Knoxville native Beauford Delaney persevered through poverty, racial discrimination, and mental illness to become an internationally recognized artist. As a teenager, his work caught the eye of Lloyd Branson and became his apprentice. The opportunity catapulted Delaney towards New York City during the Harlem Renaissance where he cultivated a circle of friends, including poet laureate Countee Cullen, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and writer James Baldwin. In 1953, Delaney left New York for Paris, France, as Europe had begun attracting African-American artists and writers. His works began to shift from figurative compositions to abstract expressionists of color and light.
The exhibition featured 21 works, including 4 oil on canvas paintings, abstract watercolors, pastel portraits, and 3 self-portraits, that range across various stages of Delaney’s life. Exhibition highlights included a pastel portrait of Harriet Tubman and an oil portrait of Delaney’s longtime friend and frequent model, New York singer Dante Pavone.
2020 exhibitions
Face To Face - Joseph Delaney
November 2 - December 8, 2018
In March 2020, the UT Downtown Gallery closed to the public due to COVID-19
Please click here to view our virtual ART SOURCE 2020 exhibition.
2019 exhibitions
2019
Violins of Hope
January 10 - February 20, 2019

The Violins of Hope are a collection of restored violins that were played by Jewish musicians during The Holocaust. These instruments have survived concentration camps, pogroms and many long journeys to tell remarkable stories of injustice, suffering, resilience and survival. The collection was assembled and restored by Israeli master violin maker and restorer, Amnon Weinstein.

In some cases, the ability to play the violin spared Jewish musicians from more grueling labors or even death. Nearly 50 years ago, Amnon heard such a story from a customer who brought in an instrument for restoration. The customer survived the Holocaust because his job was to play the violin while Nazi soldiers marched others to their deaths. When Amnon opened the violin’s case, he saw ashes. He thought of his own relatives who had perished and was overwhelmed. He could not bring himself to begin the project.

By 1996, Amnon was ready. He put out a call for violins from the Holocaust that he would restore in hopes that the instruments would sound again.

Amnon started locating violins that were played by Jews in the camps and ghettos, painstakingly piecing them back together so they could be brought to life again on the concert stage. Although most of the musicians who originally played the instruments were silenced by the Holocaust, their voices and spirits live on through the violins that Amnon has lovingly restored. He calls these 50 instruments the Violins of Hope.

Images of Human Rights Portfolio
February 1 - 23, 2019

The South African Bill of Rights was born out of a long struggle against racial segregation and human rights violations. Until the first democratic election in 1994, the majority of South Africans had been excluded from participating in the political process. Talks in the early 1990s between political prisoner Nelson Mandela and then South African leader F.W. DeKlerk ultimately led to free elections and a new government which aimed to respect the rights of all its citizens.

Images of Human Rights features 29 fine art prints, created by artists representing the nine provinces of South Africa and hand printed by master printmaker Jan Jordaan. The print portfolio was conceived of and released in 1996 by the Images of Human Rights Portfolio Committee, in commemoration of the newly post-Apartheid nation’s Bill of Rights. Funds generated from the sale of portfolios are deposited in the Artists for Human Rights Trust account and are used by Amnesty International and other organizations for human rights education programs for the young people of South Africa. This set of prints is being circulated in North America as one of a series of activities between Michigan State University and a consortium of agencies in South Africa, including the African National Congress; Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Fort Hare; and Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape.

Big Ears 2019
March 1, 2019 - March 31, 2019

Beatrice Gibson, Wang Bing, Johann Lurf, Jodie Mack

In our fourth-annual collaboration with Knoxville microcinema masters Public Cinema, Big Ears 2019 hosted free screenings of films by Beatrice Gibson, Wang Bing, Johann Lurf, and Jodie Mack at the UT Downtown Gallery. From an engrossing nine-hour look at Chinese activists in exile to an enormous montage of shots of stars culled from across the history of cinema, it’s one of the most sharply curated blocks of film programming we’ve ever presented.

I'm Only Here to Leave - Tommy Kha
April 5 - 27, 2019

Tommy Kha is a photographer based between Brooklyn, NY and his hometown, Memphis, TN. He is a recipient of the En Foco Photography Fellowship, the Jessie and Dolph Smith Emeritus Award, and a former artist-in-residence at Center for Photography at Woodstock, Light Work, Fountainhead, and Baxter Street at the Camera Club of New York. In December 2015, Kha published his first monograph, A Real Imitation, through Aint-Bad. His next book, Soft Murders, will be released Fall 2019. He was the cover of Vice Magazine’s 2017 Photography Issue and a finalist for the Hyeres Photography 2019 Festival. Kha holds an MFA in Photography from Yale University.

ArtSource 2019
May 3 - 17, 2019

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, an exhibition dedicated to Knox County art educators, has given these teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents. Please join us to celebrate the achievements of our art educators.

This exhibition was sponsored by Jerry’s Artarama and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in partnership with the UT Downtown Gallery.

Carl Sublett - A Centennial Celebration
June 7 - July 13, 2019

This exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of his birth. Carl was a longtime faculty member in the painting department in the School of Art and a member of The Knoxville Seven, a group of progressive artists active in the 50s and 60s. The show was proposed by his late son, Eric Sublett, who was a champion of his father’s work and also an alum of the School of Art. Over 20 regional collectors loaned works that were publicly displayed together for the first time. The exhibition featured over 50 watercolors, oils on canvas, original Christmas cards, and comic strips. Carl was a prolific and experimental artist, and this exhibition featured an example of work from every decade of his career with a piece from every series he created.

