Jason Craighead Adds "Structure" to Somerhill Gallery's Shapes of White Exhibition

Chapel Hill, NC, July 18, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Is “white” a presence of color or an absence of color? Luminosity or purity? All or nothing? These are the questions -- rife with myths, beliefs and suspense – that visitors to Somerhill Gallery will ponder during the new group exhibition, “Shapes of White,” opening Friday, July 20th and running through August 31.

Among the 26 participating artists, Jason Craighead of Raleigh presents his abstract expression of white (or other neutral, lighter tones), as a means of “painting out” whatever has occurred on his canvas before the presence of white. The thin, pale pigment evokes a sense of peering through a veil to discover what lies within.

Jason Craighead joined Somerhill’s venerable stable of artists in January, 2007, and participated in the gallery’s “things that are BLUE” exhibit, an exploration of artwork expressed with blue pigment, the same month. In February, he and landscapes painter Nick Wade presented a two-person exhibition of their newest work, which ran through March.

“I am struck by [Jason’s] way of simplifying or magnifying a thought or an experience into a comprehensible, imaginable form,” said Somerhill owner Joseph Rowland, who has represented and promoted many of North Carolina’s finest artists since the gallery opened in 1972. “With line, emerging forms and juicy painterly passages on canvas, Jason does what a gifted artist is supposed to make us do. And that is to stop us to better ponder what we might not otherwise. In lots of years of artist-watching, I see Jason as that brand of gifted painter, who in a young and concentrated career, is maturing into the artist Somerhill is proud to represent today.”

Other artists whose work is included in the show are: Paul Aho, Paris Alexander, Joann Sieburg Baker, Carol Bechtel, Mark Brown, Kevin Collins, Neal Drobnis, Frank Dropkin, Horace Farlowe, Tama Hochbaum, Janette Hopper, Mildred Jarrett, Robert Langford, Eric Lawing, Maxine Linney, Elizabeth Matheson, Danny Robinette, Carolyn Rugen, Betsy Podlach, Lawrence Smith, Tremain Smith, Brian Thompson, Guillermo Velasco, Kate Worm, and Carl Wright.

Jason Craighead recently received a Metro Bravo Award for best regional artist from Metro Magazine, a monthly publication covering a 22-county region that includes Raleigh, the Research Triangle, and Eastern North Carolina. He is also a member of the City of Raleigh Arts Commission’s (RAC) 30th Anniversary Committee.

Somerhill Gallery is located in Eastgate Shopping Center at 1800 East Franklin Street. For more information, visit http://www.somerhill.com.

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