional painting through the integration of animation, sculpture into her work.

Dannielle Tegeder earned her BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has had solo gallery exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston and participated in numerous group exhibitions at PS1/MoMA, The New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.Her work is in the collections of a number of museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

March 7 - March 29, 2014

"Topology" employs elements of early modern logic and its attendant forms in art and technology. It considers aesthetic and industrial incentives originating in rural America and calls into question modernism's strictly urban mythology. Grids, cruciforms, and wood grain details are embedded in extended patterns calling to mind Constructivist and Bauhaus Schools' principals of industrial hybridity and utopianism. But the site of industry here is agriculture with distilled forms taken from domestic textile design, land management diagrams, and vernacular architecture.

Paul Krainak is an artist, critic, and Chair of the Art Department at Bradley University. 

April 4 - 19, 2014

As one of the Dogwood Arts Festival's featured exhibits, NEXUS, showcases national and international artists working in contemporary sculpture and 3D media. Indoor sculptures comprising all styles and genres from emerging and established artists will be selected by esteemed professor, Laticia Bajuyo, for exhibition at the University of Tennessee's Downtown Gallery.

April 21-25, 2014

http://www.ericcagley.com

May 2 - May 22, 2014

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students. For more than a decade, Art Source, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

June 6 - August 9, 2014

Marion Greenwood in Tennessee features her mural of the history of Tennessee music painted for the University Center at the University of Tennessee in 1954; "The Partnership of Man and Nature," a WPA mural painted in 1940, graciously loaned by the Crossville, TN Post Office; preparatory sketches loaned by UT Special Collections; and lithographs from the permanent collection of the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture. 

August 22 - 23, 2014

An exhibition of the incoming class of 2017 MFA candidates. Twelve student artists feature their current work as they begin their graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, School of Art. Exhibiting students are: Corinna Ray, Anna Wehrwein, Jing Qin, Josh Shorey, Jessica Gatlin, Abigail Lucien, Elysia Mann, Adam Higgins, Meg Erlewine, Geoff Silvis, Chris Spurgin, and Bailey Davenport.

September 5 - 27, 2014

Air of UT is an exhibition of the Limited Box Edition project, curated by artists Wade Guyton '95, Josh Smith '98, and Meredyth Sparks '94.

The Limited Box Edition project is part of a fund raising campaign to support the School of Art's Artist-in-Residence in Painting and Drawing program. Now in its 32nd year, the Artist-in-Residence (A.I.R.) program enriches a student's experience by bringing a different artist to spend the semester teaching undergraduate and graduate students. The resident artists are selected because they have launched successful careers in the contemporary gallery and museum world nationally and internationally. They furnish students with significant role models and faculty with new professional connections beyond Knoxville.

Each of the organizing alumni -- Wade Guyton, Meredyth Sparks, and Josh Smith -- benefited from this program, and have asked their former School of Art peers as well as past Artists in Residence to contribute images to the three curated portfolios making up the Limited Box Edition. AIR of UT and the Limited Box Edition is a celebration of the legacy and impact of the Artist in Residence program on the School of Art and its graduates.

October 3 - 31, 2014

DeWitt Godfrey is a Professor of sculpture in the department of Art and Art History at Colgate.  Godfrey completed his undergraduate work at Yale University, was a member of the inaugural group of CORE Fellows at the MFA Houston, and received his MFA from Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Arts Artist's Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship, a Japan Foundation Artist's Fellowship, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Artist Fellowship. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. His commissioned work includes "Concordia" for Lexarts, Lexington, KY; "Waverly Place" Cambridge Arts Council; "Greenwich South" a visioning exercise by the Downtown Alliance, New York, NY and installations at Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI; The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; and the Kennedy Art Museum, Ohio University, Athens, OH.

November 7 - 26, 2016

My Home is an on-going project aimed to help define my identity as a Chinese American and attempt to preserve generations of memories and experiences of Chinese immigrants through photography. My Home serves as a contemporary marker for Chinese Americans to reflect on the hopes, dreams, and sacrifices made for them by older generations in order for their children to have a chance of a better life in America.

