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TSS Outdoor Exhibit 2018
Greensboro Cultural Center Hosts Sculpture Garden through 2019
Post Date:10/17/2018 4:40 PM
Greensboro Parks and Recreation City Arts and Events, in partnership with the Tri-State Sculptors Educational Association, present a public sculpture garden at the Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 N. Davie St. Admission is free and the sculptures will be on display through October 2019.
The Tri-State Sculptors Educational Association was formed in 1978 by a group of sculptors from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to promote public awareness and appreciation of sculpture in the region and to exchange ideas and information among its members. The exhibit, which is located on the east side of the building, is part of the association’s 40th annual conference, which will take place in Greensboro October 25-29.
Featured artists include:
Marlene Askins, Wolf of Winter
Carl Billingsley
Rick Conn, Phase Transition
Jim Gallucci, Oak Leaf Fan Trellis
Megan Gottfried, The Gateway
Amy Hart, Red Flower
Charles Pilkey, Car Monsters
Brittany Søndberg, Indirect Means
Chelsea Tinklenberg, Utility of Futility
The sculpture garden has been funded by from the City of Greensboro and the Public Art Endowment.
https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/Home/Components/News/News/13055/36?backlist=%2F
Interview with 1808 Magazine
Brittany Søndberg, abstract sculptor
Why I do what I do: I enjoy working with my hands and creating form, from my imagination. I prefer to work intuitively with a general idea in my mind, then make decisions as I go. I often embed certain personally symbolic shapes or use formal elements to convey a sense that is similar to, or a metaphor for, particular feelings. I am not interested in these being direct or narrated, rather I prefer to allow the viewer to use their imagination and find their own meaning in the form.
What sound or noise do you love? 35mm film camera shutter and advance, also a sizzle, that of frying, as well as that of a good weld.
Where do you find your inspiration? I tend to be inspired by the abstract idea of relationships both between people and to the past through eroded and altered memory. My desire to make work is a kind of psychological release in response to the feeling I have when I think of how time, memory, and existence are finite and constantly fleeting. I feel like creating objects is a weird attempt to capture time as much as to record how I think and feel. This is why my work is mostly non-narrative. Abstraction seems, to me at least, to capture the weirdness of time and experience. This isn’t the only inspiration however, this is just something that always returns, in slightly different ways, when I am developing ideas. More generally, I am inspired by consciousness and perception, and the way language fails at truly conveying our personal, interior experience, which is why I use sculpture, to express/release these ideas.
What’s your greatest achievement? A series of events including: having my son in April 2012, in August 2012 going back to school to prepare to transition into a new field of art, soon after, entering graduate school and completing my MFA in 2015. Then a year later, landing an assistant professorship in 2016, at Greensboro College. After seven years of making and selling custom jewelry and teaching workshops and feeling a little tired of that (and not quite making ends meet), I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. When I was pregnant, I decided I wanted to go to graduate school for sculpture, so this series of events was life-changing in many ways.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I would love to have a flower farm and vineyard. Additionally, I would like to study geology and archaeology.
Who is your hero in real life? Sculptor heroes include Martin Puryear and my late thesis chair, Andy Dunnill. I really feel like most of what I understand about sculpture came from him. Not sure about everyday heroes, probably my late grandmom, Vera Golato, among many other attributes, she was an excellent golfer (hit two holes-in-ones and she didn’t start until she was like 50!). I have her clubs and am interested in picking it up, hoping to have her skills!
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?Teleportation. I’d really like to travel more.
How does Greensboro play a role in your art? I was involved with the Center for Visual Artists for a few years, I used to have a studio at Lyndon Street Artworks and I have a couple of permanent, public works in town — one at General Greene Elementary and one out front of the Cultural Arts building, downtown. Also, I love that I have a good network of sculptors in town.
Negative Measure
By Laine Walston
The evening of September 6 was the opening reception for Professor Brittany Søndberg’s new exhibit titled “Negative Measure.” Professor Søndberg spoke with The Collegian about her work and the interpretations she would hope viewers might take away.
