Counter/Balance
Gifts from John and Robyn Horn
Counter/Balance: Gifts from John and Robyn Horn presents important examples of contemporary American craft, including woodworking, metalsmithing, fiber and pottery by renowned American artists Albert Paley, Hoss Haley, Toshiko Takaezu, Stoney Lamar, Mary Merkel-Hess, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Kay Sekimachi, Bob Stocksdale, and many others.
This exhibition explores the traditional craft art-making process, a human hand working with technology to transform raw materials into a new form, containing a fundamental tension between the mechanized and improvisational to achieve qualities of asymmetry and balance or forms with richly textured surfaces. Many of the objects gifted from the Horns’ collection—whether made from glass, clay, metal, fiber, or wood—highlight this tension. The dialogue between forms fashioned in a studio and shapes implicit in nature does not necessarily create conflict but rather a counterbalance, implying a desire for human interaction and unity with the beauty found in nature.
This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Carla Funk, assistant curator.
