Category: Exhibitions

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Nov 2021: Myers, Lackey-Zachmann, Varnadoe

  • Lea-Lackey-Zachmann, Dogwood Knows Temporary and Perpetual
  • Lea-Lackey-Zachmann, Holly Knows Paradox
  • Lea-Lackey-Zachmann, Pecan Knows
  • Lea-Lackey-Zachmann, Above and Below
  • Lea-Lackey-Zachmann, Leave Love l
  • Wendell Myers, Enchanted Forest
  • Wendell Myers, Trees of Gold

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Wendell Myers, Enchanted Forests
Lea Lackey-Zachmann, Tree Translations III
Kimberly Varnadoe, In a Dark Time

And showing in the members gallery: Tribute to Pamela Howland

Exhibition dates: October 31- November 27, 2021
Reception: Sunday, November 14, 2-4 pm

Take a Video Tour!


Wendell Myers, “Trees of Gold”
Wendell Myers | Enchanted Forest

The paintings of Wendell Myers are abstract landscapes, based on memories of the places he’s lived and visited; the great plains, north woods and lake country of his youth, the Carolina mountains and seascapes of adult life, and the desert Southwest where he has frequently vacationed. The works in this show, “Enchanted Forests” are inspired by the countryside of Poland, where he and his wife have spent a great deal of time over the past 15 years. The series is also influenced by the works of Wolf Kahn and Mark Rothko, referring to it as a “Rothkovian lozenge of color.”

Wendell Myers holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Early In his career, he worked as a studio potter, selling directly to the public out of his studio, at art fairs and shows in the Midwest and Northeast. Eventually, accompanying his wife, Pamela Howland, to Winston-Salem, he earned his MD from Wake Forest School of Medicine. He has been a practicing radiologist in the area for over 25 years. 12 years ago Myers returned to making art, this time choosing to focus on acrylic painting.

Wendell Myers, “Enchanted Forest”
Lea Lackey-Zachmann, “Dogwood Knows Temporary and Perpetual”
Lea Lackey-Zachmann | Dogwood Knows Temporary and Perpetual

The large paintings in this exhibit depict trees Lea Lackey-Zachmann walks past daily. The central painted rectangle in each work represents a tree as we might view it. The smaller painted rectangles above, below, and beside, represent the tree abstractly or symbolically. Most of the artist’s painting career has focused on the tension between Realism and Abstraction. Asking which best expresses the tree’s true nature? All these depictions are a visual language that seeks to evoke a feeling or insight into the identity and nature of the trees shown here.

The artist reveals, “This exhibit was inspired by my knowing that trees are essential to our life and happiness on earth. Our appreciation of them helps determine our future.”

Lea Lackey-Zachmann holds an MFA in painting from the University of NC at Greensboro, along with a graduate teacher’s certificate in Art Education. She received a BA in Art from Winthrop University and is now retired after having taught at High Point University for 29 years and Salem College for 10 years.
She has been an instructor of various classes at WFU, Guilford College, and Elon University as well as having taught and served on the board of the Sawtooth Center for Visual Art. She is dedicated to community arts endeavors of all kinds. Her paintings, prints, and drawings are in various collections on the east coast of the US. She is a founding member of Artworks Gallery.

Lea Lackey-Zachmann, “Pecan Knows”
Kimberly Varnadoe, “Tropisms”
Kimberly Varnadoe | In a Dark Time

Kimberly Varnadoe’s current work represents a passage through conflicting times. She reflects, “We all have had to adjust to a different way of life during 2020-21. Some of us have gone or are going through other adjustments that are more personal.” These works reflect thoughts, memories, stress, and therefore are a bit chaotic. They are personal to Varnadoe, yet they speak to what many of us think and feel during life’s tumultuous changes. These works were created with a wide variety of media throughout each piece. The meshing together of these materials is a reflection on the many layers of overlap we experience emotionally as we adjust to challenges faced day to day, embracing the complex and contemplative.