December 5, 2014 - January 15, 2015 

Artists throughout history have found inspiration in the form of birds. Man imbued birds with mystical and religious meaning due to their fascinating ability to exist in two worlds – the earthly world, and the sky, or heavenly realm. Drawn primarily from the Ewing Gallery’s permanent collection, Of a Feather features works from historic and contemporary artists who represent birds in a diverse assortment of styles. While some artists approach the bird as studies of simplified form others utilize strategies of space and distance to take a more poetic or analytical look at the economic and social issues attached to birds. Works range from hyperrealism to whimsical to abstract. This exhibition incorporates a number of artists of artists from New York and Chicago including Keith Haring, Michael Kirk, Keith Long, Diane Churchill, and Laurie Hogin; regional artists, Howard Finster, Todd Johnson, Kelly Hider, Heather Middlebrooks, Gary Monroe, and Richard Jolley, as well as distinguished faculty from the University of Tennessee – Jered Sprecher, Diane Fox, Beauvais Lyons, Marcia Goldenstein, Don Kurka, Bill Kennedy, Clark Stewart and Byron McKeeby. The artworks on display consider themes of scientific inquiry, symbolism, environmental consciousness, and the rituals of birding, among others. The exhibition is in tribute to the late artist Ellen Lanyon who often used images of birds in her art. 

January 23 - 25, 2013

In the summer of 2013, six students accompanied Ewing Gallery director, Sam Yates to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, New Haven, and Washington DC. They visited major art museums, had studio visits with artists, and learned about the contemporary art world. The work on display was inspired by their travels. The exhibiting students are, Alexandra Gellis, Eric Cagley, Brandon Donahue, Sarah Campbell, Jessica Beeler, and Kelly Householder.

February 1 - 23, 2013

Chad D. Curtis is an artist and technologist living and working in Philadelphia. Drawing inspiration from both digital technology and homebrew DIY makers, Curtis's work examines the abstraction of materiality in the digital age and the effects of high technology on the relationship between human beings and the natural environment. Curtis has exhibited internationally, including more than fifty solo and group exhibitions in the past ten years. He holds an M.F.A. from Alfred University and is an Associate Professor at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

March 1 - 2, 2013

William Lamson is a Brooklyn-based artist who works in video, photography, performance, and sculpture. His work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and a number of private collections. Since graduating from the Bard M.F.A. program in 2006, his work has been shown at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, P.S.1 MOMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, among others. Lamson is currently working on two installations for Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York. 

March 25 - April 6, 2013

As one of the Dogwood Arts Festival's featured exhibits, NEXUS, showcases national and international artists working in contemporary sculpture and 3D media. Indoor sculptures comprising all styles and genres from emerging and established artists were selected by nationally recognized juror, Durant Thompson, for exhibition at the University of Tennessee's Downtown Gallery.  Durant Thompson is an Associate Professor of sculpture in the Department of Art at the University of Mississippi. In 1997, Durant received a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and in 2001 he earned an MFA in Sculpture from Louisiana State University. He has also worked at The Johnson Atelier School of Technical Sculpture in New Jersey and at the University of Southern Mississippi as a technician and instructor before accepting his current position.

In partial fulfillment of their graduation requirements, students pursuing the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree are required to mount a solo exhibition of work, and to defend their work during an oral examination in front of a faculty committee. Due to the number of graduate students enrolled in the UT School of Art, these exhibitions generally take the form of small groups of students presenting concurrent solo exhibitions in the gallery space.

May 3 - 18, 2013

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students. For more than a decade, Art Source, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

June 7 - 29, 2013

The KWS celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exhibition of works by the current members as well as highlighting the founding members: Robert Birdwell, Ted Burnett, Richard Clarke, Kermit "Buck" Ewing, George Galloway, Martha Godwin, Arlene Goff, David Joyner, Josephine Mayo, Margaret Scanlan, Walter "Holly" Stevens, Carl Sublett, and Betsy Worden.