“The work on display was created at different times for a variety of group and/or public exhibitions, though five of the works were created just for Negative Measure,” Søndberg said about the purpose of creating these sculpures. “As a visual artist, images and ideas form in my head regularly, but often and especially in the creation of larger works, an opportunity to exhibit them is what actually gets me to produce.”
She said that, while creating, she didn’t intend for viewers to feel or gather anything too specific.
“I am more interested in the viewer gleaning their own understanding from the abstract forms,” Søndberg said. “Everyone perceives visual art, or really the world in general for that matter, through a lens which is informed by their own personal experience. So the forms I imagine and create may or may not trigger certain thoughts or images in their mind’s eye and it is this unique difference of interpretation I’m interested in stimulating.”
“This collection of sculpture is rooted in a similar interest,” Søndberg said of the exhibit. “These works attempt to trace or externalize internal processes; feelings and impressions of things which don’t exist in physical form, such as the bonds we experience in personal relationships, our impression of sensation, memory, etc. There is no way (and there will likely never be a way) to compare or genuinely share these internal experiences with others. In a way, I consider material form to be like a memory which recreates itself each time it is called to experience, so I am making with my hands a visual and physical manifestation of the idea of memory and perception.”
Professor Søndberg teaches a variety of 3D classes, all of which are open to non-majors, though some have prerequisites. Some courses she teaches include: Women’s Art History, 3D Foundations, Ceramics I-III, Sculpture, Contemporary Practices and Contemporary Crafts (which will be offered for the first time in Spring 2018, and will include metal-smithing, jewelry design, spoon carving and functional ceramics).
If you are looking to take an art class for fun or for your major, please contact Professor Søndberg with any questions you may have. And definitely check out her new show in the Irene Cullis and Anne Rudd Galyon Galleries in Cowan.
https://thegccollegian.com/2017/10/09/professor-brittany-sondbergs-negative-measure/
Negative Measure
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro College will host the opening reception for the art exhibit “Negative Measure” from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, in the Anne Rudd Galyon and Irene Cullis galleries in the Cowan Humanities Building on campus.
The exhibit features work by Brittany Søndberg, assistant professor of art. Regular exhibit hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays through Oct. 14.
The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.
http://yesweekly.com/greensboro-college-art-exhibit-negative-measure-opens-sept-6/
February Exhibition
GREENSBORO COLLEGE ART PROFESSOR’S WORK FEATURED IN GREENSBORO ART EXHIBIT FEB. 10-28
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Sculptor Brittany Sondberg, an assistant professor of art at Greensboro College, is among three local artists whose work will be featured Feb. 10-28 in a gallery exhibition, “Fabric, Metal and Paint,” at The Creative Center in Greensboro.
Sondberg’s work in metal will be on display, along with the quilting of Dot Forsythe and the paintings of Adele Wayman, at The Creative Center, 900 16th Street.
The exhibit opens with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. The event is free and open to the public. Regular exhibit hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. For more information, call 336-617-3328, or visit www.thecreativecenter.net.
Sondberg teaches sculpture, ceramics, women’s art history, and other courses. Prior to joining the faculty, she operated Copper Chameleon, a metalsmithing and jewelry-design business. She also has taught at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts in Winston-Salem.
She holds a B.F.A. from East Carolina University and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She joined the Greensboro College faculty in 2016.
Greensboro College’s Department of Art offers the B.A. or B.S. in Art and the B.A. in Art Education. The program, with individual attention to students, combines classic art principles with the liberal-arts foundations of diverse branches of inquiry, including both science and the humanities, so that students can incorporate as much of the world as possible into their own art-making.
For more information about Greensboro College’s art program, contact the department chair, Professor Jim Langer, at 336-272-7102, ext. 5361, or email langerj@greensboro.edu.
Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and, spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.
