CALENDAR ADVISORY
Gorelick Gallery Exhibits - Fall 2022
Central Piedmont announces several new and continuing gallery exhibits
for the Bill and Patty Gorelick Gallery program

Contact: Vanessa Shelton Stolen, 704.330.6869, [email protected]

Exhibit Summary

Cato Campus - Jacob Pfeifer Hot Glass Alley* and Lisa Weinblatt School Lunch Series

Central Campus - Sonia Handelman Meyer Photo Archives* and Jacob Pfeifer Hot Glass Alley*

Harper Campus - Tim Bowman Everyday Poems and Joseph Sand Pottery*

Harris Campus - The Works of Ellen Lee Klein and Thomas Spake Glasscapes: Nature-Inspired Blown Glass and Lynn Newman Simple Gifts*

Levine Campus - Ju-lan Shen Ceramic Art and Lisa Weinblatt School Lunch Series

Merancas Campus - Samuel Spees Perceptions

*New exhibitions for Fall 2022

CATO CAMPUS

Jacob Pfeifer

Hot Glass Alley 

"The formula for my work is personal. I am focused; each piece receives my enthusiasm, perseverance for excellence, and dedication to uncompromising quality. My vision for each piece encompasses an understanding of the properties and movement of glass and application of color. In the end, I trust each piece promotes an understanding and appreciation of glass art. Whenever I part with a piece of my glass, I feel a piece of my life goes with it. Each piece is part of my journey." ~ Jacob Pfeifer

Lisa Weinblatt
School Lunch
"The School Lunch series is a visual essay of contemporary student life in real educational settings. Contemporary, cross-cultural issues and their emotional attitudes are explored in the shared lunch experience. School Lunch is generated from direct observation, drawing on location in the lunchrooms of high schools, universities and colleges of Queens, New York. Visual images have the power to transform and enlarge our perceptions, as well as, confirm identity and validate experience." ~ Lisa Weinblatt

Now through December 9, 2022
Cato III, 8120 Grier Road, Charlotte, NC

CENTRAL CAMPUS

Sonia Handelman Meyer
Photo Archives
Sonia Handelman Meyer (b.1920-) began her photographic career when she was gifted a camera for college graduation. In 1944 she became a member of The Photo League in New York City, which gave her access to lessons, lectures, exhibitions, and many of the most noted photographers of the 20th Century. Meyer traversed through post-war New York City taking evocative, emotional photographs of the people and places she saw in the bustling metropolis, such as in Harlem, the Lower East Side, Coney Island, and impoverished neighborhoods. With photography, Meyer saw an opportunity to satisfy an unfulfilled longing to create art and seize upon a vehicle to influence change for the under-represented. 

The Photo League ceased operations in 1951 following its placement on the McCarthy Blacklist. Her work remained in boxes for almost 60 years until 2007 when her son encouraged her to once again exhibit her work, which found an international following and is included in many prestigious museum collections, multiple publications, and upcoming documentaries. She currently resides in Charlotte and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Arts & Science Council in 2016.

Jacob Pfeifer
Hot Glass Alley
"I fell in love with glass during a family vacation to Bermuda where I spent hours observing and asking questions at an open air, ocean front, hot shop, at the Royal Navy Dock Yard. I was 14. During my four years of high school, I began learning to blow glass and create glass art pieces. I am a 2010 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, School of American Crafts – Glass Program. I am a young, aspiring, American artist; among the next generation of craftsmen working with their hands; carrying forward glass making traditions that are thousands of years old. I use contemporary styles, and traditional Italian, Swedish techniques that reflect a personal glass art style of my own expression and design." ~ Jacob Pfeifer
Now through December 9, 2022
North Classroom Building, 1320 Sam Ryburn Walk, Charlotte, NC

HARPER CAMPUS

Tim Bowman
Everyday Poems
Photographer Tim Bowman “collects” urban landscapes and arranges the city’s architectural shapes and textures to create formal compositions while simultaneously recording the histories of use and reuse evident on the building exteriors. “We assume that cities are hard and immutable, but this is not true. They adapt to meet new requirements as the needs of their inhabitants change. The Winston-Salem Project is a record of that change, watching as our city continues its transformation from manufacturing and tobacco town into the City of Arts and Innovation." ~ Tim Bowman

Joseph Sand Pottery
“My ceramic work is created in the heart of North Carolina: Randolph County. In 2010, I built, brick by North Carolina brick, a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide kiln on my property outside of Randleman. This unique kiln not only allows me to wood-fire a large body of work but to infuse my pottery quite literally with the spirit of the Piedmont Triad. If you look closely at my work, you will see the red North Carolina clay I use to shape everything from coffee cups to large sculptural outdoor planters. I fire the kiln with pine slab offcuts from a local sawmill. The best part of my potter’s life is meeting my customers face to face and witnessing their excitement and pleasure in viewing, holding, and owning—or giving as gifts—my work."
- Joseph Sand

Now through December 9, 2022
Harper IV, 315 W. Hebron Street, Charlotte, NC

HARRIS CAMPUS

The Works of Ellen Lee Klein
“Stretching the formal elements, I structure my own dynamic philosophical microcosm. My works reflect the marriage of my internal and external worlds and their influence upon each other as they and my life evolve through time and experience. The works reflect my tongue-in-cheek responses to contemporary life. The merging of my training and the processes involved in the making of each and every work combined express and inspire their structure and form. I remain faithful to the essence of what has continued to fascinate and drive me through the years – the searching yet delusive lines, color resonance, spatial ambiguity, and layers of delicious pigment along with the unmistakable clutter and vestiges of contemporary life. The works reflect the profound noise and ambiguity, as well as the transitioning and turbulence of the human condition.” ~ Ellen Lee Klein

