2020 Instructor Roundtable: Lost & Found
December 18, 2020
In the year’s final installment of Arrowmont’s Roundtable discussion series, collaborator and guest moderator Heinrich Toh led a creative conversation on December 16, 2020.
Instructors Julia Gartrell and Billy Renkl, originally scheduled to offer classes in 2020, were joined by Arrowmont program director Nick DeFord to discuss “Lost & Found” in their work.
Click the image below to watch or go to https://youtu.be/Y73POjrO0Sc to see the full discussion now.
NICK DEFORD
Nick DeFord is an artist, educator, and arts administrator who resides in Knoxville, TN. He received his MFA from Arizona State University, and a MS and BFA from the University of Tennessee. Nick regularly exhibits his fiber and mixed media work, with recent exhibitions at Coastal Carolina University, The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Knoxville Museum of Art and East Tennessee State University. Nick is the Program Director at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and also teaches fiber workshops at universities and craft schools. In the fall of 2018 he was a resident at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. His work is represented by Chauvet Arts in Nashville and Penland Gallery at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.
JULIA GARTRELL
Julia Gartrell is an artist and educator based in Durham, North Carolina. She received her MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work explores the notion of “making do” and material plasticity, along with radical approaches to repair. She has participated in residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Duke University Power Plant Gallery, Arrowmont, Oxbow, and others. Gartell has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has taught at Arrowmont, Rhode Island School of Design and Virginia Commonwealth University.
https://radicalrepairworkshop.com/
BILLY RENKL
Billy Renkl is a professor of Art and Design at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, an artist, and a freelance illustrator. He has exhibited at The Jule Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University, the Taylor Bercier Fine Art in New Orleans, the Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, and at the Indianapolis Arts Center. Renkl has a picture book forthcoming from Cameron Kids.
HEINRICH TOH
Heinrich Toh is a studio artist and educator based in Kansas City. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art and the La Salle College of the Arts in Singapore. He has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and at Art Centers around the country. Toh’s work is in private and public collections, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
“My work explores the evolution of identity by synthesizing memories of past with the present. Inspired by layers of memory, ancestry, and pattern, my work investigates the sense of longing and cultural assimilation that comes from travel and relocation.” – Heinrich Toh
For more Roundtable discussion videos, go to our website at https://www.arrowmont.org/craft-conversations/#Roundtable_Videos or visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/arrowmont.
