Through 2008

2nd Floor Galleries

To inspire audiences and showcase its unique collection in limited gallery space,
the Asheville Art Museum regularly invites distinguished colleagues to curate
special exhibitions of the permanent collection.

This fall Roger Manley, a North Carolina based filmmaker, curator and author of
the books Signs and Wonders: Outsider Art Inside North Carolina and the
recently published Weird Carolinas, joined us to curate the latest installation in this
provocative series.

Manley’s exhibition Expectant Gaze — Art from the Eye and Mind presents
works from the permanent collection that probe art’s two oldest and most essential
functions: rendering the visual world and envisioning new possibilities for
experiencing it.

"Art has always performed two principal tasks: depicting the given world and
envisioning alternatives to it," said Manley of his unique exhibition which will remain
on display for much of 2008. "Tribal masks, stained glass windows, Renaissance
frescos, 1950s action paintings, conceptual performance pieces, digital photos
and video installations are still effective works of art to the degree that they
successfully present reality as their makers understood it and skillfully propose
new ways of re-imaging it."

Taking ourselves and our immediate surroundings as a departure point, the exhibition
suggests links between these dual roles as it proceeds from meticulous realism to
pure abstraction.

Along the way it provides glimpses at how works of art can describe, explore,
enhance and re-imagine the world around us.

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and guest curated by
Roger Manley.

Related upcoming programs:

Art Break: Expectant Gaze, Docent led tour
Friday, June 6, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Art Break with Adult Programs Manager Nancy Sokolove
Friday, August 12, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Image credit:

Julian Stanczak
Filtration, Cerise, 1977
Acrylic on canvas
38 x 38 inches
Gift of Neil K. Rector, Asheville Art Museum Collection