Exhibition Dates: Monday, 17 June 2024 – Friday, 12 July 2024

Fourth Friday Reception: Friday, 28 June 2024 6-9 p.m.

Location: Wilma W. Daniels Gallery, 200 Hanover St., Wilmington, NC 28401

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 2:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.

The Wilma W. Daniels Gallery is proud to announce its upcoming exhibition, DIRT: a small group show. This exhibition showcases the works of three diverse and innovative artists working as studio assistants for CFCC. This exhibition delves into the profound connection between art and the earth, highlighting unique interpretations of materials, processes, and personal narratives.

About the Artists

KARLi Owens: Karli Owens is an analog documentary photographer and collage artist fascinated by the uncanny found within mundane everyday life.

In experimenting with toy cameras, and alternative development processes in her work, she utilizes the film photographic medium to uncover things overlooked and reimagine art in the modern world. Pulling inspiration from her obsession with cinema, as well as other artists, she spends much of her free time– outside of shooting film– watching it, while exploring with collage art making. Textures, spirituality, and the reframing of trash (in various concepts) take play in her work.

Karli has participated in solo and group artist exhibitions and has had work featured in magazines and advertisements for her photographic work. DIRT is the first public setting Karli has had the opportunity to display both mediums together.

Micah Bland: Micah Bland is a potter from Wilmington, NC. In creating his work, he aims to make functional pieces which feel genuine and can be used and enjoyed daily.

Inspired by natural potters like Mathew Blakely and Takuro and Hitomi Shibata, and influenced by historical folk potters of the Carolinas, his pieces exhibit unique surface variation and authenticity.

Through collecting and processing his own materials, he hopes to give the natural character of these materials a voice. Micah’s goal is to provide wares which make use of these local materials as an attempt to make his practice sustainable as an artist, and for the earth which provides them.

Des Paige: Des Paige is a multimedia artist originally from Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, and currently residing in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Des’s work explores how ingrained childhood and generational trauma impact the psyche and come out subconsciously through art. Their current work focuses on the former and finding reconnection with their Indigenous roots. Through pottery, poetry, and printmaking, there is a means to connect with viewers of similar backgrounds in hopes of creating a space in which vulnerability is welcome.

Des creates through a therapeutic lens and often thinks of themself as bargaining with various mediums. Des says, “I trade in my emotional baggage and ask for it to be molded alongside my work with the physical labor of making.” The decisions of form, glaze, and overall design, regardless of medium, intend to invite viewers to engage with challenging subjects in a compassionate environment.

DIRT: a small group show is more than an exhibition; it is an exploration of the elemental and emotional ties that bind us to the earth and to each other. Join us in the Wilma W. Daniels Gallery to experience these works and witness how these three artists, each with their distinctive voice and vision, unearth profound beauty and meaning from the ground beneath our feet.

Don’t miss this extraordinary journey into the depths of DIRT, where art and earth converge.