Mississippi State University professor and artist Brent Funderburk will be featured in a show of new paintings, “New Spin” at River Gallery in Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning January 31, 2010.
The public is invited to attend a reception of the artist on Friday, February 5, from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Refreshments will be served and Funderburk will speak about his work in the gallery at 7:00 PM.
“New Spin” premieres seven new watercolor/acrylic works from the “Flying World” series, which couples deep, cloud roiled skies with familiar objects such as ripe fruit, silver ornaments, and squeezed out paint tubes, which seem to float through luminous, dreamlike landscapes.
The artist credits his father Tom Funderburk’s renewal of his FAA pilot at age 84 as inspiration for the large paintings, in that, according to his son, “he told me he may not go up this year, but knowing that he can is almost the same thing. Here I found a curious place that flickers between inner and outer reality. That’s what I have tried to image; I’m trying to remember that I can fly.”
A reply by the dancer Nijinsky when asked how he seemed to soar also captured Funderburk’s fancy; “You just have to go up and then pause a little up there.”
In related activity, Funderburk’s artwork “Toward Autumn” was recently chosen by juror Maxine Masterfield, artist/author, for inclusion in the Second Annual International Society of Acrylic Painters International Open Exhibition”, and several works were selected by juror Ian Berry, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, NY, for inclusion in the Winter 2009/10 issue of the national publication “Studio Visit”. Also, two pieces by Funderburk won two awards
(“Fine Art Professional Merit Award” and “Fine Art Professional Runner-Up Award”) of 24 works by artists accepted by juror Adia Millet into the “New Talent” competition, resulting in the Winter 2009/10 issue of the national publication “Creative Quarterly”. Two of the artist’s works will be featured as well in the Spring 2010 issue of “Studio Visit” as chosen by juror/publisher Steven Zevitas. Two paintings from the “Flying World” series are currently on exhibit at a January/February 2010 group show honoring Funderburk’s teacher, “The Legacy of Paul Hartley”, at the Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Also showing at River Gallery are paintings by Camille Engel and ceramic work by Emily Reason. The exhibition, “New Spin”, will remain on exhibit through February 29, 2010.
River Gallery and the River Gallery Sculpture Garden are located in the Bluff View Art District across from the Hunter Museum of American Art overlooking the Tennessee River, integral partners in Chattanooga, Tennessee’s riverfront renaissance as the region’s cultural center.
Brent Funderburk has taught at Mississippi State University in the Department of Art since 1982.
For more information about the exhibit:
River Gallery
400 East Second Street
Chattanooga, TN
37403
423-265-5033