Howard Hull Paintings: 1989-2019
July 19 - August 17, 2019

In 1965, Hull began teaching at the UT Knoxville College of Education. During his tenure at UT, Hull’s painting, collages, and sculpture were frequently seen in various competitive Mid-South and one-person invitationals. Hull’s articles have routinely filled the pages of Arts and Activities, Tennessee Education, and School Arts, and his in-depth history of Tennessee WPA post office murals was published in 1996. Before his 1999 retirement, Hull coordinated numerous art educational workshops, curricular projects and extension courses on behalf of his department. Since leaving UT, he continues to be a productive painter and writer.

2019 First Year MFA
August 28 - 31, 2019

Exhibiting students: Gary White, Amalia Mermingas, Nichole Schappert, Ashley Ekstrum, Hannah Oakes, Tasha Lewis, Muriel Condon, and Nuveen Barwari.

10 X Relay - Cat's Cradle
September 6 - 28, 2019

Curated by Lisa Talliano and Jackie Meier

The passing back and forth of ideas in painting is like the relay and return of the knotted patterns in the game of cat’s cradle. Each painting is a string configuration that we hold out to be received by another, or that we receive and respond to by adding something new, by proposing another knot, another net. Entangled in a myriad of configurations, we start from a place that doesn’t wipe out what comes before – we make paintings of inheritances and remembering.

False Calm - Sam Vernon
October 4 - 26, 2019

FALSE CALM by Sam Vernon combines xeroxed drawings of photographs, paintings, and sculptural components, along with spray painted elements in an exploration of personal narrative and identity. Vernon uses these techniques and applications in her current installation to honor the past while revising historical memory.

Collecting Histories - selections from the collection of Floyd Jones and Mary Sabol
November 1 - December 14, 2019

Collecting Histories spotlights the collection of UT alumni Floyd Jones (Transportation/Logistics ’72) and Mary Sabol (Sociology ’72). The couple met as undergrads and have been collecting artwork since their days in Knoxville. The exhibition showcases the couple’s diverse collecting interests—dolls, Black Americana, Black portraiture, and images of children.

The couple have lived in Chicago since the mid-1970s, and first began collecting dolls—an interest Mary acquired from her mother. Her first doll purchase, as an adult, was in Gatlinburg, TN. Their doll collection sparked interest in collecting art and other historical objects. Floyd became an independent doll appraiser and was on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow for several seasons.

2018 exhibitions
2018
Stage Left: Christina West
January 24 - March 8, 2018

In this immersive installation, Christina A. West integrates figurative sculptures into a space that is suggestive of a house, playfully alluding to the idea of the home as a stage set. “Stage left” is a term used in theatre to direct actors as they move around the stage. Though a term traditionally used to orient, it is used here as a foil to highlight the viewer’s disorientation within the fabricated space, while reinforcing theatrical associations with the installation. As people move through the gallery, spaces recede and reflect, sometimes offering a glimpse into another room, sometimes reflecting back the space one is in, and occasionally reflecting a reflection. Additionally, exposed studs on one side of each wall create a sense of front and back (or stage and backstage) that shifts throughout the gallery. Objects such as sheets, blinds, and picture frames conjure the context of the home, charging this “stage” with a sense of a private space. As viewers bend, squat, and peek around corners to view tableaus, their own reflections appear throughout the space highlighting their participation in the scenes.

10,000 Shards of Bliss (the rhythm that forgets itself)
March 16 - 31, 2018

For his film installation at The University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Downtown Gallery, in conjunction with the 2018 Big Ears Festival, Los Angeles based collage film artist Lewis Klahr will present a looped, rotating selection of his films that explore the vicissitudes of time and memory. Lewis Klahr uses found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history. He is primarily known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which he began creating in 1977 and has screened extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Lewis Klahr teaches in the Theater School of the California Institute of the Arts and is represented by The Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.

On the Fringe of Conformity: Clarence Morgan
April 5 - 28, 2018

This exhibition of drawings and paintings explore linear patterns that operate in a pictorial space. Utilizing random shapes and biomorphic forms within an intricate network of drawing, collage elements, and subtle color, Morgan's work ranges from highly patterned organic painting compositions to meticulously articulated and somewhat minimal collage-drawings. A native of Philadelphia, PA, Clarence Morgan has been a professor in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota since 1992.

ARTSOURCE 2018
May 4 - May 19, 2018

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, ARTSOURCE, the exhibition dedicated solely to Knox County art educators, has given these same teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.

Celebrating the Life and Art of Kimberly D. Iles
June 1 - July 14, 2018

Kimberly D. Iles was known for her vivacity, generosity of spirit, and passion for the arts. She graduated with honors from the University of Tennessee in 1990, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As a graphic designer, she poured her talent and energy into her work for clients ranging from Oak Ridge National Laboratories to the White House tech corps, and started her own very successful design firm, Ilesnet Design. She designed a web-based textbook – the first of its kind – for the Computational Science Education Project, a K-12 educational program to teach the principles of high-performance computing. She later transitioned into a full-time career in fine art, exhibiting her paintings and photographs in juried shows around the world.