Kimberly Varnadoe received her BFA in Painting from the University of South Alabama and her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Memphis. She works with experimental photography and a variety of printmaking techniques, often combining the processes. She enjoys experimentation and feels that art is most alive during the art-making — the final work of art is the record of the art process. She has been a member of Artworks Gallery, in Winston-Salem, since 2003.

Kimberly Varnadoe, “After Life”
A piece by Jessica Tefft inspired by Pamela Howland’s music.
Tribute to Pamela Howland

The artists of Artworks Gallery will be paying tribute to the wife of one of their own, who died in September. Gallery members will show a unique collection of tribute works created to honor the music of pianist Pamela Howland. She was the wife of Artworks’ member Wendell Myers. As an accomplished pianist, she taught for many years in the Wake Forest University music department. Howland also recorded 19 albums consisting of composers Chopin, Debussy, and Ravel. She performed nationally and internationally, was a Steinway Artist, a 2017-2018 Fulbright Scholar to Poland, and a Chopin specialist.
A percentage of sales will go to the Poland Fulbright Assistance Fund at https://en.fulbright.edu.pl/support-us/


Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11-5; Sunday 1-4
Exhibition dates: October 31- November 27, 2021
Reception: Sunday, November 14, 2-4 pm

The exhibit is free and open to the public.
For information about this press release, contact pr@artworks-gallery.org

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Sept 2021: Marion Adams and James Gemma

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Marion Adams: Colored Pencil Compositions
James Gemma: Exploring Abstract Relationships in Shape and Color

Exhibition dates: August 29 – September 25, 2021
Gallery Hop: Friday, September 3, 7-9 pm

  • Marion Adams, Oops
  • Marion Adams, A Seat at the Table
  • Marion Adams, Blue and White
  • Marion Adams, Apples on Blue Willow
  • Marion Adams, Catch
  • Marion Adams, Dribble
  • James Gemma, Color Wall
  • James Gemma, Arrangement in Red ,Blue and Green
  • James Gemma, Color Crossings
  • James Gemma, Color Diamond
  • James Gemma, Color Sphere
  • James Gemma, Color Stripe l
  • James Gemma, Color Stripe 2
  • James Gemma, Color Wall 2
  • James Gemma, Color Weave
  • James Gemma, Moonlight
  • James Gemma, String Theory

Marion Adams, “Blue and White”
Marion Adams | Colored Pencil Composition

Marion Adams reflects, “It is interesting where a year can take you, especially if you physically have no place to go!” She took the time to enjoy countless hours researching artists, both contemporary and traditional from the sanctuary of a laptop while in lockdown. The paintings of artists Janet Rickus and Jeff Larson inspired Adams to try my own. Although their paintings are in acrylic and oil, she tried something similar with a favorite medium: colored pencil.

First, traditional crockery became the subject, later followed by blue willow china. Months later, the minimalist styles of pottery by Giorgio Morandi and Sophie Cook inspired her works.


Marion Adams, “Monstera”

Adams was very much at peace this year while creating art, which provided a type of daily mediation and an escape from the constant chatter of the outside world. Making art offered a retreat into a space of quietness and peace. Maia Gambis, “Why Making Art is the New Meditation,” explains that making art is a tool for coping with overwhelming emotion. “Happiness is more a matter of nurturing a space that provides stability and a constant connection to our true selves.”

Marion Adams has had a 30-year career teaching Science, Math, and Art. She holds a Master’s Degree from Georgia State University and undergraduate degrees in education and art. She works in colored pencil, acrylics, and makes 3-dimensional pieces using polymer and paper clay. She has been a member of Artworks Gallery since 2015.


Marion Adams, “Ooops”

James Gemma, “Moonlight”
James Gemma | Exploring Abstract Relationships in Shape and Color

James Gemma’s abstract art is an exciting visual and conceptual exploration of the artistic relationships that may be created among and between colors and shapes. In this exhibition, many of the works use geometric elements as support for these explorations, while others take a more expressive approach. Some of the works have a formal appeal, with arrangements of bold colors and shapes. Others are arranged with softer, more subtle color/shape relationships. Finally, some are just freer, but still with an underlying coherence. Despite its conceptual nature, the art in this collection has a strong aesthetic and energizing appeal. All work in this show is limited edition, original digital art, created with archival paper and ink.  

