Craighead in Raleigh News

by Erica Gilbert

People are excited about our forthcoming exhibit. The Raleigh Chronicle had this to say about one of our featured artists, Jason Craighead.

By Kim Weiss, Blue Plate PR 27.OCT.08
RALEIGH - Jason Craighead, the Raleigh-based artist whose work has been described by Metro Magazine art critic Louis St. Lewis as “conjuring up ghosts of everyone from Motherwell to Franz Kline to Cy Twombly,” will exhibit over a dozen new paintings during a special exhibit at the Fayetteville Museum of Art (FMA) in Fayetteville, NC, entitled “The Energy of a Line.”

The show will open November 7 and run through January 11, 2009. An opening reception will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Friday the 7th.

This marks the first museum exhibit for the artist, whose work has been shown in many galleries and other shows over his career, including FMA’s satellite “Gallery 208″ a year ago.

“I can’t think of another museum I’d rather show in first more than FMA,” Craighead said recently as he credited director Tom Grubb and curator Michelle Horn with “giving me another opportunity as I move forward. This really feels like good, forward motion.”

Craighead’s FMA collection will include six works on paper (22 in. x30 in.), at least three 64 in. x 76 in. works on canvas, and an 8 ft. x 12 ft. painting, among others.

Painter Gerry Lynch and sculptor Seth Hicks will also be included in “The Energy of a Line.” And Jason Craighead couldn’t be more pleased.

“Gerry Lynch has always been a kind of artistic hero of mine,” he said. “I first discovered her work about 10 years ago, and I was completely blown away.”

“I’ve always liked Seth’s work, too,” he noted - so much so that when he co-owned the former Glance Gallery in downtown Raleigh, he frequently paired his paintings with Hick’s sculpture.

Jason Craighead describes his artistic process as “a passionate and emotionally charged, evolving exploration of line and space, from scribble to scrawl. As an artist, or even a thinker, one must never give in to the ’simple’ or the ‘known’.”

As an artist whose work continues to evolve, he describes his newest direction as “the ultimate transitional moment for me. And I feel these pieces are representative of that transition. I’m beginning to have a more philosophical approach to my work. I’m no longer afraid to do what I’m doing - to let out whatever needs to be let out. I’m detaching from ‘things,’ finding space and creating rhythm, and letting my work become the pure thing that it is. With less fear comes more freedom.”

The FMA exhibit comes at a mid point between Craighead’s spring 2008 exhibit at the Miriam Preston Block Art Gallery in the Municipal Building in downtown Raleigh and a solo exhibit at Somerhill Gallery in Durham, scheduled for September 2009. The City of Raleigh purchased the largest piece in the Raleigh show.

Earlier this month, a 40 in. by 40 in. painting Craighead donated to the “Works of Heart” auction to benefit the Carolina AIDs Alliance drew the largest bid in the annual event’s 18-year history. Works of Heart is the area’s premiere charitable art auction.
tly represented by Somerhill Gallery in Durham www.sommerhill.com, Broadhurst Gallery in Pinehurst www.broadhurstgallery.com, Anne Irwin Fine Art in Atlanta, GA www.anneirwinfineart.com, and Bucks Gallery of Fine Art in Newtown, PAwww.bucksgalleryoffineart.com. For more information on the artist, visit any
Jason Craighead is currenof these websites.

For more information on the Fayetteville Museum of Art, visit www.fayettevillemuseumart.com.

Thanks for the shout-out, Raleigh Chronicle!