Iles and her husband, Dr. James J. Hack, established the Kimberly D. Iles Art Scholarship Endowment in 2015. The endowment supports multiple scholarships awarded annually to undergraduate students in the School of Art.

Alumni in the Permanent Collection
August 3 - 25, 2018

The Dirty Dozen - First Year MFA Exhibition
August 31 - September 1, 2018

Exhibiting students are:

Alissa Walls, Washington & Lee University
Quynh Nguyen Duc Diem, University of Architecture, Ho Chi Minh City
Erin Wohletz, University of Nevada-Reno
Mary Climes, Art Institute of Chicago
Gina Stucchio, University of South Florida
Kate Clark, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
Conor G. McGrann, Syracuse University
Nyasha Madamombe, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe
Lauren Terry, VCU
Lilly Saywitz, Boston University
Kelsie Conley, VCU
Jake Miller, Western Illinois University

Ben Seamons
September 7 - 29, 2018

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Ben Seamons. Ben received his MFA in Painting from the University of Tennessee in 2012. He passed away in 2016, and this exhibition is in celebration of his life.

Chakaia Booker: Auspicious Behavior
October 5 - 27, 2018

Sculptor Chakaia Booker fuses ecological concerns with explorations of racial and economic difference, globalization, and gender by recycling discarded tires into complex assemblages.

Booker began to integrate discarded construction materials into large, outdoor sculptures in the early 1990s. Tires resonate with her for their versatility and rich range of historical and cultural associations. Booker slices, twists, weaves, and rivets this medium into radically new forms and textures, which easily withstand outdoor environments.

Face To Face - Joseph Delaney
November 2 - December 8, 2018

2017 exhibitions
2017
Meandering Mythologies: Timothy Massey and Gary Monroe
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.

Intersections: an exhibition of glass from Ball State
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.

Open Ended: films by Kevin Jerome Everson
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.

Breach: Alison Saar
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.

ARTSOURCE 2017
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.

Living On: Tennessee Survivors and Liberators
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.

Reprocessed
August 4 - 19, 2017

Reprocessed is an exhibition of art by three Knoxville artists who use found imagery and materials to create their unique pieces. The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to display woven work by Judi Gaston and mixed media pieces by Kelly Hider and Beth Meadows. Judi Gaston recalls as a child poring over books with photographs of exotic places. Now she seizes every opportunity to visit far away lands – Kenya, India, Peru, the Amazon Basin, Australia, Samoa… She tries to incorporate some of the contributions that these cultures have made, blending them in new and distinctive forms using old buttons, beads, patching, knotting and embroidery techniques in her woven clothing. Along with her wearable fashions, she also designs a recycled wearable art series. She likes making wearables that have a history of having lived previous lives. Beth Meadows‘ artwork is inspired by fashion and design, folk art, children’s books, and the strength, confidence, and beauty of women. She lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kelly Hider was raised in Rochester, NY. She received her BFA from SUNY Brockport in 2007, and an MFA from the University of Tennessee in 2011. She is a founding member of the Vacuum Shop Studios, where her studio is currently located, and is Co-Chair of the Dogwood Regional Fine Arts Exhibit. Hider is the Gallery Coordinator at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and resides in Knoxville, TN.

Dual Current: Inseparable Elements in Painting and Architecture
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.

Morehshin Allahyari
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.

Nocturnal Suns
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.