After graduating with advanced degrees from The Ohio State University and careers as university professor and consumer research professional, James Gemma studied art and printmaking at Salem College, and at Wake Forest University. He also has participated in multiple art workshops at Penland School, the Huntington Museum of Art, and the Sawtooth Center for Visual Art. Gemma served four years as board member of Associated Artists of Winston Salem. As Marketing Chairperson of that group, he created the Practicing Artist Series of lectures and critiques, bringing the participation of nationally known artists to Winston-Salem. He is currently a practicing artist, and has been a member of Artworks Gallery since 2009.


James Gemma, “Color Wall 1”

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11-5; Sunday 1-4
Open for Gallery Hop: Friday, September 3, 7-9 pm
Exhibition dates: August 29 – September 25, 2021



For information about this press release, contact pr@artworks-gallery.org

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AUGUST 2021: Mary Blackwell Chapman and Mona Wu

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Mary Blackwell Chapman: Time in the Pandemic
Mona Wu: Leaf Dreaming

Exhibition dates: August 1 – August 28, 2021
Gallery Hop: Friday, August 6, 7-10 pm
Meet the Artists Reception: Sunday, August 8, 2-4 pm


Mary Blackwell-Chapman, “Cave Art”
Mary Blackwell Chapman | Time in the Pandemic

Mary Blackwell-Chapman’s current show, Time in the Pandemic reflects her response to the worldwide COVID pandemic of the past year and a half in ceramic and fiber. Some artists found increased energy during this time, but some, like Blackwell-Chapman, felt an emptiness and lack of direction. She realized renewed interest and focus in family history, natural beauty, and quiet work with new forms of expression in clay and with a material new to her: fiber.

Her works in the “Homeplace” series reference personal family history and the broader, varied stories of how all of our families came to live in this country and have found, or not found, a home. Fiber is a medium particularly connected to the home, family, community, and history.

Her ceramic work shows an interest in surface treatment and glaze/slip finish that is also new to her.  These changes in style and technique reflect her reaction to the profoundly altered state of the world. The world has felt very new and different, and she responded by picking up new tools, new images, and new concerns.

Mary Blackwell-Chapman is a sculptural artist from Forsyth County, North Carolina. She earned a BA in English Literature from Goucher College, and an MA in Motion Picture from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has studied sculpture, both ceramics and book arts, at Penland, UNC-G, Arrowmont, Shakerag, the Calligraphy Centre, and the Sawtooth Center. Her works are in numerous collections. She has been a member of the artists’ collective, Artworks Gallery, since 1992. 


Mary Blackwell-Chapman, “Leaf Candelabra”
Mary Blackwell-Chapman, “Homeplace: Fireflies and Starlight
Mona Wu, “Fabric Collage #4”
Mona Wu | Leaf Dreaming

Mona Wu’s new show, Leaf Dreaming, consists principally of images printed on fabric, and then embellished with hand stitching on unused cloth napkins. Botanical imagery is the theme in most of the work, although some were produced with simple woodcut, monoprinted, then hand-sewn into small wall hangings.

In addition to the wall hangings, there are twelve cocktail napkins with gel prints of single leaf outlines and overlaying leaf veins and ferns within; eight dinner napkins with more complex compositional components and various top stitches.

This series is a vast departure from Wu’s previous work of prints on paper. Instead of paper, the artist works with fabric and thread. It is a new art form and a fresh look at familiar objects expressed in new materials, sewn entirely by hand.

A native of China, Mona Wu immigrated to the US in 1970. She studied Chinese painting and calligraphy in Hong Kong then received her BA in Art History from Salem College in 1996. She also studied Printmaking at WFU from 1997-2014.

In 2003 Wu was selected as Sawtooth School of Visual Art Winston-Salem Artist of the year. She teaches Printmaking and Collage at Sawtooth. Wu is currently a member of Artworks Gallery, an artist co-op art gallery in downtown Winston-Salem.

