Eno Mill Gallery

JANUARY 2024:

Opening Reception Friday, January 3 | 6-9PM
Coalesce 2024

The 8th Annual
Paint It Orange Plein Air Paint-out & Wet Paint Sale

ABOUT THE SHOW

ABOUT THE SHOW

Contrast
Definition: “The state of being strikingly different from something else in close association.”

About Teen Arts Collective: Teen Arts Collective is a free program for LGBTQIA2S+ teens who gather twice a month to connect and create together. This group started in April 2022 and is lead by Expressive Arts Therapist Natalia Torres del Valle. They are excited to share their first art exhibition with the community! Learn more at littlehouseartstherapy.com

ABOUT THE SHOW

Two artists, each with eclectic taste, present funky items and artifacts from their lives. Paintings, collage, fiber art, sculpture, furniture, and so much more!

Artists: TJ Mundy and Shady Kimzey

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Eno Arts Mill is an arts hub located in the historic Eno Mill in West Hillsborough, NC, managed by the Orange County Arts Commission.  We invite people of all types to gather and experience the visual, performing, and literary arts. We strive to be a community arts space that is safe, welcoming, and accessible for all people.

Click here to view OUR ARTISTS

Featured Eno Mill Artists in the show: Freddie Bell, John Dempsey, Shady Kimzey, Helen Jones, Tyamica Mabry, Judy Maloney, Makala Muhammed, TJ Mundy, Chieko Murasugi, Kelly Oakes

Click here to learn more about the ENO ARTS MILL

ABOUT THE SHOW

Western philosophy defines the body politic as a collective entity imagined as a metaphorical physical body-an embodied system, ideology, or practice. In celebration of the 5th anniversary since the formation of BASEMENT Art Space, an alternative, experimental, and socially-oriented artist collective, Body Politic exhibits the work of the art space’s current members. Collective­ly, the work of these artists has been the catalyst and genesis of change, growth, and the evolution of BASEMENT.

This installation contemplates bodies as evidence of politics, colonialism, phi­losophy, and absurdity. Chieko Murasugi reimagines the traditional Japanese kimono, crafting it with cheesecloth which once wrapped napalm dropped by the United States on Japan during World War II. Chloé Rager collects rem­nants and evidence of the body’s presence, filling pothole cavities, gathering queered fragments, and archiving signs of our existence. Laura Little exam­ines the body from a medicinal perspective, mining medical archives to create dystopian and liminal perspectives on the US medical system. Her col­lages and altered readymades envision alternative paths for healing the body. Jonh Blanco, an undisciplined artist, employs the body to render useful things useless. Clumping, leaning onto, attaching, and stacking objects, they narrate discomfort, fear, and confinement. Hồng-An Trương delves inot the archive to explore the lived experiences of the refugee and immigrant narrative. Collec­tively, these artists materialize the discomfort from our bodies as products or manifestations of US colonialism and failed systems.

This exhibition is curated by Julianne Miao in collaboration with Jonh Blanco, Laura Little, Chieko Murasugi, Chloé Rager, and Hồng-An Trương.

ABOUT BASEMENT

Founded in 2019, BASEMENT is a provisional artist-run project space located in Chapel Hill, NC that supports experimental and critical art practices. We choose to strengthen and build connections between artists and communities specifically in the regional southeast.

To us, working with artists is not only a singular event but is intended to be a long-term commitment to using our platform to uplift each other. We view our support as an important ongoing investment in building relationships with critical art practitioners from and for our local and regional Southern community.

>>> Learn more about BASEMENT

FOLK: Traditions and Futures of Self-Taught Artists is a group exhibition of art from Bad Art Club participants and supporters. We’re not creating fine art, we’re creating folk art. Art created with whatever materials and space we have available. This art is inspired by culture, religion, daily life, and everyday objects. Folk art resists fine art rules and regulations. Folk art is for everybody.

