Tag Archives: Asheville art

Diversions

How to turn a giant mansion into an alien landscape

Dale Chihuly is an American artist who makes ginormous, colorful glass sculptures. Or rather, he conceives of giant glass sculptures and then puts a team to work on them because a couple of accidents years ago left him unable to do the glass-blowing himself. His largest piece is on the ceiling of the Bellagio in Las Vegas — I’ve never seen it, but I’d like to because it looks gorgeous — and

I’ve been admiring Chihuly’s work from afar for awhile now, but Poppy and I finally got to some of it in person at the Biltmore Estate. Most of the works are incorporated into the gardens, and they are colorful and stunning and have turned the normally sedate, elegant Biltmore grounds into an otherworldly “Annihilation” landscape.

The Dale Chihuly glass sculptures at the Biltmore Estate will be there until mid-October, so you still have a few months to see the installation. My favorite local art gallery, Momentum, is hosting a contemporary glass exhibit until August, too, so make sure you stop in there if you’re in Asheville in the next few weeks.

Diversions, National Blog Posting Month

Gaining momentum

I was early to pick Poppy up from her classes last week, so I took the opportunity to visit a new art gallery that a friend’s family recently opened. I don’t go to art galleries all that often, but I think maybe I should. It was a lovely space, and being there was pretty soothing.

A lot of the artists at Momentum Gallery are local or have some kind of local connection, and I recognized a few of the artists who had work on display there. Hoss Haley, for example, makes large metal sculptures that I’ve seen around town before. They kind of looked like balled-up pieces of paper, and if I had a lot more money than I have I’d buy one for my yard. I’d also buy his “Blocks No. 2,” but that would require a lot of money and some larger walls.

The more I looked at it, the more off-kilter it made me feel, like I was Alice about to tumble into another wackadoodle adventure.

"Blocks No. 2" by Hoss Haley
“Blocks No. 2” by Hoss Haley

My favorite piece at Momentum was Mariella Bisson’s “Waterfall in Three Parts,” which would also require a lot of money — $24,000, to be exact — and a ginormous wall were I to make it mine.

Her paintings are really textural, and from a distance they look like you could step straight into them.

"Waterfall in Three Parts" by Mariella Bisson
“Waterfall in Three Parts” by Mariella Bisson

They also had a good number of Andy Farkas Prints. He does a lot of paintings that feature woodland creatures in anthropomorphized situations, which you may not be shocked to learn is right up my alley. Happily, his work is much more affordable than Bisson’s, and I am going to have some of his trash pandas on my wall in the near future.

If you’re in or around Asheville NC and you’re looking for something unique to grace your walls, you should stop by Momentum (24 N. Lexington). They have some really interesting work, and the people who run the place are both nice and local.