2016 exhibitions
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2011 - 2015 exhibitions
2011
Walter McConnell: Installation in Clay
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.
Seeing Things: Joel Carreiro
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.
Art of Poland
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.
Click here to view installation images.
ARTSOURCE 2011
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.
Richard LeFevre: The Civil War Series
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.
Goes to Eleven: First Year MFA exhibition
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.
Scott Sherk: Mapping Sound
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.
Click here to view installation images.
Justin Randolph Thompson: The Pits
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.
Click here to view installation images.
Unseen and other projects: Holly Zausner
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. Zausner’s fascination with the imagery from the film compelled her to reexamine the content and the structure of the different scenes through collage. 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.
Click here to view installation images.
Genus species: Ewing
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.
2012
Redefining the Multiple: Thirteen Japanese Printmakers
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 exhibited 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.
click here to view installation images.
In Action: Mark Newport
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.
Click here to view installation images.
ARTSOURCE 2012
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.
Click here to view installation images.
NEXUS 2012
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.
Click here to view installation images.
MFA 2012: Vickie Phipps and Jon Purtill
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.
Click here to view work by Jon Purtill
On Location Part I: Five Tennessee Plein Air Painters
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. 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.
Click here to view installation images.
On Location Part II: Land Portrait
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
Click here to view installation images.
Figurative Works on Paper from the Ewing Gallery Permanent Collection
August 3 – 18, 2012
This 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.
Click here to view installation images.
Sweetbreads
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
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The Legacy of James Randolph Denton
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.
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Pencil Pushed
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
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Based on a True Story
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.
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Capstone 2012
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.
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Revealed: Pat Badt and Paul Briggs
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.
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2013
Northern Exposure
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.
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Chad Curtis: Panorama of Desire
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.
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William Lamson: Fieldwork
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.
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NEXUS 2013
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.
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MFA: Greg Daiker, Alex Merchant, Shelly O’Barr, and Neil Ward
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.
Click here to view installation images for Daiker and Merchant.
Click here to view installation images for O’Barr and Ward.
ARTSOURCE 2013
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.
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Knoxville Watercolor Society 50th Anniversary Exhibition
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.
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Print Resonance
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.
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20 Years After
August 2 – 24, 2013
This exhibition features the work of 14 MFA artists from the UTK School of Art Class of 1993. Artists 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.
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Echo of the Object
September 6 – 26, 2013
Echo of the Object is an exhibition featuring work by Ball State faculty members: Hannah Barnes, Jennifer Halvorson, David Hannon, and Jacinda Russell. This exhibition brings 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.
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Ossuary: A project by Lorrie Beth Clarke
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. Ossuary is a cumulative 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.
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AAA 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio
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.
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AIR 30th Anniversary Exhibition
December 6, 2013 – January 10, 2014
Begun after the retirement of painting professor Carl Sublett, the Artist-in-Residence Program enriches a student’s experience further by regularly bringing new artists from outside the university who are active in the contemporary gallery and museum arenas. Each semester an invited resident artist teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in the painting and drawing curriculum. The AIR program has been highly successful in making a direct connection to the marketplace of ideas that surrounds art centers such as New York City, Chicago, and LA. The artists we bring to campus represent a spectrum of current sensibilities in painting and drawing holding sway in the art world today. This exhibition features work from past participating artists from the Ewing Gallery permanent collection.
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2014
Death Rock City: Dannielle Tegeder
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.
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New Topology: Paul Krainak
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.
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NEXUS 2014
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.
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MFA Exhibition: Eric Cagley
April 21-25, 2014
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ARTSOURCE 2014
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.
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Marion Greenwood in Tennessee
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.
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Ask Me, I can Help.
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.
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AIR of UT
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 fundraising 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 (AIR) 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.
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DeWitt Godfrey: Drawings, Proposals, Plans, Models, Diagrams, Documents
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.
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Louis Chan: My Home
November 7 – 26, 2014
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.
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Of A Feather