Fellow Artists: Barbara Younger, Marty Rogers, Jenna Luna, Diana Whitney, Tasha Graham, Bri Gribben, Terri Kimzey, James Kimzey, Stephanie Hoover, TJ Mundy, Polly Greene, Shady Kimzey (Grow Your World Artist-In-Residence), Syd Ginsberg, Sophie Crouse, Marsha Glickman, Caleb G

Pastel Society of NC 2024 Statewide Art Exhibition
On Common Ground From the Mountains to the Sea

ABOUT THE SHOW

Artists from the three pastel societies in NC will compete in the On Common Ground: From the Mountain to the Sea statewide juried exhibition. Finalists’ work will be on display and for sale at the Orange County Arts Commission Eno Arts Mill Gallery – a vibrant artistic hub located in historic West Hillsborough, NC, from June 7- June 29, 2024.

The exhibition is a collaboration between The Pastel Society of North Carolina (PSNC), The Appalachian Pastel Society, and the Piedmont Pastel Society. According to PSNC president, Daphne Boder, the goal of the statewide competition is to collaborate with the other regional societies in promoting the beauty of the soft pastel medium. Artwork on display will showcase the talents of these member artists some of whom have earned “master “status both nationally and internationally. Winners are awarded cash and art prizes sponsored by North Carolina merchants and member groups.

Soft pastel is a loved medium used by many modern artists such as Zaria Foreman and Deborah Stewart and classical greats including Vermeer, Degas and Renoir. Prized for its brilliant color, pastel was first used in the sixteenth century, notably by Leonardo da Vinci. It flourished in the eighteenth century, again in the late nineteenth century, and remains popular today.

About The Pastel Society of NC

Founded in 1996, the goal of the society is to provide fellowship and encouragement, promote standards of excellence in the use of the medium and further the education of the general community to the intrinsic beauty and permanency of art created from soft pastels.

Read the Room then Take Flight
with Grow Your World

ABOUT THE SHOW

‘READ the ROOM then Take Flight’ is an artistic compilation of Grow Your World’s journey — our past, our present and our hopes for the future. It combines our triumphs and lessons learned along the way it shows the embodiment of doing with and not for, the embodiment of authentic community and growth in it.

The art and images showcase our hopes and impact on and from educational, criminal justice, and public health sectors with special emphasis on mental health. We see our work as a response to the US Surgeon General’s Advisory on Isolation and Loneliness, as well as a web of protective factors in response to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma.

We have found through this process that art is courage manifested. What we have been able to do through the arts has transformed and transcended barriers into opportunities for connection and growth. We invite the community to come and interact with our work and join in to take part, invest and support our work and our community as we continue to grow our world.

About Grow Your World

Grow Your World is a youth-centered community building organization co-founded in Orange County in 2019 by Sophie Suberman and Soteria Shepperson. The organization uses mentorship and the arts to create access to new opportunities and healthy outlets for youth and adults alike. 

Since 2019, we have served thousands of families through our mentor-tutoring program (Tutoring After 6pm), arts-based mentorship and diversion program (INKounter), summer camps, after school programming and events. We have trained and employed over 500 college students from universities such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, Elon University, Shaw University, Davidson College, Hampton College, Greensboro College and more.

At Grow Your World, we enhance the lives of young people and the community-at large by creating a nurturing and inclusive environment that fosters personal growth, expands support networks, and provides access to opportunities. Through mentorship and a range of enrichment activities developed in partnership with community members and organizations, we strive to empower all participants to fulfill their potentials, cultivate a strong sense of belonging, and become active contributors in their communities.

Learn more and get involved at www.growyourworld.org.

1.5°C

ABOUT ‘1.5°C’

The Orange County Arts Commission, in partnership with the Orange County Office of Sustainability invited visual artists to investigate environmental themes through works of original art. In the open call for this show, artists submitted works of art made from recycled, natural, or sustainable materials and/or art themed around the environment, earth, climate change, sustainability or similar. Possible considerations of themes to explore included, “How are we impacting the earth?” or “What does a healthy earth look like to you?” Artists in this show are currently living in one of the following counties: Orange, Durham, Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Person, or Alamance.

In addition to partnering with the OC Arts Commission for this exhibit, the OC Office of Sustainability has committed to a Purchase Award of up to $1,500!

