Eno Mill Gallery - Orange Co. Arts Commission

The Eno Arts Mill is home to the Eno Mill Gallery, a 1,000 square foot exhibit space that offers our studio artists the opportunity to exhibit their work. Each of our studio artists have a one-month featured exhibit of their work on a rotating basis. New gallery exhibits open the first Friday of each month and feature the opportunity to visit our artist studios and enjoy live music, food trucks and beverages.

CURRENT EXHIBIT:

Featuring work by Eno Mill Studio Artist Kelly Oakes

To See and Be Seen, To Know and Be Known: Portraits of People Who Have Experienced Homelessness
This show includes twelve large portraits I have painted of residents of Orange County. They have found permanent housing in partnership with service providers and the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness after time in shelters and/or on the streets.

I have always been drawn to paint the inner spirit of a person, to those who may be unseen in our
community. I felt called to paint residents in my town of Hillsborough, and Chapel Hill/Carrborro who may feel invisible — whose struggles might be misunderstood, and whose inner strengths often go unrecognized.

I offered individuals the opportunity to be painted, compensating them for their time. I hoped the invitation to paint their portraits would give them the opportunity to tell their stories, to be heard and seen, and to then to see
themselves mirrored back in the paintings.

My intention through these portraits, is to share the spirit of resilience in these residents of
Orange County, some who endure day-to-day lives of real hardship, sometimes trauma, in order
to bring to light the essential, inner story of someone who might otherwise remain unseen and
unknown — in fact, to remind all of us to look beyond the facades, and see the person within.

The exhibit will be on view at the Eno Arts Mill Gallery through the end of September. The public is invited to visit the gallery Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5pm.

Click here to view a pdf of Orange County portraits

Sponsor a Portrait

Are you particularly moved by one of the inspiring people featured in the exhibit? Consider giving them the gift of art. Your chosen portrait will be given to the person depicted in that painting. Of each $800 purchase, $240 will support the Orange County Arts Alliance, $200 will support the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness, and $360 will go to the artist, Kelly Oakes. For inquiries, please email jhansen@orangecountync.gov

STUDIO 17 HALL GALLERY

ESTEN WALKER

Vibrant Matter: Book of Days

a gladdening experience of continuity…admist a fluid medium made up of images belonging to memory and perception, a free to-and-fro between past and present, between solid order, and playful confusion.
– Byung Chul Han, The Scent of Time

Observing the gestalts and the emergences of the world around us––whether briefly encountered, or through a duration in a place––unlocks a creativity in us. I am intrigued by the vibrant matter all around us, of which we are part of its assemblage. This work is from my spring “book of days.” These are moments of attentiveness.

Esten Walker is a multi-media artist interested in exploring the poetic forces emergent and arising from nature, constructed environments, and the spaces of our human psyche. Esten lives and works in North Carolina where she enjoys hiking and walking. This informs her artistic practice, as well as her interest in NC conservation. She has studied with JSS, in Civita Castellana, Italy; Penland School of Craft; and Massachusetts College of Art, among others. In 2021, Esten received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she was a merit scholar, and recipient of the Mary Butler Fellowship Award. Esten is an Eno River Arts Mill resident artist.

UPCOMING EXHIBITS:

OCTOBER, 2022: 6th Annual Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint-out & Wet Paint Sale

Featuring the Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint-out Wet Paint Sale

Opening Reception Friday, October 7

NOVEMBER, 2022: Ryann Carey with guest artist Amy Gelber

Featuring work by Eno Mill Studio Artist Ryann Carey with guest artist Amy Gelber

Opening Reception Friday, November 4 | 6-9PM

DECEMBER, 2022: Orange County Artists Guild Holiday Show

Featuring works by members of the Orange County Artists Guild

Opening Reception Friday, December 2 | 6-9PM

PAST EXHIBITS:

AUGUST 2022: INSIGHT featuring Audrey Pinto, Mar Hester, and Christine Hager-Braun

