Projective Eye Gallery to feature works from two artists
The Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City will present artwork by Julianne Swartz and Laura McCarthy from Friday, Jan. 22, through Friday, March 4. These interdisciplinary artists are considered masters at facilitating the intimacy of the moment – dismantling the chaos of the outside world and encouraging presence from their audiences.
“Close” is a solo exhibit of three works by Swartz. “Terrain” is in the main gallery; “Close” photographic prints in the front lobby and “Black and Blue Weave” on the second floor atrium viewing space. Swartz has an uncanny ability to express tenderness with a distilled simplicity. Her “Terrain,” a 12-channel sound piece moving through 100 small suspended speakers, will fill the gallery space with an aural collage of warmth. Originally commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, “Terrain” is currently on loan from Artist Pension Trust. Swartz’s smaller work, “Black and Blue Weave,” appears as an intricate but loosely woven blanket in its own sound space on the second floor. As viewers approach, they hear sounds of self-soothing breath, melodies and chimes – a post-bruise lullaby mollifying the discovery of gravity and pain for the first time.
Swartz’s work has been exhibited in a number of venues, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill; the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; Numark Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.
In 2015, Swartz received the UrbanGlass Visiting Artist Fellowship from the Bard Research Fund for research with Markus Greiner (physicist, Harvard University) and an Anonymous Was a Woman Award. Previously, she was honored with the Academy Award in Art from the Academy of Arts and Letters and the Painters and Sculptors Award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
“Momento,” paintings by McCarthy will be displayed concurrently in the front window case at UNC Charlotte Center City. Known for her visceral abstractions, McCarthy has created new works inspired by the experience of loss and grief. These new canvases act as mementos of a moment – the threshold where the past and the future are simultaneously contained in the present – capturing the seen and unseen processes of remembering and letting go.
McCarthy earned her B.F.A. in painting from UNC Charlotte and a bachelor’s degree in history from Davidson College. She has been awarded an Emerging Artist Grant from the Arts & Science Council and has received residency fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, McColl Center for Art + Innovation and Virginia Commonwealth University Studio Program. Currently, McCarthy is founder/executive director of Swaraj Yoga, a nonprofit organization addressing chronic homelessness in the Charlotte community through the use of yoga and meditation.