July 5 - 27, 2013

Fifty graduate students and faculty members at five universities: the University of Alberta, Canada; the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium; Silpakorn University, Thailand and Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan created prints specifically for this project. The participating artists made their prints on the same size paper, allowing the viewer to focus on the image, rather than the scale of the work. The audience is encouraged to consider the artistic expression from each university and to find commonality across geographic and cultural borders, as the printmakers share ideas about their own interests, lives, and values.

The works were created using various print techniques, which include inkjet, etching, drypoint, chine-colle, lithography, woodcut, intaglio and blind printing. This portfolio is a limited edition of 10 copies, two for each of the five universities, with the goal of further development of printmaking education around the globe.

August 2 - 24, 2013

The University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery is excited to present "20 Years Later, UTK School of Art, MFA Class of 1993."
This exhibition features the work of 14 MFA artists from the UTK School of Art Class of 1993. Artist's will be displaying work that is current or important in their journey in fine arts over the last 20 years. The UT MFA program attracts students from different regions of the United States as exemplified in this exhibition, which include artists from Mississippi, Florida, Minnesota, New York, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Artists included in the exhibition:  Scott Palmer -- Ceramics, Annette Bongers - Ceramics,  Melody Reeves -- Printmaking, Rob Tarbell -- Painting,  Eric Fracassi -- Sculpture, David Deitrick -- Graphic Design, Eric Smith -- Graphic Design,  Joel House -- Sculpture, Melanie McLaughlin -- Graphic Design, Kris Rehring Jones -- Graphic Design, Debi Henry Danielson -- Painting, Brad Cantrell -- Ceramics, Laurie Robichaux -- Ceramics, Earl Watson -- Graphic Design.

August 23 - September 1, 2012

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to exhibit the work of our first year graduate students who are entering the UT School of Art Graduate program within their various disciplines. The exhibit showcases the outstanding talent and artistic visions of these new students, which includes painting, printmaking, graphic design and sculpture works. The following artists exhibited work: James Boychuck-Hunter, David Harman, Raluca Iancu, Kevin Kao, Alexandra Kirtley, Kevin Varney, and Thomas Wharton

September 6 - 26, 2013

"Echo of the Object" is an exhibition by the artists and Ball State faculty members: Hannah Barnes, Jennifer Halvorson, David Hannon, and Jacinda Russell. This exhibition will bring together several series of works in drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Each body of work explores how objects of symbolic or personal significance play a role in the construction of memory, identity, and meaning. The metaphor of containment is a consistent theme in each artist's work, both in the use of objects whose literal function is to contain (bags, jars, boxes), and also in the suggestion that seemingly insignificant objects have a certain capacity to become filled with meaning. Time, humor, absurdity, the domestic, and the everyday are additional themes this exhibition will seek to explore.

October 4 - 26, 2013

Three hundred artists have contributed to Ossuary. Their work, in many media, includes single bones, clusters of bones, and art works inspired by, using, or playing with the idea of bones. These bones are political statements and personal elegies, memorials to individuals and statements about mortality. They represent connections to our ancestors and/or to our descendants. Some works are serious and some use bones in a completely playful manner. Ossuary was developed in response to the repositories of bones that have accrued in countries like Cambodia and Rwanda, but Ossuary is not a project about those traumas. Rather, Ossuary offers a poignant counter-image to mass violence. It is a project about the hope that art brings.

Images and statements for all the bone works from this iteration can be found online at www.ossuaries.net.

Ossuary is a cummulative traveling project. It began in Madison, Wisconsin. Artists interested in contributing bones to future exhibitions should write to ossuaries@gmail.com.

This relational project was initiated and developed by the artist Laurie Beth Clark. Clark, who is a Professor in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin, has shown work in galleries, museums, theatres, and public spaces in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Extensive documentation of prior projects can be found at www.lbclark.net.