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Alexandrea Lassiter, Alison Charchar, Allie Duffney, Allison Tierney, Amy Wetsch, Ann Brownlee Hobgood, Anna Myers, Antonia Brown, Becky R Johnson, Boots Quimby, Calvert Johnny, Carin Walsh & Jenny Blazing, Cat de Montjoye, Chieko Murasugi, Dimples Gibbs, Ellen Elgar, Erik Valera, Erin Ives, Eryn Donnalley, Esten Walker, Grayce Graham Curry, Greta Boney, Isa Verna, Jacqueline Rimmler, James Keul, Janet L Ecklebarger, Joan Rasmussen, Joel Sobelson, Judy Maloney, Kathryn Anne Olive, Katie Clark, Katie King, Laura Oleniacz, Lisa Philipps, Mary Lee Kerr, Megan Corbally, Natalia Torres del Valle, Nerys Levy, Pat Perrin, Rebecca Neigher, Ruby Johnny, Sampada Kodagali Agarwal, Selina Akter, Shady Kimzey, Dr. Sheila Adams, Shin-Yiing Yeung, Sophie Crouse, Stacy Bloom Rexode, Steevie Parks, Sterling Bowen, Steve Wright, Taro Takizawa, Thomas Graham, Tina Marcus, TJ Mundy, Todd Jones, Tripp’s Store collaborative of Mae Lettuce and Dani Lyn, Wendy Scott, Yvonne M. Eadon

DUET
with John Dempsey and Judith Ernst

ABOUT ‘DUET’

“Challenging any preconceived understanding of pictorial space and the subjects portrayed, Dempsey reveals the human propensity to perceive patterns and to search for meaning and order in whatever chaos or confusion we encounter. (C. Greig)
Using three-dimensional pattern and tesselation in what are otherwise symetrical vessel forms, Ernst guides the viewer’s eye toward the discreet opening into the unseen mystery at the heart of the vessel.
Blurring the boundaries between time and space with the kind of shape-shifting imagery that lingers from a dream, Dempsey imagines their borders as porous and impermanent. (C. Greig)
Ernst treats the metaphor of the inner as a resonant subject matter for non-functional ceramic art pieces. Implied are the dichotomies between the inner and outer, the hidden and the seen, the created world and the ineffable mystery.”

About John Dempsey

After many years in Michigan, the painter, John Dempsey, has relocated to Hillsborough, NC. Painting on a large scale, with minute detail, he says of his work: “We experience our environment sequentially by immersion and over real time—temporally and causally. Moving through a collage of industrial, post-industrial, modern, and postmodern environments, we must work to resolve our understanding of landscape and nature within this episodic experience of place. These compositions are offered in order to visually explore and chronicle this complex dynamic.”
According to artist and author, Cynthia Greig, his paintings “. . .lure us into their maze, bringing together a dense arrangement of seemingly discordant imagery awash in brilliant color, form, and pattern.”

About Judith Ernst

Ernst describes her work this way: My work as a ceramist has focused on the interplay of traditional forms and sculptural expression. I use the vessel form conceptually, because vessels have an inside, an inner dimension. An enclosed form is extroverted; it displaces space and interacts with its environment. Imagine the same enclosed form but with a small entrance to an interior. The form becomes introverted, self-contained; it has an existential presence connected to its mysterious inner space. In the ancient world, vessels were used functionally, but also metaphorically in ritual and literature, employing some of the same ideas of interiority. Deep relief creates dynamic movement, leading the eye to the inside, opening a dialogue between the vessel’s outer planes and inner spaces.

Blackfuturism: a full color spectrum of blackness

“Blackfuturism: a full color spectrum of blackness” is a group art show exclusively featuring local Black artists. From the show’s curator, “This exhibition will honor and showcase the generations of limitless creation, imagination, and artistry that Black artists have, and will always have.” – TJ Mundy, the 2023 BIPOC Artist in Residence, Eno Arts Mill.