Mona Wu, “Fabric Collage #5”
Mona Wu, “Window with Three Discs #1”

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11-5; Sunday 1-4
Open for Gallery Hop: Friday, August 6, 7-10 pm
Meet the Artists Reception: Sunday, August 8, 2-4 pm
Exhibition dates: August 1 – August 28, 2021


 



For information about this press release, contact pr@artworks-gallery.org

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JULY 2021: Karen Moran Kopf and Seth Moskowitz

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Karen Moran Kopf: Memories Downtown
Seth Moskowitz: NEWds – New Interpretations of the Female Form

  • Karen Moran Kopf, The Earth Has a Memory
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Local 27101
  • Karen Moran Kopf,Trade Street Diner
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Musicians on Trade Street
  • Karen Moran Kopf, TheGBS
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Senor Bravo
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Dancing on Trade Street
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Downtown Mellow
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Endless Energy
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Boundless Energy
  • Karen Moran Kopf, Scaled
  • Seth Moskowitz,Be Still
  • Seth Moskowitz, Harlequin
  • Seth Moskowitz, Mirror Mirror
  • Seth Moskowitz, Nemesis
  • Seth Moskowitz, Small Voice
  • Seth Moskowitz, Come Hither
  • Seth Moskowitz, Feelin Blue
  • Seth Moskowitz, Goosed!
  • Seth Moskowitz, Home Alone
  • Seth Moskowitz, Torn
  • Seth Moskowitz, Turning Point ll
  • Seth Moskowitz, Turning Point
  • Seth Moskowitz, Which One Is Me
  • Seth Moskowitz, World’s Apart
  • Seth Moskowitz, We’ll Always Have Paris

Exhibition dates: June 27 – July 31, 2021
Gallery Hop: Friday July 2, 7-9 pm
Meet the Artists Reception, Sunday, July 11, 2-4 pm


Karen Moran Kopf, “Dancing on Trade Street”
Karen Moran Kopf | Memories Downtown

Karen Moran Kopf received a BA in painting from Wagner College, NYC and studied in Austria and Spain. While she lived in Spain, she exhibited in various European locations. After returning from Europe she continued to paint, but primarily taught school for twenty years. Now that the artist has been painting full-time for several years, she has joined Artworks Gallery and has begun an exhibition schedule with this show.

Karen Moran Kopf, “Downtown Mellow”
Seth Moskowitz, “Says Who”
Seth Moskowitz | NEWds – New Interpretations of the Female ForM

Most of Seth Moskowitz’s artwork focuses on nature and nudes, usually shown in combination. For this show, the artist focuses on nudes to create works incorporating many of the same compositional elements, used differently to different effect. This approach is similar to the printmakers’ practice of using recurring visual elements – perhaps a leaf, a fan, a bird, or a wheel – repeated in a series of images to elicit a kind of acknowledgment from the varying combinations. Moskowitz is fascinated by the beauty of organic forms and how the interplay of those shapes, along with hue, tone, and texture affect the emotions evoked by interpretations of the human body and the natural world. Most of the images in this exhibition employ a relatively small set of compositional elements in a variety of ways to create images that are, very closely related to one another but are very different in their ultimate appearance and impact.

Seth Moskowitz is a Winston-Salem based artist who creates and combines photographic images into artworks that rarely resemble the images they incorporate. Moskowitz made a living immersed in the constant chatter of written and verbal communications, working as a journalist for five years, followed by many years of corporate communications and issue management in a controversial industry. He began to create visual art as an escape from the verbal cacophony of the workaday world – a way to enter a peaceful, magical place that is literally, beyond words.