Founded in 1838 and located in downtown Greensboro, the college enrolls about 1,000 students from 29 states and territories, the District of Columbia, and seven foreign countries in its undergraduate liberal-arts program and four master’s degree programs. In addition to rigorous academics and a well-supported Honors program, the school features an 17-sport NCAA Division III athletic program and dozens of service and recreational opportunities.
Made In Greensboro
BRITTANY SØNDBERG, 34, SCULPTOR, ARTIST & METALSMITH
When artist Brittany Søndberg moved to Greensboro in 2008, she was already accomplished in jewelry design and metalsmithing.
For three years, Brittany rented out a studio at Lyndon Street Artworks. There she met different sculptors and she decided to pursue sculpting on a larger scale. She decided to pursue sculpting seriously and entered graduate school at UNC Greensboro, graduating in 2015.
“I enjoy working with my hands. I love the idea of being able to create a unique visual and spatial experience (for the viewer).”
Initially Brittany combined her skills at jewelry design and her new passion for sculpting into monumental jewelry forms. She created a one hundred foot locket necklace which was installed in a variety of arts-centered locations, she also made a thirty foot concrete pearl necklace which was placed around town at sites where trees had been taken down excessively.
“I am fortunate to be able to (and be required to) use my imagination in my work. That’s one of the best things about being a visual artist.”
Some of her latest works include Dream Machine, dedicated by synerG, that is installed out front of the Greensboro Cultural Arts Building. Little Wing II is a fabricated steel, powder coated sculpture that is on display at the Piedmont Triad International Airportthrough October 2017. She has also shown her work at UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum and is currently showing work at the Center for Visual Artists.
“I work intuitively. I am inventing the form as I go along. Responding to the material and the developing sculpture in front of me. Additionally, the work is very labor intensive, but after a piece is completed and I am happy with it, it’s like I forget how hard it was to do and am ready to do it all over again. The opportunity to make art is uniquely human. To be able to do this as my life’s work is amazing and I am very fortunate to do so.”
She has also shown her work in Pittsburgh Brooklyn, Wilmington and she will be displaying work this year in downtown Raleigh through the Art in the Workplace program organized by the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh. She has jewelry for sale at GreenHill Center for NC Art in the Greensboro Cultural Arts Center.
Brittany is also an Assistant Professor of Art teaching Ceramics, Sculpture, Contemporary Practices and Art History at Greensboro College and has previously taught at NC A&T and UNCG.
“I love teaching, and the opportunity to guide emerging student artists and help them to develop their personal artistic language, it is a truly rewarding experience.”
Dream Machine
GREENSBORO — Action Greensboro’s synerG young professionals group will dedicate and present a sculpture to the city at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Cultural Arts Center.
Speakers at the ceremony at 200 N. Davie St. will include artist Brittany Søndberg, who created the sculpture “Dream Machine,” City Councilman Justin Outling, Josh Sherrick from the City of Greensboro, and the leaders of synerG’s public art committee, Spencer Conover with ArtsGreensboro and Laura Maruzzella with Greenhill Center for NC Art.
“Dream Machine” resulted from a survey asking synerG members what they would like to see the organization focus on in 2016. Public art was a top priority.
“Public art inspires a sense of wonder, of curiosity and activates your imagination,” Conover said in a news release. “I think young people have experienced art in other communities, and it really leaves a lasting impression and lasting memory of a community and a place. That’s what we want to do in Greensboro.”
Søndberg, a resident of North Carolina since 2000, has a bachelor of fine arts degree in metal design and jewelry from East Carolina University and a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from UNC-Greensboro.
She creates large-scale colorful and playful work in steel, wood and mixed materials. “Dream Machine” celebrates the playful spirit and creative energy of the city’s cultural district.
Position at Greensboro College
Greensboro College Names Brittany Sondberg to Art Faculty
Brittany Sondberg
"GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Greensboro College has named Brittany Sondberg an assistant professor of art.
She joins the full-time faculty after two years as a member of the adjunct art faculty, teaching sculpture and three-dimensional foundations.