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.
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2015
Paul Sacaridiz: Configurations
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.
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Time and Again: Ruth Weisberg
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.
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ARTSOURCE 2015
April 3 – 17, 2015
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.
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Strangers and Stand-Ins: Sunita Prasad
April 22-25, 2015
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.
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The Civil War Series: Richard J. Lefevre
May 1 – June 27, 2015
Richard J. LeFevre’s Civil War Series presents the history of United States Civil War (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.
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Land Report
July 3 – 31, 2015
Jason S. Brown, Brian R. Jobe, David L. Jones, Patrick Kikut, and Shelby Shadwell
The Land Report Collective deals with landscape in fundamental ways and as a foundational reference point. Brown considers the politics of mountaintop removal in his construction of objects and installations while also creating playful formal assemblages. Jobe crafts meeting places for public interaction through the delineation of pathways and works with brick and wood. Jones responds to desert environments with experimental interactions, model scale sculpture, and large scale outdoor works. Kikut incorporates a lifelong interest in the horizon line in a series of paintings with flat Midwestern landscapes as his muse. Shadwell views the landscape from a non-traditional lens, responding to ephemeral images from highway road cameras, monumental mining operations and the optical nature of the salt flats through drawing, sculpture and video installation.
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Life in Light: An Exhibition of Poems in Paintings
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.
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Non-Exempt: A Staff Exhibition
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
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Lorrie Fredette: between locations
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.
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John Messinger
November 6 – 28, 2015
John Messinger combines elements of photography and tapestry to create large-scale, 3-dimensional mixed media artworks. His body of work consists of thousands of individual 3.25 x 4.25 inch 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.
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You Call That Art!: an exhibition of editorial cartoons by Charlie Daniel
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.
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2004-2010 exhibitions
2004
Life in the City: The Art of Joseph Delaney
September 11 – October 30, 2004
Like Lloyd Branson, Catherine Wiley, and his brother Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney was a Knoxville-born artist who gained international recognition. Inaugurating The University of Tennessee’s Downtown Gallery, Life in the City: The Art of Joseph Delaney highlights some 60 works that demonstrate Joseph’s interest in urban life – parades, public parks, architecture and street scenes.
The George & Helen Spelvin Folk Art Collection
November 6 – December 19, 2004
Created by Beauvais Lyons, Professor of Art and Director of the Hokes Archives at The University of Tennessee, The George and Helen Spelvin Folk Art Collection presents fictitious contemporary folk art. As the “exhibition curator,” Lyons created all the artworks and designed biographical text panels with photographic portraits of each of the 11 imaginary artists. Included are enamel painted records by Lucas Farley, Arthur Middleton’s portrait paintings of American presidents, velvet paintings of brides by Charlotte Black, Max Pritchard’s hand-painted religious tracts on cereal boxes, Rufus Martinez’s ceramic face jugs, and Lester Coleman Dowdy’s “limberjack” puppets. This irrelevant exhibition emulates folk art, and at the same time, it ironically imitates museum conventions.
2005
Gregg Schlanger: Holston River Diaries
January 12 – March 8, 2005
Created by Gregg Schlanger, Holston River Diaries is a two-part exhibition that links the communities of Emory, VA and Knoxville, TN – the first being near the headwaters of the Holston River and later being nears its confluence with the French Broad River, thus forming the Tennessee River. The exhibition’s second part continued at Emory & Henry College’s 1912 Gallery.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Walker Evans’ Photographs
March 11 – April 17, 2005
Walker Evans’ photographs made for James Agee’s classic work Let Us Now Praise Famous Men served as the culmination of Evans’ talents as well as the realistic portrayal of the conditions of the American tenant farmer during the 1930s Depression. Walker Evans’ images revolutionized the standards of documentary photography.
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Jennifer Leach, Printmaking
April 20 – Apr 27, 2005
Graphic Design Senior Show
April 30 – May 6, 2005
Senior Graphic Design Students display their design work and attend the opening to meet and greet potential clients and employers
Through the Lens of Ed Westcott: A Photographic History of World War II’s Secret City
June 16 – September 3, 2005
In 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers relocated James Edward Westcott to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and assigned him the task of official photographer for the Manhattan Project – a massive wartime effort to produce the first atomic bomb. As secrecy of the project was paramount, the “atomic” city was fenced, and communication with the outside world was limited. What is more, no cameras were allowed inside the fenced boundaries.
Thus, Westcott became not only the official photographer for the Manhattan Project, but he also became the sole photographer of the social and recreational events of Oak Ridge. It is only through Westcott’s photographs that the visual history of Oak Ridge can be appreciated.
Enduring: The Social Conscience of Eleanor Dickinson
September 10 – November 5, 2005
Eleanor Dickinson, a native of Knoxville, TN, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee in 1952, becoming one of the department’s first graduates. One year later, she moved to California and began redefining her process of creating traditional figure drawings via strong emotions. Since then, Dickinson has maintained a life-long commitment to the human form and has responded to intense moments of human existence, ranging from the experiences of Pentecostal Southerners, to the ecstasies of lovers, to the trials of the homeless, to the sufferings of AIDS victims.
Alternative Typestyles: An Homage to Vernacular Letterforms
Nov 12 – Dec 20, 2005
Alternative Typestyles features original art by exhibition creator Matt Tullis, including hand-drawn typefaces, unique collected fonts, and wall-mounted sculptures based on the assemblage of typographic artifacts. Individual photographic prints of vintage letterforms and signs are also featured.
2006
Mysterious Pleasures: The Art of F. Clark Stewart
January 7 – February 25, 2006