November 1 - 16, 2013

This is the first digitally produced portfolio published by American Abstract Artists. All past portfolios—1937, 1987, 1997—were produced using various forms of lithography and means of transferring image to plate. Unlike traditional printmaking, the digital inkjet process does not involve a physical matrix from which ink is transferred to paper. This marks both a technical and a conceptual shift in printmaking. Our choice of the medium situates this portfolio squarely in the current century and is an indication of the group's forward momentum.

The artists were asked to provide a digital file meeting predetermined specifications, yet no restrictions were placed on how the file could be created. The digital process enabled a wide variety of approaches that include abstract and documentary photography, scanning of flat-work made expressly for the project, digital compositing and image manipulation, as well as the use of vector-based software and hand-coded algorithms. The results are as varied as the artists' individual sensibilities.

December 7, 2012 - January 18, 2013

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present Revealed, an exhibition of paintings by Pat Badt and ceramic sculptures by Paul Briggs. The paintings and sculptures share a similar modesty in size, creating an approachable and intimate relationship between object and viewer. The work is meditative in process. Lines and leaf-forms vary in length, color, orientation, and proximity to the next. It is repetitive, yet unique.

January 20 - February 25, 2012

 This exhibition examines the state of contemporary printmaking in Japan, and challenges the traditional definitions of prints and printmaking.  All of the participating artists received their formal training as printmakers and the production of multiples remains at the heart of their creative process. While utilizing tools and techniques of the printmaker, some of the artists now create work that has transitioned into forms that are associated with other media, such as sculpture, painting, and digital imaging. Of the selected participants, four make three-dimensional objects and installations, two paint with printmaking tools, three utilize digital photography and technology, while the others pursue traditional and recognizable printmaking techniques. Each artist will exhibit three to five works, resulting in a diverse selection of objects and images from the hands of an equally diverse group of artists, including men and women of various ages from their mid-twenties to mid-sixties. The artists reside and work in different regions throughout Japan, and the visual content of their work ranges anywhere from formal abstraction, to iterations of traditional Japanese cultural images. Co-curated by Ewing Gallery Director Sam Yates and Hideki Kimura, Chair of Printmaking at Kyoto City University of Arts, Redefining the Multiple brings the best of contemporary Japanese printmaking to the United States. 

March 2 - 31, 2012

Artist Mark Newport creates hand-knit acrylic yarn recreations of hero costumes, prints of the artist in costume, and carved, costumed figure sculptures. The costumes are life size, wearable objects that hang limply on hangers. They challenge the standard muscular form of the hero and offer the space for someone to imagine himself or herself wearing the costume, therefore becoming the hero. Mark is an artist and educator living in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He is the Artist in Residence and Head of Fiber at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He earned his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1986 and his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1991. Newport's work has been exhibited throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

March 2 - 31, 2012

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students. For more than a decade, Art Source, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

April 2 - 14, 2012

As one of the Dogwood Arts Festival's feature exhibits, NEXUS, showcases national and international artists working in contemporary sculpture and 3-D media. Indoor sculptures comprising all styles and genres from emerging and established artists were selected by internationally recognized juror, Allen Peterson, for exhibition at the University of Tennessee's Downtown Gallery. 

In partial fulfillment of their graduation requirements, students pursuing the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree are required to mount a solo exhibition of work, and to defend their work during an oral examination in front of a faculty committee. Due to the number of graduate students enrolled in the UT School of Art, these exhibitions generally take the form of small groups of students presenting concurrent solo exhibitions in the gallery space.

June 1 - 30, 2012

Plein air painting has a rich international tradition, and our regional Tennessee artists are part of that continuum. Mike C. Berry, manager of the UT Downtown Gallery, and a plein air painter himself, curated this exhibition. We are grateful to the artists who have so generously allowed their work to be shared with the Knoxville Community. Please click on the links below to visit their websites and learn more about the exhibitors. The five featured artists were: Anne Blair Brown, Franklin, TN; Roger Dale Brown, Nashville, TN; Lori Putnam, Franklin, TN; Brett Weaver, Chattanooga, TN; and Dawn Whitelaw, Franklin, TN.

