Friends Gallery

We will be displaying the artwork of former Children's Department employee Justin Banger in our galleries throughout the months of November and December. Please stop by and have a look!

 Justin's website

 Photos of Justin's art in the gallery neart the Library Theatre

Justin Banger works in various mediums as an artist. He is drawn to printmaking in particular because the work exists as ‘multiple originals.’ It revitalizes the notion of reproducibility in a world where cheap reproduction is evading. After crafting his images on copper plates, wood or other matrices, they are printed through a printing press a certain number of times to make a numbered edition. He uses centuries old intaglio and relief printmaking techniques of the likes of Rembrandt, Durer and Goya, but in doing so he symbolically and ambiguously explores the ecological, religious and mythic tensions that could only arise in our 21st century.

EXHIBITIONS

2005 Prints with a Purpose, Montgomery Museum of Art

2008 America’s 2000 Works on Paper, Northwest Arts Center, Minot, ND. Merit Award

2008 Fiction, Lies, and Evasion, Projekt30.com online exhibition

2008 Things Can Be Guns & Other Things Too, Bloch Gallery, University of Montevallo

2009 Lessedra World Print Annual, Sophia, Bulgaria

2009 Things Can Be Guns and Other Things Too, Gadsden State Community College, Gadsden, AL 2009 Birmingham Artwalk, Birmingham, AL

2010 Sixty Square Inches, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 2010 Alias, Lite Box Gallery, Birmingham, AL

2010 Lessedra World Print Annual, Sophia, Bulgaria

2010 ArtHouse Print Exchange Show, Brooklyn, NY

2010 Birmingham Artwalk, Birmingham, AL

2011 “First Impression” An Introduction to Alabama Printmaking, Lite Box Gallery, Birmingham, AL

2011 33rd Bradley International Print & Drawing Exhibition, Peoria, IL 2011 Birmingham Artwalk, Birmingham, AL

2011 Bluff Park Art Show, Hoover, AL

COLLECTIONS

Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, AL

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter illustrations, The Hopeful Skeptic: Revisiting Christianity from the Outside by Nick Fiedler, IVP Press. 2009.

“The Cable of Meaning,” Illustration for The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle, Baker Books. 2008.

“Moss Rock Preserve Drawing,” Birmingham Hoover Sketchbook, Indigo Publishers. 2007.

Visit the Friends Art Gallery outside the Library Theatre this month and enjoy paintings by local artist Joyce Kraft.

The art of Joyce Kraft Gallery

I was born and raised in Long Beach, California, graduating with a degree in commercial art from California State University, Long Beach. After working in the commercial art field for several years, I went into teaching. During that time, I continued to enjoy painting. After moving to the South in June 2008, I decided to follow my dreams of painting full time. Early on, I developed a passion for the Impressionists because of their quick, layered strokes, atmospheric pallet and penchant for capturing a fleeting moment of time. As a painter, I wanted my art to emotionally reflect the world around me, capturing a moment of joy to be frozen forever on canvas.

Reflecting back to my book illustration beginnings, I began painting scenes that captured special moments and celebrations. As the spectator views the works, they will notice that the perspective used purposely draws them into the story, as though they were partaking in the event themselves. All genres, whether still life, room environment or landscape, are designed to lead the imagination into story. The scenes I paint are intended to capture special moments of life.

You can see more of my art at Artist’s Incorporated Art Gallery in Vestavia Hills.

Mary White Sowell is an experimental artist working mostly with acrylics and mixed media. Her favorite subjects are of a figurative nature plus abstracts with many textures. For ten years, she managed her own Art to Wear jewelry business, Melange, with accounts throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Her line was primarily centered around hand sculpted porcelain and paper jewelry.

Mary studied art at the Memphis Academy of Arts, Pasadena City College and Samford University. She has taken workshops from nationally known artists Zolton Zabo, Georg Shook, Don Davis, Bill Carter, Virginia Cobb, Robert E. Wood, Mary Todd Beam, Maxine Masterfield, Miles Batt and Louise Cadillac. She is a signature member of the Watercolor Society of Alabama and charter member of Experimental Artists of Alabama. A recipient of numerous awards, her work can be seen at Artists Incorporated and Four Seasons Art, Antiques and Botanicals.

More examples of her work can be seen in our gallery.

Join us for a Meet the Artist Reception:
Thursday, May 12, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Art on display May 3 - June 5