August 4 – September 3: STORYTELLERS
Cumberland Gallery ends the summer season with its third rotation show titled ‘Storytellers.’ This exhibit features work that carries a strong narrative component, including new works by Meg Aubrey, Barry Buxkamper, Jeff Danley, Bob Durham, Ray Kleinlein, Jim Phalen, Marilyn Murphy, Ron Porter and Caroline Waite.
Highlighting the beauty and simplicity of domestic life, still life paintings by Jim Phalen, Ray Kleinlein, and Bob Durham document day-to-day objects while addressing surfaces, scenarios, and repetition. Suburban series work by guest artist Meg Aubrey offers a deadpan view on routine and monotony. These quiet narratives point beyond personal life and memories, addressing a larger conversation built around culture, class and identity.
Marilyn Murphy’s signature graphite drawings and recent paintings by Barry Buxkamper and Ron Porter take these suggestive stories into the realm of surrealism. Objects beyond reach and out of scale, improbable scenarios and unidentifiable settings and landscapes often create a dreamlike atmosphere within this type of work. Ron Porter will present large works from his ongoing truck series in which he expands his precision of roads, reflections and sky into playful arrangements of space and time. Barry Buxkamper’s Ascension integrates home life, work, and layers of memory within a spatial intersection of windows and realities.
Jeff Danley's female figure exploration departs from his previous box series, this time incorporating open space, light, and movement. Louisville artist Caroline Waite will show a piece from her linear narratives series in which she combines found objects and hand-painted detail, often experimenting with weight, shadows, and the visual story line.
Skilled composers of thought and form, each of these Southeast artists draws visual plots with gestures, allusions and decorum, capturing a single moment in a larger discourse. An uncanny mood, ambiguous circumstance or symbolic reference can prompt the viewer to further unravel a story line. We are pleased to feature a variety of media and style within this context. With each artist presenting at least one new work to be revealed for the first time, this exhibit offers a fresh look at some of Cumberland Gallery’s most revered storytellers.
Read more about Storytellers in Nashville Arts Magazine's August issue!
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH JEFF DANLEY, ROBERT DURHAM, MARILYN MURPHY AND RON PORTER.
SATURDAY AUGUST 13TH, 11.30AM
Jeff Danley, Awaken, 2016. 32 x 40 inches, oil on canvas.
Join four Cumberland Gallery Nashville artists for a panel discussion centered around their recent works in the current exhibition STORYTELLERS. Here is an opportunity to ask questions and hear from a dynamic range of perspectives as these four reveal insights behind the narrative components in their work. A bit about the artwork: Marilyn Murphy’s signature graphite drawings and recent paintings by Barry Buxkamper and Ron Porter take suggestive stories into the realm of surrealism. Objects beyond reach and out of scale, improbable scenarios and unidentifiable settings and landscapes often create a dreamlike atmosphere within Marilyn’s work. Ron Porter will present large works from his ongoing truck series in which he expands his precision of roads, reflections and sky into playful arrangements of space and time. Jeff Danley's female figure exploration departs from his previous box series, this time luminated by open space, movement, and revelation. Robert Durham will delve into the ideas behind his new carefully rendered oil paintings. We hope to see you there.