Raleigh art

“Drop The Masks” Exhibit Features New Works by Jason Craighead

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Raleigh Artist Opens One-Man Show at Gallery A

"Live In It" by Jason Craighead, 48w by 50h, mixed media on canvas

 

November 15, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Gallery A in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood is hosting “Drop The Masks,” an exhibition of new works by Jason Craighead, now through December 31.

 

Gallery A is owned by Steven and Kimberly Andreaus of the Five Points Center for Aesthetic Dentistry. It is located within a historic building on Glenwood Avenue, just across from the Rialto Theatre.

 

Gallery A curator Angie Trull explained her reasons for wanting to showcase Craighead’s work:

 

“I was first exposed to Jason’s work after returning home to Raleigh after living several years outside of Charlotte,” she said. “ A number of his paintings were displayed at Frazier’s Restaurant on Hillsborough Street where I was dining with friends. I felt this immediate attraction to the work and inquired about the artist. Over the next several months, I would find myself standing in another location before a painting that I was attracted to, only to discover that it, too, was a Jason Craighead piece.”

 

Among the locations where she saw his work were the Humble Pie restaurant and The Dawson on Morgan condominium building, both in downtown Raleigh.

 

“The abstract qualities with the gestural drawings, the layering of paints, and the pale washes drew me into his paintings and gave me a sense of calm and peace,” Trull said. “I love that his paintings are ever-changing for the viewer, allowing them to continually experience something new.  Finally meeting Jason and having the opportunity to showcase his work at Gallery A was something of a full-circle moment for me.”

 

The Gallery A building at 1637 Glenwood Avenue also houses Andreaus’ dental practice. “Dr. Andreaus believes that his dental patients benefit from, and appreciate, the ever-changing interior of original paintings and sculptures,” Trull said.

 

Steven Andreaus’ first office was located on Hargett Street, where he helped establish Raleigh’s “First Friday” art walks. For more information on Gallery A, visit http://gallerya-nc.com.

 

For more information on Jason Craighead, visit www.jasoncraighead.com.

 

About the artist:

 

A professional artist for over a decade, Jason Craighead is a recognized leader in the North Carolina arts community. His work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions throughout the Southeastern United States. He has received numerous awards and served as a juror for various art shows. He has been selected as Signature Artist for major charitable art auctions, and his work has been featured in a number of publications, including Artists & Art Galleries of the Southeast. He is also a member of the City of Raleigh Arts Commission and the Raleigh Public Arts Committee. He is currently represented by Broadhurst Gallery in Pinehurst and Flanders Gallery in Raleigh. For more information visit www.jasoncraighead.com.

Salon Moxie Presents New Works by New York Artist Nichole Ohrablo

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September 10, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) – Nichole Ohrablo, an artist based in New York City with Raleigh connections, will be the featured artist at Salon Moxie in North Raleigh from September 26 through November 13. The artist’s reception will be held Friday, September 26, from 6-9 p.m. in the salon.

Ohrablo work is bright, vibrant and evocative of New York graffiti. But she began her career under the tutelage of well-known Raleigh artist and art teacher Bob Rankin. Her family had moved to Raleigh from Long Island when Ohrablo was 10.

“I really learned a lot from [Rankin],” she said. “His work was always full of color and expression, which was very inspiring.”

At 19, Ohrablo moved back to New York to study art at The Fashion Institute of Technology, where she began what would be an ongoing fascination with everything about the gritty side of the city, especially the graffiti.

“It’s so incredibly detailed and colorful with real visual depth,” she said. “Good graffiti pieces also have this raw emotion and urban attitude. It’s 100 percent NYC, which is why I love it.”

Music, pop culture, and “my old clubbing days in the city” also inspire the work of the artist who considered herself “very much a misfit [in Raleigh]. I loved heavy metal bands, wore ripped jeans with big, Long Island hair, and I had a thick New York accent.”

Today Ohrablo lives on Long Island again with her husband Joe and their cat Vic. But they visit Raleigh frequently because her parents and her sister – Michelle Scaraglino, a stylist at Salon Moxie – are here.

Salon Moxie is owned and operated by Jack and Joelle Ray who also own the award-winning Samuel Cole Salon in North Raleigh. Salon Moxie has been hosting revolving art exhibits since it opened last summer.

“We wanted to find a way to connect our emerging artists at Moxie with other emerging artists in the area,” Joelle said. “We are excited to offer our support to the arts community.”

Salon Moxie is located at 6191-122 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh. For more information, visit http://www.salon-moxie.com or call 919-850-0721.

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Salon Moxie Presents A Collection of New Works by Paul Friedrich

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\"Hong Kong \'01\" by Paul Friedrich
July 7, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) – Paul Friedrich, a pop icon in the Triangle area, is the featured artist at Salon Moxie in North Raleigh from now through August. The artist’s reception will be held Friday, July 11, from 6-9 p.m.

Paul Friedrich is perhaps best know as the creator of the “Onion Head Monster” comic strip in The Independent Weekly and online at http://www.onionheadmonster.com

His work is renowned for its storytelling, humor, bright colors and bold lines. He has been described as a “post-hip, pop-visionary” artist and illustrator whose work is as entertaining as it its widely collected.

The series of Hong Kong paintings Friedrich is showing at Moxie explores “a new direction of semi-abstraction,” he said. He is also bringing silkscreen posters and digital prints for sale during the July 11 reception.