Seth Moskowitz, “Be Still”

Artworks Gallery resumes full hours in July!
July Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 11-5; Sunday 1-4
Open for Gallery Hop: Friday July 2, 7-9 pm
Meet the Artists Reception, Sunday, July 11, 2-4 pm
Exhibition dates: June 27 – July 31, 2021
 



For information about this press release, contact pr@artworks-gallery.org

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June 2021: Woodie Anderson

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Woodie Anderson | Tooth and Nail: Fragments
(solo show)

Exhibition dates: June 3-26, 2021
Gallery Hop: June 4, 2021, 7-9 pm (Meet the Artist Reception)

Woodie Anderson, “Sharpen Your Knives”
Woodie Anderson | Tooth and Nail: Fragments

Working with original drawings and text, found images, historical snippets, and the fever-dreams of an exhausted soul, Woodie Anderson continues her “Tooth and Nail” series exploring the tenacity of the human spirit. This exhibit features new work, including screenprints on paper and reclaimed fabrics, watercolors, and mixed media. A pop-up gift shop featuring Anderson’s popular hand-printed tea towels, note cards, HankiePankie Art Hankies, and patches will also be on-site.

Woodie Anderson, “Can We Be Us In The Middle Of All This”

While studying fine art and graphic design in college, Anderson began experimenting with the tensions between fine art and commercial applications of visual language–areas she continues to explore in much of her work through the use of text, infographics, and other collected graphic materials. Often starting with well-worn household fabrics, she employs a variety of processes including stitching, dyeing, screen-printing, and drawing to build layered, textural pieces that are full of life. Letterforms and texts–including original and appropriated writings–are integral to much of her work.

Her current series, “Tooth and Nail,” is formally inspired by banners and pennants dating from the Middle Ages, while its content centers on identity, self-protection, and self-projection. Found images of unidentified women and the accouterments of battle are also an inspiration for this in-progress series.


Woodie Anderson, “Home Studies 3”

Anderson lives and works in North Carolina, where she also teaches printmaking at the Sawtooth School and participates in the Art-o-mat® (Clark Whittington’s vintage cigarette vending machines repurposed to dispense original artworks). Anderson’s work is featured in The Art-o-mat® “Unpacked” Book and in “Art Quilts at Play” by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. She a member of Artworks Gallery, the longest-running cooperative gallery in Winston-Salem, and has exhibited at regional and national venues including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, SECCA, and The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at ASU.


These ‘Mater Cards and Flour Sack Towels designed by Woodie Anderson are among the items that will be available in the pop-up gift shop featuring Anderson’s popular hand-printed tea towels, note cards, HankiePankie Art Hankies, and patches.

Artworks Gallery extends visiting hours in June with the addition of Thursday hours!
June Gallery Hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11-5; Sunday 1-4
Or by appointment at shop@artworks-gallery.org

For information about this press release, contact pr@artworks-gallery.org

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May 2021: Charles Hahn, Katherine Mahler

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Charles Hahn: Complexities, and Nuances of the Human Spirit
(solo show)
Katherine Mahler: Wayfinding
(solo show)

Exhibition dates: May 7-30, 2021

SHOP THE EXHIBIT ONLINE
  • Katherine Mahler, At The Mouth
  • Katherine Mahler, Bridges
  • Katherine Mahler, Charting
  • Katherine Mahler, Moving Through
  • Katherine Mahler, Crew of One
  • Katherine Mahler, Emerge
  • Katherine Mahler, Escarpment 2
  • Katherine Mahler, Flow
  • Katherine Mahler, Past As Present Indicator
  • Katherine Mahler, Safety Net
Charles Hahn | Complexities, and Nuances of the Human Spirit
Charles Hahn, “An Easy Life and Other Lies”

Charles Hahn’s current project, “Complexities, and Nuances of the Human Spirit,” concentrates on characterizing the striking aspect of each person’s sensibility and inner self. The artist’s goal is to capture, in engaging black and white photography, the essence of an individual while letting the environment play second fiddle to the images of vibrant sentient beings. This body of work celebrates the subjects as individuals with their distinct souls, a center of being with a human quality to be appreciated. The way time moves on and things disappear; the photographs capture a moment in the past that one experiences in the present. Therefore, every photograph is ultimately about the passing of time, while preserving the spirit of the moment.

