Several new exhibits are opening at Waterworks Visual Arts Center, including “Neo-Bulletin” by Darren Goins and “Yipes! Stripes: a Deconstruction” by Jerry Walden.
The opening reception is from 6-8 p.m. Friday and is free and open to the public.
The gallery will also be displaying student art, from elementary to high school, starting with the Rowan County Independent and Home Schools Exhibition.
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In creating his large scale digital and mixed media screen prints, artist Darren Goins often uses bits and pieces of what he has noticed throughout the day. The artist combines anything from abstract blocks of color to drawings of tennis balls to metal air vents. The seemingly haphazard way in which Goins combines bits of images serves to deconstruct any constant meaning the image may have. The resulting design literally and figuratively “takes apart” the individual images, making it difficult (if not impossible) for viewers to assign a definite meaning to any particular symbol.
Goins graduated in December 2008 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BFA in Photography and Printmaking. Charlotte’s McColl Center for Visual Art featured his work in the 2nd Annual Launched Exhibition in 2007, and in 2008 the artist held a solo show, Holiday Work, at the Gallery Carillon in Charlotte. From April until March 2010, Goins will be an artist in residence at the McColl Center.
In “Yipes! Stripes: a Deconstruction,” South Carolina painter Jerry Walden displays mixed media paintings consisting of colorful stripes and geometric shapes. These works are completely non-objective, meaning that they show no recognizable subject matter, concentrating instead on the abstract elements of line, shape, and color. Sections of the canvases contain broad areas of lines ó some vertical, some horizontal, and some diagonal. In all cases, however, the dynamic rhythm and spirit of these colorful designs easily convey the whimsy and energy suggested by the show’s title.
Walden earned an MFA in painting from the University of Georgia in Athens in 1971. Since 1965, Walden has exhibited in over 80 solo, group, and faculty exhibitions. A former head of the art department at Winthrop University in South Carolina, Walden taught drawing, painting, and printmaking for over thirty years. He has also served as a board member of the South Carolina Arts Alliance and a panel member of the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Adjudication of Visual Art Grant Applications. The artist resides in Rock Hill, S.C.
In addition, from Feb. 20-May 30, the Waterworks Visual Arts Center will display the art of Rowan County’s independent, home, and public school students in the annual Celebrating Rowan County’s Young Artists student exhibitions.
The Independent and Home Schools exhibition runs Feb. 20- March 14, with a reception on Thursday, Feb. 26, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The Elementary Schools exhibition runs March 20-April 11, with a reception on Sunday, March 22, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
The center will display the Middle Schools exhibition April 17-May 6, with a reception Thursday, April 23, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The High School exhibition will run from May 9-30, with a reception on Thursday, May 14, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The free receptions are held to honor the participating students and family members, art teachers, and school administrators; they’re open to the public. The center invites the public to drop in this spring and take a look at the creative work of Rowan County’s talented students. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.5-p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday; and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 704-636-1882.