![Brent Weston's "Behind the Concrete Wall" was the recipient of the Best In Show honors at this year's Association for Visual Arts Juried Members Exhibition. [Contributed photo.]](https://wehco.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/timesfreepress/img/photos/2015/12/19/1450586443_122015e01-Arts-BrentWeston-BehindTheConcreteWall_t800.jpg?90232451fbcadccc64a17de7521d859a8f88077d)
An untitled work by Association for Visual Arts member Meri Wright.If you go
› What: Association for Visual Arts Juried Members Exhibition 2015› When: Dec. 4-Jan. 2› Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.› Where: Association for Visual Arts Gallery, 30 Frazier Ave.› Admission: Free› Phone: 265-4282
Artists on display
› Brent Weston (best of show winner)› Ellyn Biven› Miki Boni› Lolly Durant› Myles Freeman› Khambrel Green› Mary Haberkorn› Patrick Ironwood› Wanda Knowles› Suzanne Mortimer› Renel Plouffe› Wes Rehberg› Thomas Spake› Julie Turner› Jillian Walther› Meri Wright
The juror
Gian Pham is an assistant professor of arts at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Prior to starting her career at UA this fall, she taught at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida, where she received her masters of fine arts in sculpture. She also has a bachelors of fine arts in painting and print making from the University of Tulsa.
Best of Show
Chattanooga-based artist Brent Weston’s mixed-media installation “Behind the Concrete Wall” was selected as best of show in the Association for Visual Arts’ annual Juried Members Exhibition. After years of globe trotting and experimentation across various media, Weston in 2012 received his bachelor of fine arts in painting and drawing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Every year, the Association for Visual Arts organizes an exhibition to showcase the work of its member artists. The collection draws on the diverse talents of AVA's members and, as such, there isn't always a unifying theme to tie the pieces together.
This year, however, they found one, says AVA Education and Exhibitions Director Lauren Goforth, who decided how to present the works in the association's in-house gallery.
"I'd say the overall theme is about investigation," she says, "investigating the world we're living in, the world that surrounds us, but also investigating our personal worlds, what's inside our heads, and learning how to navigate these areas in a very personal way."
The 16 selected works on display represent a range of media, predominantly painting in oils and acrylics, but also photography, sculpture and mixed media.
The pieces were selected by Giang Pham, an assistant professor of arts at the University of Alabama. In her juror's statement, Pham writes that the pieces she selected reflect a kind of artistic wanderlust on the part of their creators.
"The works included in this exhibition resonate with a need to search, wander, change perspective and expand horizons," she explains. "I am drawn to this group of works by a successful merge between medium and investigation, which consequently communicate ideas of solitude, internalized ethos and/or the re-enchantment of simple phenomena."
The works are arranged throughout AVA's gallery in two distinct groups, one representing the reflective inner contemplation and one depicting a sense of outward discovery, Goforth says.
Despite the breadth of the media on display, Pham's selections maintain a sense of cohesion - "a progression of thoughts," Goforth says - that made curating their arrangement much easier.
"Even though it's diverse and there's something for everyone, it all ends up being a very cohesive show because of the jurors we use," Goforth says. "They always do a good job of picking works that have a conversation with each other."
The members exhibition will continue to be on display through Jan. 2. The best of show winner, Chattanooga artist Brent Weston, will present a solo exhibition at AVA next November.
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.