The Association for Visual Arts (AVA) is pleased to announce its next gallery exhibitions which will open to the public this Friday, September 12th.
Each year, AVA hosts a juried exhibition for its roster of member artists. Every submission is scored and the highest scoring works above a certain threshold are included in the exhibit.
The artist with the top score between the three jurors receives the “Best in Show” award for their submission.
This award entitles that artist to a solo exhibition of their work at AVA the following year (the only solo exhibition AVA hosts each year).
Kelly Spell received this award for her quilt, “Pink-a-boo”.
Kelly Spell’s show Full Circle will function as a mid-career retrospective. The exhibit will include a variety of large scale contemporary quilts produced over the last decade as well as several new pieces created in the last year.
"[In my work,] circles represent balance and harmony, movement and flow. Swooping curves create a shape that is elementary, but its construction with fabric can be quite challenging," Spell explains. "That interplay of complexity and simplicity excites me, so I return to circles again and again."
In addition to the solo exhibition, AVA is pleased to debut another award exhibit from the 2024 Juried Member Show, When Color Wanders.
Along with the “Best in Show” award, the 2024 jurors were asked to select a work for automatic inclusion in the exhibit, regardless of how it scored.
The three artists whose works were selected received the “Juror’s Choice” award and were granted a smaller group show that coincided with the solo exhibition.
Artists Katie Aronat, Jan Burleson and Jessica Schulman were the recipients of this award in 2024. Over the last year, each artist has produced a new body of work in preparation for this show.
As with the quilts of Kelly Spell, Aronat, Burleson and Schulman each explore color, pattern, geometry, abstraction and in the case of Schulman, fantastical “landscapes” that include figures, architectural elements, etc.
Prepare for bright colors, large geometric patterns and hand-dyed fabrics–truly a feast for the eyes! There will be an opening reception for both exhibits on Friday, September 12th, 6-9pm, at the AVA Gallery, located at 30 Frazier Avenue on Chattanooga's North Shore.
The shows will remain open to the public through October 17th, closing right before AVA’s Between the Bridges Festival in Coolidge Park the following weekend.
AVA’s regular open hours are Wednesday & Thursday, 12-5pm, Friday & Saturday 12-6pm, and Sunday 12-5pm.
And be sure to follow AVA on Facebook, and on Instagram at @ava_associationforvisualarts