JULY 2022: Building Bridges: An Exhibition of Latin American Artists in the Triangle

Building Bridges: An Exhibit of Latin American Artists in the Triangle

Featured Triangle Artists:

Nana Abreu, Durham
Antonio Alanis, Durham
Fabrizio Bianchi, Durham
Cornelio Campos, Durham
Melissa Garcia Corona, Efland
The Dib Studio, Hillsborough
IKORMA, Hillsborough
Saba Jordan, Carrboro
Eduardo Lapetina, Chapel Hill
Cat de M, Durham
Luis MacKinney, Raleigh
Peter Marin, Raleigh
Sol Ramírez, Carrboro
Miriam Sagasti, Chapel Hill
José Guadalupe Saldaña
Marcela Slade, Carrboro
Natalia Torres del Valle, Hillsborough
Erik Valera, Chapel Hill
Jorge Zuluaga, Durham

JANUARY - JULY 2022: Analog Visual by Dibkorma

Analog Visual by Dibkorma

JUNE 2022: IKORMA Musicons

IKORMA Musicons

Featuring MUSICONS by Eno Mill Studio Artist IKORMA

MAY 2022: Orange County Artists Guild Spring Art Show

APRIL, 2022: HOME? An Artistic Exploration of Housing in the Triangle

The Orange County Arts Commission, in partnership with the Orange County Department of Housing and Community Development presented HOME? An Artistic Exploration of Housing in the Triangle, which sought to showcase “home” through the eyes and words of working artists.

The exhibit featured 100 works of art by 53 Triangle-based artists; 16 literary artists read works at the exhibit opening on April 1.

VIEW THE EXHIBIT GUIDE HERE

MARCH, 2022: Mary Ann Rozear: The Shapes of Memories

Featuring work by Eno Mill Studio Artist Mary Ann Rozear

Mary Ann is an award winning artist whose subject matter is as varied as her choice of medium. Whether using watercolors, acrylics, or oils, she strives to elicit an emotional response from the viewer with each painting. Mary Ann began painting in 2002 while living in Blowing Rock, NC, where she studied for six years with many master painters. She was most influenced by Mary Ann Beckwith, Gerald Brommer, and Skip Lawrence, whose philosophy was to encourage each student to paint in their own style. Mary Ann has developed her own unique approach to painting, believing that the enjoyment she gets during the process of painting translates to the finished piece. Mary Ann received the WWA Walter Garner Memorial Award in 2013 and the WWA Gail Henderson Memorial Award in 2014.

“The Shapes of Memories” showcases Mary Ann’s work over the last fifteen years. The title represents the way in which Mary Ann paints – not from photos or images, rather her memories of the places, people, and things she remembers and loves.

FEBRUARY, 2022: Kennedi Carter: Notes From a Rodeo: Ridin' Sucka Free, Revisited

Notes From a Rodeo: Ridin’ Sucka Free, Revisited
A photographic exploration of southern Black equestrians by Eno Arts Mill studio artist Kennedi Carter

A Durham, North Carolina native by way of Dallas Texas, Kennedi Carter is a photographer with a primary focus on Black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as the overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness. Kennedi’s clients include British Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, The Fader, Essence, The New York Times, Men’s Health, and TIME.

Ridin’ Sucka Free is an ongoing photographic exploration into the lives of Black southern equestrians. The American cowboy can be traced back to antebellum Texas, when westward traveling white colonists first encountered Mexican vaqueros and later appropriated their equestrian techniques. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, one-third of cowboys in existence were vaqueros and a quarter of them were Black. The systemic white-washing of American history is not an unfamiliar tale. Despite the fact African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexicans made up the majority of the cowboys that existed in the United States, their presence has been erased from contemporary Americana. While a majority of this project is centered around the everyday lives of the American cowboy, the work featured in Notes From A Rodeo was shot in a single night at the RCA Finals in Shreveport, Louisiana.