Over the past 40 years, educator F. Clark Stewart has impacted the lives and maturation of countless aspiring young artists at the University of Tennessee. Many former students directly credit him for their own success as professional artists and teachers. His contributions as both a dedicated teacher and a cognizant, active member of the university community are immeasurable. The goal of Mysterious Pleasures: The Art of F. Clark Stewart is, however, to celebrate the achievements and work of the artist. The works on exhibition, as with his tenure at the university, span 40 years. Clark never strays far from his primary subject – the human figure- or his primary interest – the human narrative. Art movements, like fashion, have developed and faded with time, but Clark has remained steadfast in his commitment to figurative art and its ability to create mystery and a range of emotional responses.
Unfiltered: AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers
March 3 – April 1, 2006
Since 1924, The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) has mounted an annual exhibition that recognizes excellence in book design and production. Books are entered in categories such as trade, reference, juvenile, university and museum publications, and also limited edition and special-format books. The exhibition includes books and book covers designed in 2004. Esteemed jurors selected winners from more than 920 entries. Jurors included; Andrew Blauvelt, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, John Fulbrook III, Simon & Schuster, New York, Sara Gillingham, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, Julia Hasting, Phaidon, New York and Cheryl Towler Weese (chair) Studio Blue, Chicago.
MFA Thesis Exhibition: “Valuistics: The Making of” by James Greene
April 7 – April 14, 2006
The print Installation is both a display of James Greene’s valuistics as well as a printed history of the word itself. With ”the Making Of,” Greene – a former grocery store clerk and retail employee – reveals his own consumer politics (contradictions and all) by symbolizing and accounting for each of his consumer decisions. The installation is a scale re-creation of Greene’s home, family, and friends printed on pink insulation board and installed in the Downtown Gallery.
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Ryan O’Mara
April 19 – 26, 2006
The work consists of large abstract ink drawings and paintings some measuring more than 20 feet long. “Abstraction has the ability to exist in a realm of non-logic, idealism and an absence of a system. In my work I change this theoretical space into a physical image, thereby defining the gray”, says O’Mara.
AGIA Poster Design Show
Apr 28 – May 10, 2006
Three Design Students from the University of Tennessee were included in the American Institute of Graphic Arts National Poster Competition. 30 posters were exhibited from national and international designers.
Portrait of Self
May 13 – June 3, 2006
Portrait of Self is a community arts project of the Knox County after-school program Shade of Development led by artist and educator Diane Hovis. Created by African American children and adults, the drawings, prints, and photographs on view explore each individual’s sense of self. These visual works are interpretations of written responses to questions posed by Hovis and recorded in journals kept by each participant.
Thresholds: Expressions of Art & Spiritual Life
June 23 – Aug 4, 2006
New York critic Eleanor Heartney has curated an exhibition that showcases the diversity of both art media and religious beliefs in the work of over fifty artists from five southern states, including Tennessee. This is a joint exhibition, on view simultaneously in both the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture and the UT Downtown Gallery.
Drawings from the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
August 25 – October 11, 2006
30 figure drawings from students at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, China. Organized and curated by University of Tennessee School of Art Professor, Tom Reising.
The Color of Diaspora: Afro-Ecuadorian Images
October 20 – November 24, 2006
40 black and white photographs of the Afro-Ecuadorian culture. Organized by University of Tennessee History Professor William Dewey.
Polska Fraba/Polish Iink: Contemporary Printmaking on Poland
December 1 – December 22, 2006
Polska Fraba/Polish Iink: Contemporary Printmaking on Poland
An exhibition organized and curated by Beauvais Lyons, which includes 30 prints by Contemporary Artist from Poland working in Printmaking.
2007
Reverberating Echoes: The Art of Indian Artist M.R. Renjan
January 5 – February 24, 2007
Black and white ink paintings by Indian Artist M.R. Renjan. Organized and curated by University of Tennessee graduate student, Shaurya Kumar.
Shelter: A Mixed Media Installation
Mar 2 – 31, 2007
An exhibition organized through the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA by sculpture professor Tulu Bayer and paining professor Xiaoze Xie.
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Lin Lee
April 2 – 9, 2007
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Tea Kim Kasor
April 10 – 17, 2007
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Shaurya Kumar
April 18- 23, 2007
Human Rights Portfolio from South Africa
May 4 – June 8, 2007
Hunt Clark & Deborah McClary
June 15 – August 3, 2007
Recent collaborative work by Tennessean sculptors, graduates of the UT School of Art. The mixed media piece consists of multiple video projections on Plexiglas suspended from the ceiling, and a white ceramic life-sized sculpture of a calf being roped around its neck.
Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition
August 10 – September 7, 2007
This International Traveling exhibition of small sculptures from around the world show how artists have handled the challenges of space and scale dictated by sixe of a shoebox. An invitation only exhibition, this exhibit has attracted a large number of well – known artists from Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, Argentina, Cuba, Australia, Korea, Japan, Chia, Thailand, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, and Mexico.
AIGA 365
September 14 – Oct 5, 2007
The 2006 juried selection of the best communications design produced in 2005. 365 is widely recognized as the most discerning statement on design excellence today, extending a legacy that began 90 years ago. By means of competitions, AIGA creates a chronicle of outstanding design solutions, each demonstrating the process of designing, the role of the designer and the value of design.
Jean Hess & Jeffrey Morton: Reverie
October 12 – November 7, 2007
This two-person exhibition consists of recent works by Knoxville-based painter Jean Hess and Chattanooga-based painter Jeffery Morton. Hess’ work addresses dream, recollection, nostalgia, and memory with an emphasis on obscure imagery, dissolving texts, and marks and natural forms suffused with light. Jeffery Morton explores images of wind, electricity, twilight, humidity, photosynthesis, and pollen juxtaposed against creatures in flight.
Lineages
November 16 – December 20, 2007
This exhibition of ceramics explores the pathway and influences of the academic ceramicist. UT professors of ceramics, their spouses, and their mentors will all have work on display. Artists included are; University of Tennessee School of Art professors Sally Brogden and Frank Martin, their spouses Todd Johnson and Polly Martin, and mentors John and Susanne Stephenson, and Ken Ferguson.
2008
Crave
January 4 – February 1, 2008
An exhibition initiated by former UT School of Art Artist in Residence, Pinkney Herbert, and organized by Memphis Arts Organization Delta Axis. InCrave these six artists use paint and photographs to explore craving, yearning, longing for, or hankering after. Their diverse work is unified by an attachment to charged images and obsessive processes that speak to this underlying appetite or “craving.” Artist included in the exhibition are, Joel Carreiro, Betsy Chaffin, Amanda Sparks, Thomas Weaver, and Brian Wood.
Corapeake
February 15 – March 29, 2008
