JULIA JENNINGS
On Friday, Feb. 9, Salem hosted the first artists’ reception of the Spring semester in the Elberson Fine Arts Center. Two exhibits opened: Meredith Elder in the Velma Mason Davis Gallery, and an invitational throughout the Mary Davis Holt Gallery. The Invitational Exhibition brings together women printmakers currently active in the Winston-Salem community.
Inspired by the original Five Winston-Salem Printmakers, Anne Kesler Shields, Sue Moore, Virginia Ingram, Ann Carter Pollard and Martha Dunigan, whose work is on permanent display in the adjoining gallery, this exhibit celebrates traditional and non traditional forms and techniques in Printmaking. Participating artists include Alix Hitchcock, Terry Dowell Dennis, Terry Schupach Gordon, Amy Kincaid, Emily Drew Mash, Woodie Anderson, Barbara Medlin, Leslie Smith, Ellen Heck, Lea Lackey-Zachmann and Mona Wu–whose work can be seen above the fireplace in the student center.
Many of the exhibited artists attended the event and discussed their work with interested viewers. Emily Drew Mash exhibited four pieces throughout the main gallery, and plays on a theme of reflection–in more than one sense of the word. Through her printmaking process, Mash experimented with different layers and orders. She said that, “color became a distraction,” and so moved to using black and white for her prints instead, creating beautiful, ambiguous forms… they are what you think. Mash will also be exhibiting in a solo show at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in downtown Winston-Salem starting Friday, March 2 with a reception from 5-7pm.
Meredith Elder’s series, “Hot and Humid Ham,” in the Velma Mason Davis Gallery, deconstructs the musings that mark us as human, such as uncertainty and personal change. She pieces together prints, illustrations and found objects on canvas, purposely challenging the boundaries of “fine art.” This series of works reflects on the incubating nature of southern microcosms and all the elements at odds within a hot environment.
As a girl raised in the south, Elder explores many of the perplexing and backwards outlooks of the south and how they seem to parallel, if not relate, to the physical conditions. She focuses especially on the cultural expectations that women experience, and all the while embraces the southern upbringing as an integral part of identity, whether warranted or not. Elder stated that her art was, “an attempt to connect an embedded Southern culture–both the good and the bad–with one’s identity.” She also commented that after “growing up in the South it’s hard to grow and stay in contact with your roots.” Her series of artworks are a recognition of her background while continuing to grow and go out into the world. Elder’s exhibit will be available for viewing until March 16, so see it while you can!
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