Raleigh Artist To Open Major Exhibit at Somerhill Gallery
August 14, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) –Somerhill Gallery in Durham, North Carolina, will open a major exhibition of recent works by Raleigh, NC, artist Jason Craighead, with sculptural pieces by Donald Gialanella. The artist’s reception will be held on Sunday, August 30th, from 2-5 p.m. The show runs through October 2.
Jason Craighead is best known for his predominantly large-scale painting that combine acrylic, oil pastel, and graphite in multiple layers of color, lines, and drips.
Before the artist’s exhibit last winter at the Fayetteville Museum of Art in Fayetteville, NC., he described the direction in which his work was going at that time as “the ultimate transitional moment for me. I’m detaching from ‘things,’ finding space and creating rhythm, and letting my work become the pure thing that it is. With less fear comes more freedom.”
Craighead’s work has continued to evolve since then, and now he notes, “Those earlier pieces were a little friendlier. The ‘less fear” concept is allowing me to leave things behind – fear, ego, pride – and really begin to make work. I feel like there is a flight mechanism in these pieces [for the Somerhill show], like the sense of jumping off a cliff: there’s that moment of horror and serenity all at the same time. This work is about progress and purpose, not perfection. I’m even allowing myself the freedom to stop early – to show something that raw.”
According to Somerhill director Joseph Rowand, “Jason has discovered a source within himself which he knows how to acknowledge. And he is willing to do the work to get to the passage."
Rowand describes the nearly 20 pieces in the show – on canvas, paper and doors – as “making us look up into our imagination. We are affected by mind-tripping on the tangible results of a man hard at his work as well as pleasure. The culmination of his vision allows us and coaches us to loose ourselves in that vision, therefore enhancing it, in our mind's eye, implanting the reflection for future referral. It is the pure pleasure of viewing a good painting. How much fun it is to create and indulge one's visual life."
Somerhill Gallery is located in the Venable Center in Durham at 303 South Roxboro Street. For directions visit the website at www.somerhill.com.
Media contact: Kim Weiss, blueplate pr: 919-272-8615; kjw27612@yahoo.com
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