July 6 - 27, 2012

Land Portrait features works from members of the Culture Laboratory Collective based upon their relationship with a particular place, landform, landscape, topography, or state of current residence. These pieces, when combined, serve as comprehensive land portraits. Translations of localities can act as reflections of communities continually in flux. The visual statements produced for this exhibition may provide a more complete understanding of who (and where) we are. The value of place and landscape is immeasurable. Memories from places can become etched in our minds and contextualized over time. This exhibit offers a view into a collective memory and re-locates interpretations of place into a public, conversational setting.

Curated by Brian R. Jobe

August 3 - 18, 2012

August's exhibition featured figurative works on paper, including watercolors, drawings, photography, and printmaking. Notable works include: portraits by Chuck Close and Alice Neel, prints by Francisco Goya, Leon Golub, Kathe Kollwitz, Keith Haring, Luis Jiminez, and William Hogarth, and photography by Helmut Newton and Walker Evans. Also in the exhibition were works from School of Art professors, students, and visiting artists, past and present. These artists are, Baldwin Lee, Don Kurka, Eleanor Dickinson, Mark Steinmetz, and Joseph Delaney.

August 23 - September 1, 2012

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to exhibit the work of our first year graduate students who are entering the UT School of Art Graduate program within their various disciplines. The exhibit showcases the outstanding talent and artistic visions of these new students, which includes painting, printmaking, graphic design and sculpture works. The following artists exhibited work: James Boychuck-Hunter, David Harman, Raluca Iancu, Kevin Kao, Alexandra Kirtley, Kevin Varney, and Thomas Wharton

September 7 - 8, 2012

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), James Randolph Denton founded the Association for Creative Zoology in 1908 an effort to rebut the popularization of evolutionary theory in American public schools and universities. Working with the London publisher Everitt Ormsby Hokes, founder of Hokes Scholarly Lithography, Denton published two collections of color lithographs documenting the principle of animal hybridity, what he referred to as “zoomorphic juncture.” These were Rare Zoological Specimens and Ornithological Quadrupeds, both published in the 1920s, the second of which emulates the publications of the British naturalist John Gould. Arguing for Creation Science, Reverend Denton cited the unicorn and the dragon, each of which are mentioned in the King James Edition of the Bible, as examples of this phenomena. Denton argued that animal hybridity explained species diversity and disputed the principles of natural selection.

September 19 - October 28, 2012

 In this exhibition, the word pencil functions simply as a metaphor or symbol for drawing and its activity. The artists selected are known for their drawing or drawing activity as their primary means of expression and have either pushed the material, process, or boundary of conventional drawing. Media included video, sculpture, animation, installation, and of course, works on paper. This exhibition is neither a survey nor the definitive grouping of mark-making artists. It is more a conversation about artists who have and continue to explore these regions in drawing. The diversity of the exhibition favored mid-career artists, but ranged from emerging to late.

Featured artists in Pencil Pushed are:

William Anastasi, William Pittman Andrews, Caroline Burton
Elisa D'Arrigo, Mary Reid Kelley, Sharon Louden, Jennifer Macdonald, Peter Mollenkof, Darcy Brennan Poor, Bill Richards
Beatrice Riese, Hilda Shen, Drew Shiflett, Stephen Talasnik, and Sam Vernon

November 1 - November 21, 2012

Curated by New York artist Joel Carreiro, Based on a True Story features work by artists who use narrative in a variety of ways. This exhibition includes 2 and 3 dimensional works, as well as video projections. Matthew Garrison is based in Reading, PA; Yeon Jin Kim lives and works in New York, and Chris Miner is based in Memphis, TN.

