September 24–26, 2024 @ Slocumb Galleries
Johnson City, TN — East Tennessee State University Department of Art & Design andSlocumb Galleries in partnership with ETSU Student Life & Enrollment, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Women’s Resource Center present "Threshold"by Kimberly English. The public is invited to view the exhibition on display and meet the artist during the closing reception Sept.26, Thursday, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Slocumb Galleries with Guest of Honor ETSU First Lady Donna Noland.
Thresholdis Kimberly English’ response to navigating the recent passing of her father. Set against the backdrop of the American South, this exhibition of textiles and wooden objects examines familial dynamics, exploring themes of identity, patriarchy, memoryand reconciliation. The creation and display of the woven threads are both intimate and engaging, in visual and emotional sense. The weaving practice as cathartic and liberating, the woven works serve as visualization of memories and emotional struggles.
Raised in Georgia, and lived in Appalachia, English foregrounds the American South as a poignant context of this work that juxtaposes hard and soft, her own textiles clinging to, resting on, and recoiling from wooden objects crafted from wood salvaged from herlate father’s collection. These interactions mimic the estranged relationship that the artist attempts to protect and reconcile through material and process. Wrapping, weaving, quilting, netting, untwining, and deconstruction processes adhere to and complicate the binary system within these textiles, much like loss both names and obscures relationships. The title, "Threshold,"reflects both a boundary and a point of entry, symbolizing the transitional space between past and present, personal and collective memory. It encapsulates the artist's journey through grief and the broader cultural context of loss, inviting viewers into this liminal space.
English(b. 1994) earned her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Studio Art as a Carolina Digital Humanities Fellow in 2018. She has been awarded residencies at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts, Penland School of Craft, and Praxis Digital Weaving Lab. She is currently the Emerging Artist Fellow in Fiber at Virginia Commonwealth and has been exhibited widely and internationally, including at the Spartanburg Art Museum, New Bedford Art Museum, the Delaware Contemporary, the Ackland Museum, Vox Populi, CICA Museumand the Museum of Craft and Design.
The artist visits ETSU to conduct quilting workshop and TC2 demo at ETSU Art & Design fiber studios Sept.25 to 27, contact Slocumb Galleries director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay via emailcontrera@etsu.edufor more details.
Art enthusiasts, community membersand supporters of the arts are invited to attend the reception to meet the artist and engage with their compelling works. All ETSU Tipton & Slocumb Galleries’ exhibitions and diversity programming are open to the public free of charge as supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts Project Support grant, East Tennessee Foundation’s Arts Fund and ETSU Student Life & Enrollment through SAAC.
Visithttps://www.etsu.edu/cas/art/galleries/or emailcontrera@etsu.edufor theexhibition calendar at ETSU Tipton & Slocumb Galleries. Gallery hours are Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours during receptions and by appointment. Located at Ernest C. Ball Hall, 232 Sherrod Drive at ETSU campus, past the roundabout. Parking and handicapped access is available.
Category: Exhibits