Your guide to openings, exhibitions, and art you just can’t miss! The star city is teaming with outlets of the artistic persuasion, some good, some bad, and some well… strange, but most worth a gander. Here’s what we’ve found starting on the First Thursday (today) and highlighting events and exhibitions throughout the month! Get out and experience some art! You just might get cultured! Gasp! Your January 2010 Art Attack…

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Featured

Fiona Ross: Walking the Parallels to Terminus

Ross explores a variety of media to create unusual sculptures and intricate drawings. This exhibition will present her new site-specific wall mural and works on paper that explore the experience of walking a labyrinth. Ross will apply watercolor pens and sumi ink, an East Asian medium, directly to the walls to create unicursal (single line) labyrinths that will only exist for the duration of the show and will then be painted over. The mural becomes a mythical labyrinth, leading the viewer through a series of subtly rendered and fantastical creatures, obstacles, and difficult visual decisions via an uninterrupted thread of a line. This marks the first major site-specific wall mural project for the museum.

“We are thrilled to organize and present new work by internationally recognized artist Fiona Ross,” says director Amy G. Moorefield. “Her exhibition marks several ‘firsts’ for the museum and enhances our mission as a presenter of new and original work by leading artists working today.”

In addition to Ross’s mural, the museum will display her large-scale works on paper as well as her more intimate works on panel.  Often using her own figure as inspiration, the artist also incorporates landforms to create drawings rich with detail and mystery; what seems at first glance to be an outline of the body contains birds, maps, and flourishes.  Her research in labyrinths and mathematical curve theories, produced in conjunction with her husband, will be published in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts.

Ross received her BA and MST from Fordham University, NY, and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.  Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of Markel Corporation and Wachovia Securities. Exhibition from January 7 to January 30, 2010.

Opening Reception/Lecture: 6pm, Thursday, January 7, 2010
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
FREE

Five Times Five

Paintings by Signature 9 Gallery’s five founding members will be on display in January, beginning with a reception Jan. 7th during Art By Night. Showing are Tracy Budd, Sandi D’Alessandro, Vera Dickerson, Nancy Stark and Gari Stephenson.

Opening Reception: 5pm, Thursday, January 7, 2010
Signature 9 Gallery, Roanoke, VA
FREE

Box Lunch Forum with Michelle Moseley-Christian

Feed your brain and your appetite on your lunch hour…Join Michelle Moseley-Christian, Assistant Professor of Art History from Virginia Tech. Michelle will discuss the subject of beggars in Rembrandt’s etchings currently on display in the Taubman’s temporary exhibition Sordid and Sacred, The Beggars in Rembrandt’s Etchings from the John Villarino collection.

12pm-1pm, Friday, January 08, 2010
Advance Auto Parts Auditorium, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
FREE (does not include museum admission)

Works on Paper from the Imogene and Isadore Draper Collection of African American Art

Features works on paper by Contemporary African American artists, including Elizabeth Catlett, Charles Bibb, Sam Gilliam, A.B. Jackson, Martin Puryear and Jacob Lawrence.

Opening: 10am-3pm, Saturday, January 9, 2010
Piedmont Arts, Martinsville, VA
FREE, Gallery Hours: Tu-Fr: 10am-5pm; Sa: 10am-3pm

The Art and Life of Karen Carrino

This reception will feature the prolific talents of Karen Carrino, who was tragically killed in a hit-and-run car accident at the age of 19. Her work stands as a reminder of the need to nurture the talents of our youngest artists while her portraits of children illustrate the humanity and individuality of each child.

Reception: 2pm, Saturday, January 9, 2009
The Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Floyd, VA
FREE

The Legacy of Dr. King through a Child’s Eye

January 2009 marks the fifth anniversary of the Dr. King Poster Competition sponsored by Virginia Tech and the Montgomery County- Radford City – Floyd County Branch of the NAACP. This exhibit spotlights the different entries that have been received during the past four years from hundreds of children from throughout Montgomery County, Radford City and the Giles County Public schools. Exhibition runs January 18, 2010 to February 10, 2010.

Opening: Monday, January 18, 2010
Perspectives Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
FREE, Gallery Hours: Tu-Th: 12-5pm; Fr: 12-7pm; Sa: 12-5pm

Artisan Craft Conference

Virginia Artisans: Responsive & Ready!” …with a full day statewide Artisan Craft Fair open to the public, on Sunday the 24th. Special guest speaker Becky Anderson, Founding Director of Hand Made in America. Join artisans from around the state as they network, learn and exchange ideas and resources that strengthen the business of artisan craft and elevate the value of hand-made quality craft in the state of Virginia. Whether you are already embarking on a career as a practicing artisan entrepreneur or thinking of turning a hobby into a viable business, this conference is for you!

Friday, January 22, 2010 to Sunday, January 24, 2010
Hotel Roanoke, Downtown Roanoke, VA
$150-$175, Register at virginiaartisans.org/conference

Are you an artist or gallery that would like to be included each month in Art Attack? Please send your exhibition and event  information to info@upUPperiscope.com.