November 27 - 30, 2012

The Capstone course is a requirement for all BFA Studio Art majors. Students take Capstone in the final semester of their BFA degree. During Capstone students engage in a self-initiated research project to demonstrate that a graduating senior has learned and can practice the skills and concepts of a chosen concentration (2D, 3D, 4D). The Capstone also demonstrates the student's ability to intellectualize and articulate issues and ideas about contemporary art. Successful completion of the Capstone course is a requirement of graduation. The UT Downtown Gallery is excited to present the work of 5 graduating seniors in this year's capstone exhibition. Exhibiting students are: Sarah Crumley, Kayla Courtoy, David Holland, Bill Warden, and Catherine Widner.

December 7, 2012 - January 18, 2013

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present Revealed, an exhibition of paintings by Pat Badt and ceramic sculptures by Paul Briggs. The paintings and sculptures share a similar modesty in size, creating an approachable and intimate relationship between object and viewer. The work is meditative in process. Lines and leaf-forms vary in length, color, orientation, and proximity to the next. It is repetitive, yet unique.

December 3 - January 15, 2011

This collection of work includes original drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings representing an array of clients during his prolific career as an illustrator. Some of Mr. Hinton’s clients include, Outdoor Life Magazine, Sports Afield Magazine, Mammoth Western Magazine, The John Deere and Company, Fairmont Railways, and Washington National Insurance Co.

February 4 - 26, 2011

McConnell, who is well recognized for his large-scale, unfired ceramic sculptures will work with UT art students to construct this project. McConnell’s installations address the relationship between nature and culture – more specifically, the means through which contemporary culture constructs an understanding of nature. McConnell currently serves on the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY.

March 4 - 26, 2011

Joel Carreiro’s work organizes and recomposes small squares of imagery borrowed from Renaissance paintings, European drawings and Medieval manuscripts and transforms them into large works on wood panels that create a new visual language entirely different from its original intent. Joel Carreiro is an artist based in New York City. He has exhibited his work at the Brooklyn Museum, The Johnson Museum at Cornell University and many other galleries around the country and in Europe. He also has received grants from the City University of New York, The New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

April 1 - 30, 2011

The UT Downtown Gallery is especially pleased to present Art of Poland, the Collection of Ambassador & Mrs. Victor Ashe during the month of April and the Dogwood Arts Festival Celebration. This exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, folk art and glass works by some Poland's leading artists working today such as Edvard Dwurnik, Stanislaw Borowski, Leszek Sokol and Michal Puszczynski among others. Victor Ashe, was mayor of Knoxville from 1987-2003 and served as the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 2004 until 2009.

May 6 - 27, 2011

Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity and critical skills in their students.  For more than a decade, the Knox County Art Educators Exhibition has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.  The exhibition has greatly increased awareness of the importance of art education in Knox County. This is the Downtown Gallery’s third year to host this exhibition, which includes, paintings, drawings, sculpture, printmaking, photography and video.

June 3 - 25, 2011

Exhibiting together for the First time, a selection of five UT’s Visiting Artists showcase their most recent works in the group exhibition entitled Being There. Artists included John Bissonette, Can Birand, Nick DeFord, Pam Jorden, and Michal Puszczynski. These five outstanding national & international artists will display wall-hung works alongside sculpture pieces produced within the last year. Working independently, each past or present UT Visiting Artists shows the variety of concepts and materials that drive their independent practices.

July 1 - August 13, 2011

Richard LeFevre taught graphic design and illustration courses at The University of Tennessee for 33 years and was the first graphic design faculty member hired by the School of Art.  He continued his professional career while teaching at UT. One of his most enduring interests was the history of the Civil War.  He served as President of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.

August 19 - 27, 2011

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to exhibit the work of our first year graduate students who are entering the UT School of Art Graduate program within their various disciplines. The exhibit showcases the outstanding talent and artistic visions of these new students, which includes painting, printmaking, graphic design and sculpture works. Exhibiting students were: Andrew Merriss, April Bachtel, Eric Cagley, Cierra Reppert, Daniel Ogletree, Hannah Skoonberg, Jennifer Scheuer, Jonathan Lisenby, Justin Clay, Tamra Hunt, and Victoria Buck.

