Sarah Stobbe’s art delves into the constant tension between what you have to do, what you “should” be doing, and what you want to do. This tension is often depicted in her delicately balanced compositions, where seemingly playful objects and games are imbued with critical linguistic metaphors.
Our inaugural gallery show, the 2019 UrbanArt Commission Open House showcased the studio work of 13 artists currently working on UAC projects. Participating artists included Kong Wee Pang, Khara Woods, Yancy Villa-Calvo, Joseph Boyd, Larry Walker, Greely Myatt, Darlene Newman, Tobacco Brown, Lindsey Bailey, Lester Merriweather, Carl Scott, Desmond Lewis, and Danielle Sierra.
Andre Miller is a mixed media painter from Memphis whose work engages varied themes such as the continued Civil/Human Rights movements, the Delta Blues, jazz music and African-centered religious imagery of the Holy Bible. He earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a MS in Curriculum of Instruction and Educational Leadership, from the University of Memphis and through his own teaching practice has come to believe that “the natural progression of the soul is to create, and as I create, my soul then gives over to teaching.” Miller’s work has developed and evolved over time, and when focused on social, political and cultural issues, it is most often from the "Black Experience" in America. The evocation of thought and feeling is what he finds most intriguing.
Working at the intersection of painting, sculpture, film and installation, Emily C. Thomas’ artistic aim is to externalize the imagination, constructing believable worlds with a life of their own. Borrowing visual elements from (folk-)religious iconography and layering them with elements from mainstream culture her work explores the intersections of different societies and faiths towards new beliefs of a syncretic nature. She sympathizes with animistic philosophies such as Deep Ecology where Earth is regarded a living entity. Reviewing the history of visual media, Emily sees it evolving towards a system of instantaneous transmission of living information.
Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo’s sculptural work utilizes the possibilities within hybridity to speak of a hypothetical place where humans have evolved into hybrid beings with animals, insects, and discarded human-made materials. The resulting physical evolution of this voluntary merging challenges social discomfort around bodies that are not easily categorized by blurring the boundaries between animal and human, living and dead, animate and inanimate. Her work aims to disrupt notions of human hierarchy, testing the phenomenon between humanity, mammality and technology in a chimeric future.
Tracy Treadwell is a sculptor and photographer whose work bridges the familiar and the suggestive through assemblage of found and fabricated objects. In an attempt to decipher and acknowledge her own history, Treadwell taps into the pathways that determine a variety of relationships: how object mass relates to body mass, how materials extend themselves to the human anatomy, and how color, object, and space trigger memory.
Felicia Wheeler is a ceramicist and fiber artist from Memphis, TN. Her fiber work consists of large-scale cross-stitches that address topics of pop-culture, social constructs, personal perceptions, and life experiences. Wheeler's work has been exhibited in juried shows including "Best of Memphis," juried by David Lusk. She holds a BFA from the University of Memphis.
Lacy Mitcham Veteto is a 3D artist living and working in Memphis, TN. Her work looks at the human body from a female perspective, using materials that are associated with women's traditional domestic responsibilities, including textiles. She holds a BFA from the University of Louisiana, and an MFA from the University of Memphis. Veteto is currently an adjunct professor at Rhodes College and the University of Memphis.
Vanessa Gonzalez is a printmaker, ceramicist, and bookmaker who regularly incorporates mixed media into her work. Born in Texas and raised in Mexico, Gonzalez was always exposed to Latinx art and culture, which inspired her to become passionate about its rich cultural traditions. She earned her MFA at Memphis College of Art and currently works as an elementary school art teacher at a local charter school. Her artwork has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Australia, and Germany.
Brian Jobe is an artist and non-profit director based in Nashville, TN. Jobe's studio practice is focused on sculpture, installation, and public art. His solo exhibitions have been on view at venues such as Mixed Greens Gallery, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, the University of Wyoming, the University of Tennessee, and the McNay Art Museum. Born in Houston and raised in Memphis, Jobe received a BFA from the University of Tennessee in 2004 and an MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2006.
Kristen Wolter-Canfield’s Everbloom Design studio produces artistically crafted florals and events. Wolter-Canfeld grew up with a mother who was an artist and interior designer, and says that, “the passion to create beauty is in my blood.” She has an eclectic sense of design and a style that is organic and sculptural. Everbloom Design utilizes locally grown flowers and foliage, to create one of a kind living pieces of art.
Nelson Gutierrez is an artist from Bogota, Colombia, who now lives and works in Memphis, TN, USA. Since the early 1990s, Gutierrez has focused on creating two and three-dimensional artworks, conceptual objects, and installations based on current socio-political issues. He uses a variety of different mediums - charcoal, ink, wood, blood, wax, glass, light - to tell stories that are universally understood, but experienced more intensely by a select few.
Chuck Johnson is an abstract painter whose approach to art making explores the conflicted relationship between the decorative traditions in geometric patterns found in other cultures and western modernism. His recent paintings avoid culturally specific subject matter in favor of a more elusive pictorial terrain of contemporary abstraction, in an attempt to reflect a broader generational curiosity where the familiar and unfamiliar converge.
Catherine Elizabeth Patton is a fine art and portrait photographer from Memphis, TN. In her work, Catherine looks for elements that present her subjects in a light of honesty, in an effort to establish an empathetic and symbiotic relationship between herself, her subject, and her viewer. Her work aims to inspire personal and creative liberation through vulnerability and truth.
For over a decade, Terry Lynn collaborated with his identical twin brother as TWIN, employing figurative painting with spirited gestures and textural layers of imagery to narrate his family’s history in the South. More recently, he has developed his individual practice with a deeper exploration of abstraction, expanded use of media, and the integration of provocative political and cultural commentary. Terry Lynn his BFA from the University of Memphis and his MFA from the University of Mississippi, and currently lives and works in Memphis.
