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July 15, 2007
Main Street Galleries Expanding
Ted McIrvine
Hendersonville Times-News
The established galleries on Main Street seem to be expanding as
the population of Hendersonville expands. A few years ago, Wickwire
Gallery leased a second space on the west side of Main, allowing
them to place large format paintings in graceful viewing conditions at
329 N. Main St., directly across the street from the old and continuing
location at 330 N. Main St.
When Silver Fox Gallery moved up to Hendersonville from Tryon,
gallery owners Bonnie and Jim Rash bought the building at 508 N.
Main Street. "I always wanted to live in an art gallery," said Bonnie, and
the Rashes made over the second floor space into an elegant
high-ceilinged apartment, with modern conveniences in the back and
a dual-purpose reception area in the front: a living room that also
displays art and craft. Some of the home furnishings upstairs have
always been for sale.
Now Silver Fox has renovated its basement level, adding a graceful
stairway down and almost doubling total exhibit space. On the walls
hang work by several fine Silver Fox artists, but the main purpose of
the expansion is to allow the display of home furnishings. As the
Gallery literature says, Silver Fox is now "a stocking dealer É (for)
larger, mostly American crafted furniture lines." The remarkably
handsome lighting is from Hubbardton Forge and other craft
suppliers. Upholstered pieces are from Kravet, Miles Talbott and
Michael Thomas. Wood and metal furniture is sourced from
Charleston Forge, G. Keener and other well-known production craft
constructors.
On my first visit to the new space, I found a large number of paintings
downstairs, many by William Martin Jean from his recent "Silent
Screen" series and the continuing "Strata" and "Red Square" series.
But the furniture and especially the lamps distracted me from my
usual concentration on the paintings and ceramic sculptures. I had to
remind myself that Picasso too had engaged in production craft work.
There is no reason that production home furnishings should not be
great art.
The reason for my visit to Silver Fox was on the main floor, however. I
attended the opening reception for "Small Works from Italy," an exhibit
of Patricia Cole-Ferullo's new work. Among my favorite artists painting
in North Carolina until a year ago, Pat Cole and her Italian husband
(the sculptor Dom Ferullo) moved a year ago from Tryon to that region
of Southern Italy known in Latin as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece).
This consists of the seaports in Calabria and Apulia that were
colonized in the eighth century BC by Greek settlers who imprinted for
all times their Hellenic civilization.
In her first year on the Calabrian coast, Cole-Ferullo has produced a
large number of smaller works, gallery priced under $1,000 each.
Many of these are in two series: "Walls of Magna Graecia" and "Skies
of Magna Graecia." The latter series includes excellent depictions of
the ethereal lighting of the coastal region on the Gulf of Taranto.
Among the finest were Dancing Ghosts, Window on the World,
Islands in the Sky and Jonah Cloud. Most are watercolor on rag paper,
but a few are mixed media on board or on heavy rag. All appear to be
bargains waiting to be snapped up. And due to a holdup from
customs officials, there are 13 more paintings on the way that did not
reach Silver Fox before the opening. We stand in expectation.
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