September 2 - 30, 2011

Mapping Sound explores ideas about the representation of space through the use of sound. If sculpture is an exploration of space through form, in these works of sound sculpture, sound becomes the primary focus of the exploration of three-dimensional space.

Scott Sherk is a sculptor who often works with sound. His work has been widely shown, including his Katonah Sound Project installation at the Katonah Museum of Art and several exhibitions at the Kim Foster Gallery in New York City. He has released several collections of field recorded and manipulated sounds.

October 7 - 28, 2011

The Pits is a multi-disciplinary installation and performance that investigates the political employment of sound, both in realm of propaganda and as protest, and the visual hierarchies of the architectural organization of theatre space. The orchestra is collaboration with students and faculty of the UT music department. Jazz musician, composer, and UT alum Jason Thompson will work with this group to create an 8-10 piece pit orchestra that will be conducted to perform a score that shifts from classical, triumphant marches, into the drum and flute sound of Black Power poets, through folk styles of spiritual praise, and finally into abrasive Hip Hop. 

November 4 - 26, 2011

Holly Zausner’s work is about transformation through mediums both literal and metaphorical. For this body of work, she has transformed Unseen, a super 16 mm film made in 2007, which was shown at the Bode Museum, into a series of black, white, and colored collages. In the film “Unseen” the artist searches through key locations and museums in the city of Berlin attempting to find metaphorical space and literal rest for two rubber sculptures, one female and one male. As Zausner and her two rubbery protagonists move through the city, a non-linear narrative unfolds. They encounter sites central to the life of the city, like a bread factory and a newspaper plant, as well as historical sites, like a defunct amusement park in the former East. In the beginning of the film, a skywriting plane spells out the word unseen about the city and the window of the artist’s gallery explodes onto the street. Airports, train stations, and large avenues are curiously empty of people, two real tigers patrol through the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie, and the carved baroque saint statues in Berlin’s Bode-Museum seem to eye Zausner and her two companions as they move through the museum galleries. Evocative dialogues result between urban environment and art, body, and production, instinct and will, while a strong sense of displacement and unrest alternates with a sense of understanding and acceptance. Zausner’s fascination with the imagery from the film compelled her to reexamine the content and the structure of the different scenes through collage. She re-edits the film and redefines the structure, which enables a new way of looking at the source material. Using repetition and reconfiguration, the collages are a different way of exploring the act of filming, editing, and making the sound, which are all components that create the foundation and meaning of the collages.

December 2, 2011 - January 15, 2012

Genus species: EWING focuses on selections from the permanent collection of the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture. Each work of art is united by a common subject matter -- the Kingdom Anamalia. This exhibition includes art in all media -- video, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and photography. Genus species: EWING includes works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Andy Warhol, Sue Coe, Eleanor Dickinson, Walter Haskell Hinton, Salvador Dali, Mark Steinmetz, Harrison Cady, Bessie Harvey, and Ed Westcott. A number of the pieces are also by current and former University of Tennessee art professors: Clark Stewart, Paul Lee, Beauvais Lyons, Byron McKeeby, and Diane Fox.

December 4 - January 8, 2010

Much of the development for an artwork happens well before the brush meets canvas, the hand meets clay, or the finger meets camera, etc. These preliminary inspirations and concepts go mostly unnoticed and unappreciated. This exhibit brings to light the methods artists employ to inform themselves of the possibilities for their as yet unrealized works. Artists providing access to their journals include Fred Burton, Memphis, TN; Joseph Delaney, New York City; Gage Opdenbrouw, San Francisco, CA; Susan Kemenyffy, McKean, PA; and John Copeland, Brooklyn, NY. This exhibit was curated by Timothy Massey, Director of the Tower Fine Arts Gallery at CUNY Brockport. He is also a native of Knoxville and a graduate of the University of Tennessee.