This exhibition showcases an award-winning documentary, by Kendall Messick, about the town of Corapeake in North Carolina. The exhibit uses oral narratives, black and white photography, and artifacts to describe and commemorate the lives led by now-elderly African-American inhabitants of this small, rural town. This film has been shown at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Wake Forest University, UVA, and many other reputable venues.
MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Crystal Wagner and Katherine Nanfro
April 4 – 19, 2008
Graphic Design Senior Show
April 24 – 26, 2008
Air Box
May 2 – 28, 2008
An exhibition by Korean artist Dong-Yong Lee, 2007-08 UT Artist in Residence
Carl Sublett: Image Tracks
June 2 – 29, 2008
A retrospective view of Carl Sublett’s art by his son, Eric
Objectionable Action
July 3 – 19, 2008
Objectionable Action represents an art exchange with participants from around the country. Oorganized by two University of Tennessee alumni, Lee Marchalonis and Jessica Meyer, Objectionable Action features other University of Tennessee graduates now residing throughout the United States.
The Beauty of Holiness: The Art of Arnold Schwarzbart
July 25 – August 16, 2008
Schwarzbart is a Judaic artist who lives in Knoxville. He has worked for over eighteen years designing and producing ceremonial objects as well as donor recognition walls and decorative wall pieces for Jewish organizations throughout the United States.
My Home Town: Images of New York City by Baldwin Lee
August 22 – September 20, 2008
Photographic images documenting New York City both pre and post 9/11 by New York native, and UT School of Art professor of photography, Baldwin Lee. Lee is the recipient of three Guggenheim and NEA grants. This exhibition was curated by the artist and UT Downtown Gallery director, Sam Yates.
Global Mapping
September 26 – October 18, 2008
Andrea Loefke, a Brooklyn, New York and Leipzig, Germany-based artist creates hierarchies in which events and narratives compete and communicate. The groupings of objects and their placement within a particular space become a journey of discovery.
Future States: Atlas
Recent works by Pennsylvania mixed-media artist Dan Mills. This group of drawings addresses issues of American imperialism and globalization. This exhibition was curated by the artist and UT Downtown Gallery director, Sam Yates.
Compassionate Voices: Issues of Animal Rights
October 24 – November 15, 2008
Compassionate Voices: The Art of Sue Coe, Maia Dery, Diane Fox, and Jack Ketner
These artists address issues of animal treatment and exploitation.
Lyrical Tableaux by Conley Harris
Nov 21 – Dec 20, 2008
Inspired by his many trips to India, Boston-based painter Conley Harris pays tribute to the history of Indian paintings while using it to explore questions of composition, figure/ground relationship, and other painterly issues.
2009
American Institute of Graphic Arts
January 2 – 31, 2009
AIGA, the professional association for design, creates an authoritative chronicle of outstanding design solutions, each demonstrating the process of designing and the value of design. AIGA’s suite of competitions is widely recognized as the most discerning statement on design excellence today.
Alicia Henry: The Walk
Damond Howard: Still America’s Greatest Problem
February 6 – 28, 2009
African American artists Alicia Henry, Nashville, TN, and Damon Howard, Orangeburg, SC, examine issues of identity, heritage and gender in American society. Henry, who holds an MFA from Yale University, and Howard, who holds an MFA from the University of Florida, have been nationally recognized for their poignant art.
Beyond Surface: Paintings by Tom Riesing and Allen Cox
March 6 – 21, 2009
Although one an abstractionist and one a realist, Knoxville painters Allen Cox and Tom Riesing focus on the “surface” in this exhibit. This exhibition was curated by Sam Yates and the artists.
University of Cincinnati / University of Tennessee Art Exchange
March 25 – April 4, 2009
This exhibition will feature new work by graduate students representing all disciplines—2-D, 3-D, and media. The exhibition will be on view concurrently at The University of Tennessee 1010 Gallery.
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Jessie Van der Laan
April 7-12, 2009
MFA Thesis Exhibition: Hilary Williams
April 17 – 24, 2009
Art Source 2009
May 1-31, 2009
Every day, Knox County art teachers devote their time and energy to cultivating creativity in their students. The Knox County Art Educators’ Exhibition gives these teachers an opportunity to nourish and showcase their own artistic talents.
Japan International Artists Society Exhibition
June 5- July 2, 2009
324 works of art by 305 Society members who create in various media ranging from traditional Japanese calligraphy and ceramics to contemporary landscapes and abstraction is on exhibit here and in the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture.
Face It: Contemporary Portraiture
July 15 – August 8, 2009
A national juried competition open to artists from all media and backgrounds. Dr. Carl Gombert, Associate Professor of Art at Maryville College, was the juror for the exhibition.
Michael Aurbach: The Administrator
August 14 – September 12, 2009
This exhibition featured the work of noted sculptor Michael Aurbach who serves on the faculty at Vanderbilt University. Curated by Sam Yates.
Beyond Surface: Contemporary Ceramics Artists
September 18 – October 17, 2009
This exhibition featured the art of eight east coast ceramicists. The works on view
represent the variety of techniques and concepts found in the ceramics field today.
Contemporary Taiwanese Artist HoJang Liu
Oct 23 – Nov 28, 2009
This exhibition featured the photographic work of HoJang Liu, a Taiwanese artist who lives in Taipei.
Intimate Source: The Artist’s Sketchbook
Dec 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010
Much of the development for an artwork happens well before the brush meets canvas, the hand meets clay, or the finger meets camera shutter. 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. Curated by former Ewing Gallery staff member Timothy Massey, Director of the Tower Fine Arts Gallery at SUNY Brockport.
2010
The 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition
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.
Deliquesence and Other Transformations: The Photography of Robert Creamer
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.
Dali Illustrates Dante’s Divine Comedy
June 4 – July 9, 2010
The 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.
Through A Transparent Lens Inside Out
July 16 – August 14, 2010
Through A Transparent Lens Inside Out, is a unique installation of video, films, and multi-image performance works by Norman Magden, School of Art Professor of 4D Arts.The exhibition’s title, THROUGH A TRANSPARENT LENS INSIDE OUT, refers to the time based images displayed and Magden’s focus on transparent and super imposed images to create a mesmerizing effect. The exhibition is a quasi-retrospective showcasing earlier work alongside more recent pieces.
Fresh Pickins
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
September 3 – 25, 2010
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.
Everything Shines
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.
Pictures Hold Us Captive
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.
Walter Haskell Hinton: The Golden Age of Illustration
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.
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Please Note: The UT Downtown Gallery closes in observance of national holidays and between exhibitions.
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If you’re planning to buy a new or used car , take the time to do your research before heading to the dealer.