Since his youth, Charles Hahn spent untold hours in the darkrooms at school and at his home. It was during these early years that he cut his teeth on black and white film developing and processing. Early on he embarked upon a journalistic essay by photographing Chippewa Street, a seamy street in his hometown of Buffalo, NY, documenting in photography a world that would soon cease to exist. This first foray into street photography would be the predecessor of future projects, including work done in Winston-Salem where he currently resides. Although the people and places are different, the storytelling is eerily similar telling the stories of people who are usually overlooked. 

Katherine Mahler | Wayfinding
Katherine Mahler, “Crew of One”

The work presented in “Wayfinding” by Katherine Mahler draws upon memories of time spent on the Great Lakes and Niagara River, serving as a metaphor for navigating the pandemic. This series began as a way to remember places and times from the artist’s childhood in the Buffalo-Niagara region of New York and Ontario, Canada. Memory and maps, along with other wayfinding inspiration, speak to how we learn to find our way, literally and metaphorically and the guideposts and markers we need to navigate successfully from place and time.

The work for this show represents ideas about what becomes essential to know, what details are important to pay attention to, observations about the cultural abandonment of collective action in favor of individualism, and trusting your instincts amid chaos. This series of work emerged in the winter of 2021 and is still evolving. 

Katherine Mahler is an art educator and holds a BA in Studio Art from Kenyon College, a BFA in Art Education from Michigan State University, and is an MFA candidate at Lesley University.

The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Artworks Gallery, Inc. 
564 North Trade Street
Winston-Salem, NC  27101. Gallery phone: 336-723-5890

May Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday 11-5 Sunday 1-4
Open for Gallery Hop: May 7, 2021, 7 – 9 pm (Meet the Artists Reception)
Or by appointment at shop@artworks-gallery.org

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April 2021: Chris Flory, Susan Smoot

Artworks Gallery Presents:
Chris Flory: All Fall Down (solo show)
Susan Smoot: Roadside Compositions (solo show)

Exhibition dates: April 2-May 2, 2021

SHOP THE EXHIBIT ONLINE
  • Susan Smoot:Day Comes to a Close
  • Susan Smoot: Done for the Day
  • Susan Smoot: Double Hinged
  • Susan Smoot: Electric Shop
  • Susan Smoot: Flint Hill Sheds
  • Susan Smoot:Forgiven
  • Susan Smoot: Green Thumbimb
  • Susan Smoot: Harris Lane
  • Susan Smoot: Log Load
  • Susan Smoot: Off Tom Hill Road
  • Susan Smoot: Poplar Street Access
  • Susan Smoot: Sheltering
  • Susan Smoot: Still Holding
  • Susan Smoot: The Bright Side
  • Susan Smoot: Trip to Bailey
  • Chirs Flory: Breath One
  • Chris Flory: Breath Two
  • Chris Flory: But Is It Safe?
  • Chris Flory: From the Very First
  • Chris Flory: Is It Worth Trying?
  • Chirs Flory: It Depends How Black the Blackness Is
  • Chris Flory: It Isn’t Getting Any Easier
  • Chris Flory: It Might Take A Long Time
  • Chris Flory:More Walls To Bang Your Head Against
  • Chris Flory: Still Boxed In
  • Chris Flory: What Were We Thinking
Chris Flory | All Fall Down
Chris Flory, “More Walls to Bang Your Head Against”

Chris Flory was born in Philadelphia. She has a BFA in Printmaking from Philadelphia College of Art, now University of the Arts (1972), and an MFA in Painting from UNC-Greensboro (1992). She has been a member of Artworks Gallery since 1993. She lives in Winston-Salem with her husband and two cats.

The works in the “All Fall Down” exhibition are all graphite on paper, drawn in 2020. Most are about the anxiety and frustration which Chris Flory has been experiencing in Covid times. The “Breath” series is loosely based on some pastel drawings from 1995.

Chris Flory, “But is it Safe?”
Susan Smoot: Roadside Compositions

From the heart of North Carolina, Susan Smoot studied fine art at Appalachian State University, earning a BA in Painting. After years in the corporate world of advertising, she has returned to making art as her primary focus. She has studied with locally and nationally recognized artists to further her talent and add to her skills to develop a straightforward painting style, elevating the commonplace to art. Smoot is an award-winning artist who teaches classes when possible. In addition to watercolor, the artist also works in pastel, acrylic, and fiber art.