January 15 - February 20, 2010

The 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition continues a tradition begun by the University of Hawai‘i Department of Art.  By invitation only, this exhibition is comprised of 81 sculptures by artists from 14 countries and includes “Meta Physical #4” by Knoxville artist Richard Jolley. The small format of the works in the exhibition, with the subsequent ease and economy of handling, provides exposure to a broad spectrum of contemporary sculpture. These triennial exhibitions were initiated as an attempt to incorporate a variety of multicultural traditions and a range of sculptural ideas, styles, and materials. As geographical borders are fractured and the global context dominates, the identity of the individual often becomes hybrid. Whether defined by the artist’s ethnicity or the location of production, all art is increasingly integrated into the fabric of contemporary society. Although the act of affirming cultural identity becomes more complex, these sculptures demonstrate the imaginative spirit and endless creativity of the individual artist.

March 5 - 27, 2010

In his recent series of photographic studies of botanical subjects, Maryland artist Robert Creamer blends his interests in technology and the aging process. These photographic images, captured using a digital flatbed scanner, began as an investigation into the revelatory power of technology. Although the scanner is a tool that enhances Creamer’s ability to observe, it is not the apparatus, per se, that interests him most. Moreover, these images are about time, transformation and transitions. As noted by the curator of Creamer’s 2007 exhibition Transitions, at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History:

June 4 - July 9, 2010

he exhibition represents Dali’s visual interpretation of Dante’s literary masterpiece The Divine Comedy, chronicling Dante Alighieri’s symbolic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Salvador Dalí was one of the most well known of the surrealist artists who concentrated on depicting the unconscious and subconscious mind. Dalí labored for nine years to produce a series of 100 watercolors as illustrations to Dante’s classic epic, with each print depicting a verse from the poem.

His paintings were reproduced by Jean Estrade of Les Heured Claires and released as a limited edition print suite in honor of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s birth in 1265.
 
This collection of work was generously donated to the University of Tennessee’s Ewing Gallery by UT alumnus and businessman Gary Johnson.

July 16 - August 14, 2010

A unique installation of video, films and multi-image performance works by Norman Magden, School of Art Professor of 4D Arts, will be on display at the University of Tennessee, Downtown Gallery from July 16 to August 14, 2010.  The exhibition is titled THROUGH A TRANSPARENT LENS INSIDE OUT, which refers to the time based images displayed and Magden’s focus on transparent and super imposed images to create a mesmerizing effect. The exhibition will be a quasi-retrospective in that one part will show earlier works and another section will contain more recent pieces.

Magden’s work recently received first place in the Experimental Film category at the Los Angeles Movie Awards and received several Awards of Excellence for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. He also received First Place in the Experimental Film category in the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival with additional awards of Best Cinematography, Best Concept, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Other venues where his work was selected for screening include New Filmmakers (Hollywood), International Vampire Film Festival (New Orleans), Festivus Film Festival (Denver), Peoples Awards Film Festival (Quito, Ecuador), Byron Bay International Film Festival (Australia), Kansas City Film Festivaland The Rome International Film Festival (Georgia).

August 20 - 28, 2010

The First Year Graduate Show is held annually to commemorate the acceptance of the Student's candidacy for Graduate work at the University of Tennessee, by which the public becomes acquainted with the newest of the Fine art Graduate students. Exhibiting students were: Alex McClurg, Natalie Harrison, Brandon Donahue, Gretchen Bundy, Alex Merchant, Greg Daiker, Kelly Porter, Alicia Faciane, Hannah Short, Jessica Anderson, Ashton Ludden, Clifton Riley, Shelly O'Barr, and Neil Ward.

Happens Everyday features a wall painting/installation by UT Professor David Wilson, who joined the faculty in 1985, and Chicago artist Pamela Fraser, who taught at UT during the fall semester, 1999.

October 1 - 30, 2010

Everything Shines features recent paintings by UT Professor of painting Marcia Goldenstein who joined the faculty in 1976, and New York artist Julia Jacquette, who taught at UT during the fall semester, 1995.

November 5 - 24, 2010

Pictures Hold Us Captive features recent paintings by UT Professor of painting Jered Sprecher who joined the faculty in 2006, and New York artist Carrie Moyer, who taught at UT during the fall semester, 2001.