New exhibit opening at Wayne Arts Council
By Staff Reports
Published in News on July 16, 2009 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Arts Council of Wayne County Gallery and Education Director Becca Scott Reynolds views some of the artwork on display for the Larger Than Life, Brighter Than Light exhibit on Wednesday morning.
The Arts Council will have an opening reception for its Larger Than Life, Brighter Than Light exhibit tonight from 5 to 7 p.m.
There will be refreshments and live music by local musician John Brown.
The exhibit features the work of Robert Hennon and Carl Billingsley, two highly recognized North Carolina artists. They both do large-scale work with bright colors.
Hennon is a painter from New Bern. His work has been shown in galleries, museums and art publications throughout the southeast.
"I feel it is important to visualize the still life in its true physical space and to study the interaction between this space and the objects that surround it," he said. "By working directly from a still life, I am able to understand how objects in the still life occupy physical space.
"My compositions are usually larger-than-life in scale, which involves a physical approach to painting. I am able to use large gestural strokes using the entire arm, thereby involving more of myself physically in the painting."
Billingsley is a sculptor from Ayden. He is a professor and co-interim director of the School of Art and Design at East Carolina University. He has collections in more than 10 countries.
"My current work is equally divided between large scale fabricated metal sculptures for public sites and smaller scale cast metal sculptures for more intimate spaces," he said. "All of my work is abstract, although the inspiration or reference for the work might be the human form, architecture, landscape, pure geometry or the dynamic of color."