New City Arts presents Unbound Oasis, featuring acrylic, ink, and cut paper works by Alexandra Chiou and encaustic paintings by Amanda Smith.
New City Arts' Welcome Gallery
114 3rd St. NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
First Fridays
December 2, 5:00–7:30 PM
Free and open to the public. All ages welcome.
Gallery Hours
12:00-4:00 PM, Monday–Friday
Sponsors
New City Arts First Fridays at Welcome Gallery is presented by Northwestern Mutual and sponsored by Foggy Ridge Cider and Wegmans.
About the Artist (provided by the artists)
Alexandra Chiou began as an oil painter creating large scale paintings with vibrant colors. Over time, she wanted to achieve greater transparency and airiness in her work, and moved towards pen, ink, and acrylic paint. Most recently, she has incorporated layered cut paper into her work, adding new textures and more dimension to the pieces. She is an avid explorer and outdoor enthusiast, which is reflected in her process and work.
Amanda Smith is an encaustic artist inspired by nature's divine tendency to repeat itself in micro and macro landscapes. After a recent visit to the Pacific Northwest coast, Amanda found herself intoxicated by the ocean--the textures of seafoam, floating kelp, and alluring blues and greens. This lead her into investigation of an encaustic technique called shellac burn. Quite an alchemic process, raw pigment is mixed with shellac and torched with flame. Using this technique in her current body of work, Smith exposes nature's uncanny proclivity to repeat itself. In once fluid wax and shellac, one finds the patterns of sea spray and kelp sealed in landscapes that could be viewed from miles or only inches away.
Amanda is a 2004 graduate of Berea College where she majored in industrial art. A Nelson County native, she calls Afton home and indulges in wanderlust as often as possible.
Images courtesy of the artists:
Winter Memories of the Mojave (right) by Alexandra Chio and Collide (left) by Amanda Smith.