Participating artists: Mona Abraham, Myles Brown, C.C., Candy Carver, Tori Celeste, Taari Coleman, Davis, DevinD, Debi L. Drew, Brat Enterprises, King Nobuyoshi Godwin, Medusa Gomes, Caleb G, Tasha Graham, Elisa Holley, Bunny June, Keyante Love, Tyamica Mabry, Tiffney Marley, Andrea Mundy, Marcia Mundy, TJ Mundy, Onicas, Janiya ‘Niya’ Pierce, Alanah Reid, Jordan T. Robinson, Sadie Rose, I AM SOTERIA, Serayah Silver, H. Michelle Spaulding, Shayla Thornton, Tiffany Wilson

HUMAN KINDNESS FOUNDATION
“Art from the Inside”

Human Kindness Foundation creates, curates and distributes free resources and conducts workshops about spirituality, mindfulness and wellness for people experiencing incarceration and their families. Our work is designed specifically for and with justice-involved and justice-impacted audiences. Over the past 50 years, we’ve distributed over a half million books and over a million newsletters and conducted mindfulness workshops in prisons and jails across the country. Our work provides an ongoing supportive presence and creates a sense of loving community for those in the midst of disconnection and isolation.

This art illustrates the ability to make beauty, share creativity, offer wisdom, and provide generosity, regardless of life circumstances. Fifty years of artwork sent to Human Kindness Foundation from people in prisons and jails throughout the country are featured in this show. These artists are thoughtful, creative, contemplative, generous and resourceful. In their hands, grievance forms become a canvas; the dye from skittles turns into paint. We celebrate the beauty and generosity on display here and are humbled and grateful to be caretakers of these gifts.

“COALESCE 2024”

Coalesce features twenty Orange County-based artists: ten poets and ten visual artists. Created and curated by husband and wife team Max and Morrow Dowdle, the selected artists were matched in pairs, with each poet creating a poem based on a visual work by their partner, and each visual artist creating a work based on a poem. The resulting exhibit will feature 20 works of visual art paired with 20 poems.

Featured artist teams:

Susan Brubaker-Knapp / Pam Baggett
Sia Yazdanfar / CJ Suitt
Jan-Ru Wan / Liza Wolff-Francis
Anne Anthony / Luna Hou
Joel Sobelson / Lisa Merschel
Laura Williams / Ash Chen
Jill Moffett / Philip Krieger
Thomas Stevens / Jeffery Beam
Tema Okun / Gary Phillips
Bernard Thomas / Aaliyah Mitchell

“2023 Deck the Walls Annual Holiday Show with the Orange County Artists Guild”

The Orange County Artists Guild is an inclusive, non-profit organization of “artists supporting artists,” seeking to increase the visibility and recognition of area artists and craftspeople. The Guild was begun in 2000 by a group of diverse artists who participated in the Orange County Open Studio Tour, a popular annual event in the county since 1995. The group is primarily made up of professional visual artists with considerable experience and dedication, but is open to emerging artists who want more understanding of what it means to produce and exhibit their work. The Guild does not place any restrictions on member’s art or craft media, content, or style of work.

“7th Annual Paint It Orange Plein Air Paint-Out and Wet Paint Sale”

For three days, painters will paint Orange County en plein air (outside) for Paint it Orange. More than 100 works of art will be on sale through the end of November. The Paint it Orange Wet Paint Sale is a unique opportunity to purchase original art featuring sites and scenery unique to Orange County ranging from landscapes to landmarks and everything in between! Mediums range from oil to watercolor to pastel. The works are in a wide variety of sizes at all price points.

View this year’s winners HERE!

NC ClayWorks is a pottery guild for potters and pottery lovers in and around the Triangle of North Carolina. Our mission is to encourage, educate and provide opportunities for our members, regardless of skill level.

We promote ceramics by sharing our knowledge and love of clay with the public and each other.

Participating Potters: Cynthia Aldrich, Deb Barnett (Hardwood Lane Pottery), Julie Berkowitz, Wendy Clements, Pamela Epperson (Powder Mill Pottery), Belinda Gabryl, Lynne Griffin, Pam Groben, Sarah Gruber, Perdita Holtz (Handcrafted by Perdita), Lee Ann Diemer Jones, Russell Knop, Elizabeth Krome (Quail Run Pottery), Michelle Kuerbitz, De De Richardson (Pickle Pie Pottery), Levi Yakubu

JOHN DEMPSEY
Alla Prima: Painting Painters

One traditional method of starting an oil painting is by using a dark/ light/halftone process of painting in the composition all at once, or ‘alla prima’, using an earth tone thinned down with turpentine. The results are often nicknamed tobacco-juice paintings, among Western art academy students, and soy sauce paintings, among their Asian counterparts. The resulting study is used as an underpainting that is then painted over with a full color palette, hiding it from view in the finished painting.