A Raleigh native, Friedrich is a member of DesignBox, a diverse collection of creative professionals in downtown Raleigh.

Salon Moxie is owned and operated by Jack and Joelle Ray who also own the award-winning Samuel Cole Salon in North Raleigh, Salon Moxie has been hosting revolving art exhibits since it opened last summer.

“We wanted to find a way to connect our emerging artists at Moxie with other emerging artists in the area,” Joelle said. “We are excited to offer our support to the arts community.”

According to the Rays, the salon fills the void between “budget” salons and the more expensive destinations and gives “rising star” stylists an environment in which to enhance their skills.

Salon Moxie is located at 6191-122 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh. For more information, visit http://www.salon-moxie.com or call 919-850-0721.

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Art…Vintage…Everything: New Marketplace Emerges in Downtown Raleigh

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June 30, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) —    Over on West Street, just one block from trendy Glenwood South and a stone’s throw from “West on North,” a 17-story residential condominium building scheduled to open in October, sits a large, old warehouse building with a big, purple armchair emblazoned on its façade. If owner Patrick Lawton has his way, this simple structure is going to change the way Raleigh thinks about shopping experiences in the downtown district.

Purple Armchair (there is no “the” before the name) opened for business at 600 West Street in February after the warehouse’s interior was extensive cleaning out and renovated. Billing itself as an “emerging marketplace in downtown Raleigh,” the wide-open store offers “art…vintage…everything,” according to its owner.

Purple Armchair is a membership-driven market and an association of artists, craftspeople and a lively assortment of vendors of unique merchandise. Membership pay fees on a month-by-month basis to have the store sell their wares. Mid-century modern furniture, pristine vintage and other handmade clothing, antiques, handmade jewelry, pottery, tableware and fine art are just a portion of the current inventory. But that’s going to change. Often.

“We carry just about everything, depending on what members we have at the time and what merchandise they offer,” he said. “We are actively pursuing members all the time so that our inventory will continue to expand and change. We want our customers to be pleasantly surprised every single time they come in so that they’ll keep coming in time after time.”

Lawton also intends to add a coffee bar and fresh flower and herb vendors in the near future. “I want to be the premier source for eclectic merchandise in downtown Raleigh. I want Purple Armchair to be the place where you find everything you couldn’t find at the last store you visited.”

A native of Northern Virginia and a software engineer by profession, Lawton said his parents have been antiques dealers for 40 years. But when he and his wife, Melissa, decided to enter the marketplace, “We didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into one product line. I had a sense of what the market needed and wanted, and it wasn’t just another antiques store.”

So Purple Armchair is not an antiques store, although it does carry antiques. And Lawton is quick to point out something else Purple Armchair is not.

“We are not a flea market,” he said emphatically. “We do not have booths or spaces for members to lease and to do with as they like.”

He explained how it works: “Once our staff approves the products – and we are very selective –  our members pay a low monthly fee and deliver their products to our staging area. Then we get to work mixing and mingling and merchandising those products within the rest of the store,” he said. “Our professional interior decorator takes care of all displays in Purple Armchair — displays that are carefully designed and arranged to complement each other and to draw customers from one area to another.”

In return for “letting us do our job, which is to move products,” Lawton said, members receive constant feedback, valuable data he collects for them, tax documents, and other benefits. But if a product isn’t selling, it has to go.

“We’re not a warehouse, and we don’t sit behind a counter and watch our products sink or swim,” he said. “We promote our merchandise, we make deals when the situation requires it, and we talk to customers all the time about what they like or don’t like, and what they’d like to see in our space.”

The store receives a percentage of the sales along with the monthly membership dues.

Where did the name come from? “Out of the blue,” Lawton admitted with a smile. “We just wanted a name that would make a great logo. And it does!”

Purple Armchair is a member of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, DowntownRaleigh.com, and First Friday Art Walk. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, the store’s business hours are Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. For more information, including membership opportunities, visit http://www.purplearmchair.com.

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Salon Moxie Hosts “Pick Flowers, Not Fights”

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April 24, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) — “Pick Flowers, Not Fights,” a collection of mixed-media works by emerging Raleigh artist Jennifer Machuca, will be on display in Salon Moxie from May 1 until June 30 as part of the North Raleigh hair salon’s on-going revolving art exhibits.

Machuca studied art at Louisburg College and East Carolina University. The inspiration for her bold, vibrant paintings comes from “street graffiti, bright colors, and flower patterns,” she says, and by studying the works of “numerous pop culture artists, such as Blu, Aaron Kraten, David Flores, and Miss Van.”

Recently, her work has been shown in Raleigh at Lilly’s Pizza on Glenwood Avenue, White Collar Crime on Davie Street, and the Colony Theater on Six Forks Road.

Salon Moxie is a new concept from Jack and Joelle Ray, owners of the more upscale Samuel Cole Salon on Newton Road, Raleigh, that fills the void between budget salons and the more expensive destinations, and gives its “rising star” stylists an environment in which to enhance their skills. The salon’s revolving art exhibits are “a way to connect our emerging artists at Moxie with other emerging artists in the area,” Joelle said. “We are excited to offer our support to the North Carolina arts community.”

Salon Moxie is located at 6191-122 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh. For more information, including business hours, visit http://www.salon-moxie.com or call 919-850-0721.

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