“Roadside Compositions” is Susan Smoot’s collection of original watercolor paintings. The works focus on long-standing architecture of utility. Farmhouses, sheds, barns, are depicted, showing evidence of their usefulness and the disrepair of time. These rural scenes and buildings, observed locally, were rendered to celebrate the details of age, tarnish, patina, and rust on these witnesses of the past.

The artist says, “As a child, I always wondered about the abandoned farmhouses and barns I spotted while traveling through rural areas. I pictured, in my mind, walking through and around them. I wanted to understand more about their stories. By painting their images I intend to know them better and interpret their pasts – or make up my own version.”

Susan Smoot, “The Bright Side”

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March 2021: Akers, Daniels, Rizza Mellin

Three Solo Shows:
Wiley Akers: I Don’t Know Mind
Owens Daniels: Digital Protest 2020
Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria, Carborundum Mezzotints

Exhibition dates: March 5-March 28, 2021

Shop these exhibits online in our Gallery Shop.
  • Owens Daniels: US
  • Owens Daniels: BLM
  • Owens Daniels: Stand for Something
  • Owens Daniels: Silence is not an Option
  • Owens Daniels: Sermon on the Mount
  • Owens Daniels: I Am Not A THREAT
  • Owens Daniels: Police
  • Wiley Aikers: Two Birds with a Tear
  • Wiley Aikers: Chin Warmers
  • Wiley Aikers: MaskedWiley
  • Wiley Aikers: Hungry Ghost
  • Wiley Aikers: Green Hair Makes Me Smile
  • Wiley Aikers: Shakyamuni in the Forest
  • Wiley Aikers: Two Faces
  • Wiley Aikers: Absences is Made Visiible
  • Wiley Aikers: Inside and Outside are One
  • Wiley Aikers: Unkown Plant
  • Wiley Aikers: Purple Man
  • Wiley Aikers: Green Space
  • Wiley Aikers: Tiger Plant
  • Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria 51: Faith in the Future
  • Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria 59: Glowing Daydreams
  • Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria 64: Soul of Moonbeams
  • Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria 52: Bouquet of Moonbeams
  • Barbara Rizza Mellin: Lunaria 63: Moonbeam Necklace

Wiley Akers, “Chin Warmer”

Wiley Akers

Wiley Akers calls the work in his show an expression of “I Don’t Know Mind,” saying, “the best art that I have created in the past came about, for the most part, because I didn’t know what I was doing. So with an empty mind and no preconceived ideas or plans I start making pencil marks without looking at the canvas.” Upon the artist looking at the marks he determines if it wants to “become something.” Akers process allows one thing to lead to another; some quickly done to repress thinking, while others taking days.

Wiley Akers has a BFA and a MEd from UNCG. He taught art to middle and high school students for 25 years. In addition to his shows at Artworks Gallery he has exhibited at ASU, WCU, UNCG, and Delurk Gallery.


Owens Daniels, “BLM”

Owens Daniels

Owens Daniels uses the visual arts to express his interpretation of the world, and photography to open unexplored spaces between the subject and viewer exposing them both to a world of opportunities and experiences. “Digital Protest 2020” in a narrow sense is “Social Realism Art,” a term used for works by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to socio-political, equity and social justice conditions of the working class.  This work also operates as a means to critique the power structures that produce the environment and culture for these conditions. 

2019 Duke Energy Grant and Z Smith Reynolds Lead Artist for the Presence Absence Project awardee, Owens Daniels is a visual artist/photographer, educator and the face behind ODP Art+Design Bold, Creative and Innovative Artwork. In addition to formal training at the U.S Army Photographic School of Cartography, Daniels has worked as a freelance photographer and served as Artist in Residences, participated in Public Art Installations, and been the recipient of grants and varied other commissions.