Painting Painters contains a number of these tobacco juice paintings created while demonstrating this technique to first semester painting students in Flint, Michigan at Mott Community College. The demo became more fun, and the banter livelier, when the students became the subject matter. Many of these were given away to the sitter. Some of my souvenirs are shown here.

“Disposession“

With Freddie Bell and Beth Tacular

Dispossession

All bodies tell a story.

Many of these stories are of loss.

Our bodies hold on to our grief, remembering what we no longer possess.

Our bodies evolve, change, and shift – lived narratives weaving through our tissues and living in our bones.

We hold on to what we know, whether we like it or not.

With varying results, both Freddie Bell and Beth Tacular explore the relationship of the body to life and loss.

The colorful abstraction alongside black and white surrealism reflects the tension we often hold towards facing realities of life. Loss of loved ones, changed relationships, bodies growing older. It hurts to face these things because we’ve loved them dearly. The paradox of a life lived. A beautiful balance ought to be found in a life full of loss – shared here through the juxtaposition of these works.

“Of a Complex Nature“

With Eno Mill Artist:
Esten Walker
Also Featuring:
Sarina Angell
John Beerman
Mercedes Jelinek
Candace Jensen
Thomas Rowell

About the show

Of a Complex Nature is an exciting exhibit featuring artists with national recognition, connected by threads of relations: to the natural world, to North Carolina, and to the Eno River Arts Mill. Each artist in this exhibition––Sarina Angel, John Beerman, Mercedes Jelinek, Candace Jensen, Thomas Rowell, and Esten Walker––has spent many hours absorbing and attuning themselves to nature’s intricacies. Through this varied body of artwork––of photography, illumination, sculpture and painting––an environment of aesthetics is created for the viewer. So too, this selection of artwork is presented in relation to quotes from some of today’s foremost scientific and philosophical thinkers.

Featured artists:

Coalesce features twenty Orange County-based artists: ten poets and ten visual artists. Created and curated by husband and wife team Max and Morrow Dowdle, the selected artists were matched in pairs, with each poet creating a poem based on a visual work by their partner, and each visual artist creating a work based on a poem. The resulting exhibit will feature 20 works of visual art paired with 20 poems.

Featured artist teams:

Theresa Arico / Bartholomew Barker
Tonya Brami / Fred Joiner
Dennis Szerszen / Paul Jones
Ann Brownlee Hobgood / Samir Knego
Ryan Solstice / Amelia Loeffler
Natalia Torres del Valle / Blaine Purcell
Sudie Rakusin / Soteria Shepperson
TJ Mundy / Gideon Young
Esten Walker / Katie Bowler Young
Max Dowdle / Morrow Dowdle

For three days, 66 painters from four states painted Orange County en plein air (outside) for Paint it Orange. More than 100 works of art on on sale through the end of the month. The Paint it Orange Wet Paint Sale is a unique opportunity to purchase original art featuring sites and scenery unique to Orange County ranging from landscapes to landmarks and everything in between! Mediums range from oil to watercolor to pastel. The works are in a wide variety of sizes at all price points.

View this year’s winners here and save the date for Paint it Orange 2023 happening October 4-6, 2023.

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.

Click here to view a pdf of Orange County portraits

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

Analog Visual by Dibkorma

IKORMA Musicons

Featuring MUSICONS by Eno Mill Studio Artist IKORMA

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

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.

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.

January, 2022

December, 2021

Featuring works by members of the Orange County Artists Guild!

Featuring paintings, ceramics, fine crafts, and jewelry.

November, 2021

The Paint it Orange Plein Air Wet Paint Sale features 85 works of original fine art at affordable prices.

October, 2021

Photos by Nic Johnson

Click here to view photos of the Opening Reception Friday, October 1 featuring live music by XOXOK, food trucks Yagg Sii Tenn and Mr. Wingz & Mrs. Thingz and beverages by Starrlight Mead, Durty Bull Brewing, and BMC Brewing.