Citron Gallery presents Here and Now, a group exhibit featuring new works by eight national and international artists. Their styles range from representational to abstract and the mediums include oil and acrylic paint, metal, paper, and organic matter.
Mixed-media abstract artist Anna Carll often repurposes her own discarded paintings and collage materials to give them new life and meaning. Meanwhile Rand Kramer of Asheville, a co-owner of Citron, also creates mixed-media abstracts, and states that there is no “undo and delete” when he paints. “I can paint over what I have done and then scrape to reveal previous layers,” he acknowledges, “but the intentional and the unintentional remain.”
Kerry Schroeder’s rather ethereal abstracts are multi-layered and highlight duality — often emphasizing the contrast of light and dark — while Kento Saisho, who was a Core Fellow at Penland School of Craft from 2018-2020, works in steel, paint, and mixed media.
Mixed-media artist Lauren Betty lives on a homestead, farming and tending animals, and her paintings reflect an emotional sense of place with a strong textural quality achieved through the use of fabric and collage. Dorothy Ganek is another mixed-media artist inspired by place. A member of the American Watercolor Society, she lived in Greece as a child and her palette often reflects the colors of the Aegean Sea. Eric Abrecht is a conceptual oil painter whose abstracts are based on landscapes, but express a freedom beyond the boundaries of traditional landscapes.
“The unique area of my practice is textiles in metal,” states Kieta Jackson. “The beauty of working with metal is the ability to distress, corrode, and apply patinas to the surface, conveying a sense of antiquity from another world or time.
“By extracting texture, shape, and form from ancient objects, archaeological remains, and tribal artifacts, the story of each work has a connection with bringing the past into the present, the here and now.”
Exhibition runs Oct. 15-Nov. 30. Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct. 15, 5-8 pm. Citron Gallery, 60 Biltmore Ave. #002, Downtown Asheville. www.citrongallery.com.