Barbara Rizza Mellin,”Lunaria 65 Garden Lanterns”

Barbara Rizza Mellin

Barbara Rizza Mellin’s “Lunaria,” showcases in black and white, the delicate beauty of the unpretentious plant, sometimes called Honesty or Money Plant. The exhibit of carborundum mezzotints is made up of two components: a wall installation of 48 6-inch-square mezzotints, as well as 16 framed mezzotint print images, each with an original haiku.  As an art historian, Mellin likes to reinterpret traditional media and techniques, using less toxic materials for modern audiences. 

Barbara Rizza Mellin is a printmaker, painter, and writer, who has been a member of Artworks Gallery since 2017.  She is also a member of several local and national professional organizations including AAWS, AFAS, the DADA Collective, the International Mezzotint Society and Winston-Salem Writers. 

The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Artworks Gallery, Inc. 
564 North Trade Street, Winston-Salem, NC  27101.
Gallery phone: 336-723-5890
March Gallery Hours: Friday 12-3 Saturday 11-5 Sunday 1-4
Or by appointment at shop@artworks-gallery.org

Find more info on visiting our gallery here.

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Mannequin Musings at TAG features Owens Daniels

THEATRE ART GALLERIES (TAG) of High Point NC is now showing “MANNEQUIN MUSINGS” in their main gallery. Open TUESDAY-FRIDAY from 12-5 PM. Masks are required. From TAG’s newsletter:

Mannequin Musings
Following last year’s exceptionally well-received exhibit of Paul Tazewell’s award-winning costumes (Hamilton, The Wiz), we were left with an inventory of 15 mannequins seeking new homes. The solution? We put out a Call to Artists to have them reimagined to reflect on 2020, look ahead to 2021, or just to find new life at the whim of the artist. The result is an exhibition featuring the work of 15 North Carolina artists finding new means of expressing turbulent times in original and creative ways. We will feature each of these highly personal creations in a series of emails and eventually in an online virtual exhibit. This is the fourth email in the series.

Mannequin Musings will be available for in-person viewing during regular gallery hours, Tuesday-Friday, noon til 5, through the spring. We will follow all CDC protocols and masks are required. Find more info at tagart.org

Untitled by Owens Daniels now featured in the Mannequin Musings exhibit

Artworks member Owens Daniels talks about his piece:

My photographic career started at the U.S Army Photographic School of Cartography, learning the basics of photography and photo printing. In addition to this formal training, I worked for several years as a freelance photographer and extended my photographic career by fine-turning the art of visual storytelling and developing a distinctive, decisive and intimate photojournalistic signature style which has led to various opportunities  that include: Artist in Residences, Public Art Installations, Grants and varied other commissions.

I use the visual arts to express my interpretation of the world, and photography to open unexplored spaces between the subject and viewer exposing them both to a world of opportunities and experiences. This objective can best be obtained with a focus on our commonalities which keeps us in the moment, and stops us from fretting about the future or regretting the past.  

2019 Duke Energy Grant and Z Smith Reynolds Lead Artist for the Presence Absence Project awardee Owens Daniels is a visual artist/photographer, educator and the face behind ODP Art+Design bold, creative and innovative artwork that builds bridges, promotes cultural exchanges, and artistic endeavors  between organizations, institutions and the diverse communities they serve. 

Owens Daniels – Artist Statement
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Video Tour: Four Women Exhibit 02-2021

Please enjoy this virtual tour* of our current exhibits, “Four Women Show” in the Main Gallery and our Front Gallery “Members Exhibit”.

Read more about the Four Women exhibit, including information about each of the artists and samples of their work on the Four Women exhibit page. You can also shop this exhibit online in our Gallery Shop.

Exhibition dates: February 5 – 28, 2021
Visit the gallery in person Friday, Saturday 12-3 pm and Sunday 1-4 pm, or by appointment at shop@artworks-gallery.org. Find more info about planning your visit here.

Video created by Artworks member Lea Lackey-Zachmann

*Please note artist Katherine Mahler’s name is misspelled in the title card. Apologies to Katherine.

© 2023 Artworks Gallery, Inc. All rights to images in this site remain with the respective artists. Images may not be displayed, printed, published or reproduced without permission of the artist.