Buying a car is typically the 2nd most expensive purchase anyone makes, next to buying a home. Making such a large financial decision in a weekend simply increases the chances you’ll be unhappy in the long run.
Follow these 10 tips to make sure you buy a car you can afford and choose a model that you’ll be comfortable driving for years to come.
1. Determine your budget
While cars come in all price ranges, they are still one of the most expensive purchases you will make, so it’s important to be sure you can afford it.
A good rule of thumb is to budget no more than 25% of your monthly household income for all the cars in your household.
Your calculation should include your monthly auto loan payment as well as operating costs such as fuel and car insurance. If you’re not sure of your monthly expenses, use Bankrate’s home budget calculator to help you determine your monthly bills and necessary savings.
2. Narrow your list to a few cars
A few cars probably have caught your eye as you’ve driven around. Start by researching those to see if they fit within your budget.
Visit the automaker websites and independent auto information sites to assess the cars’ features and get an idea of inventory available in your area.
Don’t forget to note the manufacturer’s suggested retail price and invoice price. Choose cars that are at least 5% less than your monthly budget to give yourself some room to cover your operating costs, including gas, car insurance, repairs and maintenance.
Print pages from these sites with the key details or keep an electronic file for your research. But don’t rush to the dealership for a test drive, yet.
3. Decide if you’re buying new or used, or leasing
The array of vehicle choices within your budget can be dizzying.
Regardless of your budget, you can find choices of new cars that you can buy or lease, certified preowned cars or used cars. You should decide what direction to take, since there are trade-offs with each.
You’re likely to get the best value if you buy a used car, though you’ll pay a higher interest rate, have a shorter warranty period and won’t know the car’s full history.
You’ll be able to get a high-end car if you lease, but you won’t own the car, and you’ll need to be careful to stick within the parameters of the lease to avoid penalties.
Buying a new car means you’ll get fewer car features for the same amount of money, but you’ll get the full warranty and lower interest rates, as well as free maintenance and roadside assistance in many cases.
For many, a certified preowned car is the ideal compromise. These cars are cheaper than their new car counterparts, but they usually have some warranty left and must meet certain criteria to help ensure their reliability and condition.
4. Determine your overall ownership costs
Once you have your short list of cars, circle back to see if they really fit into your budget by estimating the ownership costs for each.
An auto research website will help you with a general overview of the ownership costs for your area, but remember that these numbers will vary depending on your personal situation.
Use these numbers for a more accurate budget, but do your own calculation for fuel based on the number of miles you drive annually and by calling your car insurance agent to get a quote on the cars you are considering.
Make sure you give the agent the exact model, including engine type and other specifications, to get an accurate quote.
5. Nail down financing before you visit the dealer
Don’t let your eagerness to test-drive a car send you to the dealership just yet.
Dealers don’t just want to sell you a car; they want to give you the car loan because they typically receive a flat fee or a commission on the car loans they facilitate. They get that kickback regardless of whether the loan is from the manufacturer or a local lender.
As a result, dealers sometimes promise a great interest rate before they have final approval, which can get you in a pickle if you sign a contract.
Instead, secure financing from a bank or credit union in advance and then compare it with what the dealer offers. Use Bankrate’s rate search tool to see current interest rates. Check with local lenders, including credit unions, which offer loans that are 1% to 2% lower on average than conventional banks. Many community credit unions are open to anyone living in their area, eliminating the need to work at a certain company or in a specific industry to join. Use CULookup.com to find a credit union you can join.
6. Automaker’s promotion may not be the best interest rate
You probably have seen the ads from automakers for 0% interest rates or low interest rates and have decided the car was within your budget because of the low monthly payment quoted, but the likelihood is you won’t qualify.
Only about 10% of car buyers qualify for the 0% or low interest rate deals. Even if you do, you may be better off taking the cash rebate and getting your financing at a bank or credit union.
Once you’ve found the best interest rate, use the car rebate vs. low-interest calculator to determine which is the better deal.
7. Know the invoice price
While invoice pricing on auto research websites isn’t completely accurate, it’s a good indicator of what the dealer paid for the car. You’ll want to keep this number in mind as you negotiate the purchase of your next car.
If your research didn’t include the invoice price for new cars or the wholesale price for used cars, go back to the auto research website you visited earlier to check it.
You’ll want to aim for a sale price that is close to that number before any applicable discounts. Keep in mind that running a dealership is a costly endeavor with a lot of overhead. The dealer needs to make at least a few hundred dollars of profit to cover costs.
8. Find all possible discounts in advance
While automakers usually promote cash-back rebates that apply to all buyers, small rebates that apply to specific groups may be available but not widely publicized.
Many automakers offer additional rebates for students, current and former military personnel, and even certain membership-based groups.
These discounts can be combined with each other as well as with the cash-back rebates. Check the automaker’s website for these incentives in their “current offers” section.
9. Don’t rush the test drive
Now that you’ve done all your research, you are ready to visit the dealership for a test-drive. Call in advance to make an appointment for a test-drive with the Internet or fleet manager.
If you decide you are ready to buy after the test drive, you already will be working with someone who is less likely to strong-arm you into a deal.
Since you are likely going to keep your car for 5 years or more, don’t hesitate to ask for more time behind the wheel to ensure you like the driving experience.
Also, take extra time with the car parked to adjust the seats and experiment with the controls and make sure all of your typical passengers are comfortable and any regular cargo fits well.
10. Use smart negotiating strategies
When you are ready to buy, be sure to keep in mind all the discounts you researched.
It’s easier to get the best price for each if you negotiate the sale price of your new car and the trade-in value of your old car separately, so don’t factor in trading in your car as part of the deal for the moment.
Make sure you do your research about your current car’s value online in advance so you know whether you are being offered a fair price.
Go over the list of fees associated with the deal to ensure they are accurate, and make sure you aren’t paying any unnecessary dealer fees.
Once you’ve agreed to the price with the dealer, be prepared to say “no” to all the extras you may be offered. You can always buy them separately later, after you’ve researched pricing.


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