Ellen Lee Klein was born, raised, and educated in New York City, earning a B.A. from City College of New York and an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute. Her long career in visual arts has included work as a teacher, arts administrator, art critic, and writer, as well as numerous group and solo exhibitions in New York galleries and campuses

Thomas Spake
Glasscapes, Nature-Inspired Blown Glass
"This exhibition is a tribute to the places that I hold dear, from my travels in the past and from the adventures yet to come. Our planet is changing, the seas are rising, the ice caps are melting, wildfires are ravaging our forests. My hope is that there is still time.? I work with hot glass. I strive to create patterns and textures that mimic the natural world, stone, water, earth. I create these patterns by layering and fusing glass chips and powders to the surface of the glass.

"Heavily influenced by impressionistic painters Monet, Klimt, and Van Gogh and their mixture of color and patterns, this style of work aims to express the idea of a landscape as opposed to creating a representation. The simple flattened forms create a canvas, a front and a back, where I can fully express my intentions. In the final phase of creation, I carve into the sandblasted, opaque exterior to reveal the translucent glass just beneath the surface. All of these techniques come together to give the pieces a raw complexity, conjuring explorations of our memories." ~ Thomas Spake

Now through December 9, 2022
Harris II, 3210 Harris Campus Drive, Charlotte, NC

LEVINE CAMPUS

Ju-lan Shen
Ceramic Art
A native of Taiwan, Ju-lan Shen came to North Carolina for graduate study in landscape architecture at N.C. State’s College of Design. She took up pottery as a hobby in the early 2000s after attending the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts annual conference and exhibitions in Charlotte. After 30-plus years as a landscape architect, Ju-lan, now retired, continues to learn and make art.

“Sculpting, drawing, and painting on clay pots is my way of journaling; I jot down what I hear, what I see, what I think, or what my brain was doing at that moment. I enjoy contemplating the experiences in my environment and like this form of visual reflection. The late artist, Jean Dubuffet, said it best about art: “…Art must make you laugh a little and make you a little afraid. Anything as long as it doesn’t bore.” And I intend to do just that.” ~ Ju-Ian Shen

Lisa Weinblatt
School Lunch
"The School Lunch paintings seek to promote discussion and understanding of one another, while encouraging tolerance and acceptance. Each individual in my paintings, drawn in the moment, is an actual person. School Lunch underlines perceptions which affirm cultural identity, bringing together ideas espousing contemporary social justice, gender and political concerns while encouraging a belief in the quality of human spirit. My objectives include continuing to forge a bridge connecting a multi-cultural society with achievement; through cooperation and tolerance." ~ Lisa Weinblatt

Now through December 9, 2022
Levine II, 2800 Campus Ridge Road, Matthews, NC

MERANCAS CAMPUS

Samuel Spees
Perceptions
Perfect: (adj) having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.
Absolute. (v) make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible.

Samuel Spees’ pursuit of perfection is the foundation of his inspiration as an artist and why he is drawn to glass as a process. “Each of us renders the world through a distinctive lens. This observation is biased in many ways pertaining to memories and experiences, in addition to our own emotional construct. This body of work is evidence of how I decipher the beautifully perfect world around me. It is shaped with pieces of glass both found and purposely made that have been previously pulled, pinched, and cut. When melted together, they seamlessly flow throughout the body creating a colorful vignette of time and memory. These landscapes of pigment yield a much deeper understanding of my perception, helping to explore distortion in pattern together with my emotional connection to color in our natural world.”
- Samuel Spees

Now through December 9, 2022
Merancas IV, 1930 Verhoeff Dr., Huntersville, NC

The Bill and Patty Gorelick Gallery program at Central Piedmont was established in 2013 as the result of a donation from Bill and Patty Gorelick who wished to bring art to the college’s students, faculty/staff, and visitors. To learn more about the galleries and the following exhibits, visit blogs.cpcc.edu/cpccartgalleries/pattyandbillgorelickgalleries.

WHERE: Bill and Patty Gorelick Galleries, Central Piedmont Community College (see the individual exhibit for specific campus location) 

WHEN: Dates vary per exhibit. Campuses are open M-F, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Contact 704.330.6869 or [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

CONTACT: For more information, please contact Vanessa Shelton Stolen at [email protected]. or Liz Ball at [email protected] Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Central Piedmont Arts and our blog at blogs.cpcc.edu/cpccartgalleries/. For directions to Central Piedmont’s campuses, visit cpcc.edu/locations. Sales of artwork benefit the artist and all the galleries of Central Piedmont.

About Central Piedmont

Central Piedmont Community College is highly accessible and convenient to people of all ages who seek a real-world, affordable, hands-on education that will transform their lives and strengthen the economic, social, and cultural environment of Mecklenburg County. Central Piedmont is also a smart investment. At a fraction of the cost, students learn by doing, receiving a combination of technical and soft skills training from quality faculty who prepare them to enter the workforce and make a difference in their family, business, community, and world. Founded in 1963, Central Piedmont Community College has eight locations throughout Mecklenburg County, offering nearly 300 degree, diploma, and certification programs; customized corporate training; market-focused continuing education; and special interest classes. For more information, visit cpcc.edu, or connect with the college on social media at cpcc.edu/social.