Previously she had been a teaching assistant for sculpture and three-dimensional foundations, an art history instructor and a wood studio technician at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and, since 2009, an instructor of metal design at the Sawtooth Center for Visual Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C.
She also has operated her own metalsmithing and jewelry-design business, Copper Chameleon, in Greensboro since 2008 and has served as board member, secretary, vice president, and president of the nonprofit Center for Visual Artists in Greensboro.
She holds a B.F.A. from East Carolina University and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Greensboro College provides a liberal-arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and, spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.
Founded in 1838 and located near downtown Greensboro, the college enrolls about 1,000 students from 29 states and territories, the District of Columbia and seven foreign countries in its undergraduate liberal-arts program and four master's degree programs. In addition to rigorous academics and a well-supported Honors program, the school features a 17-sport NCAA Division III athletic program and dozens of service and recreational opportunities."
Wilmington Arts Council Pedestrian Art 2016
I am excited to announce my sculpture, Blue Bell, has been selected to be included in Wilmington, North Carolina's Pedestrian Art project. It will be outside on display in downtown Wilmington from March 2016 - March 2017.
Excited to be included in the Wilmington Pedestrian Art 2016 Exhibition!
MFA Exhibition Feature in Go Triad 2015
Come Friday, Marlowe Lowe, Brittany Søndberg, Stephanie J. Woods and Lu Xu will embark on a new phase of life.
Two years of intense study will reward them with Master of Fine Arts degrees in visual art from UNC-Greensboro.
Now, it’s time to put lessons learned to the test in the challenging profession of making, selling and teaching art.
Naturally, the four speak of being excited — and nervous.
“I’m excited to move on and see what work I will develop without the structure of the school,” said Søndberg, 32. “But at the same time, I am going to miss that — having constant feedback and criticism good and bad, the facilities, the expertise of the professors.”
To meet thesis requirements, they opened on Sunday a month-long display of their new art at UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum, which exhibits the work of internationally known modern and contemporary artists.
The experience has taught them what it takes to present an exhibition.
“The public sees artwork on the wall, but there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that takes place months before,” said Weatherspoon registrar Kim Watson, who keeps detailed records of its art collection.
Xu said she feels honored to exhibit there.
“It is a very prestigious museum,” she said. “People who work here also work with top artists in the country. So we get to know what it means to get prepared for a show like this.”
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UNCG’s art department lists Maud Gatewood and McDonald “Mackey” Bane among its famous graduates.
“UNCG has produced a lot of great, interesting artists, and this is another good year for them,” said Xandra Eden, Weatherspoon’s curator of exhibitions.
“They are right in the milieu of what is going on in contemporary art,” Eden said. “They are doing projects on par with what you would see in contemporary galleries and museums across the country. They are at the cutting edge of the kind of art that is being produced today.”
They create with metal, photography, performance art — even hair.
Xu, 27, came to the United States six years ago from China, after receiving her undergraduate degree from the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Northern State University in South Dakota, then came to UNCG.
Xu focuses on sculpture and art performance, incorporating walking into her art. Her works at the Weatherspoon include her diary of a 72-mile walking project in San Francisco and a video of one in Greensboro.
The video shows Xu pulling a lightweight wooden boat that she had built to Harris Teeter after a snowstorm to buy groceries.
“Walking is the most natural way of resonating with the environment,” she said.
Woods, a 24-year-old from Charlotte, finished her bachelor’s degree in sculpture at UNCG, then entered its graduate program.
Woods uses both real and synthetic hair in her elaborate art.
She used paper, synthetic hair weave and brown Ampro styling gel in a wall installation titled “Gelled Down Baby Hair.” Another installation titled “Weave Idolatry” displays a series of masks depicting different hairstyles made from synthetic hair weave.
“The work is really about the transformation of African American women and how they present themselves to the world through the manipulation of their hair,” Woods said.
Art attracted Lowe because of its potential for self-expression.
“You have an idea and try to figure out how you can get it across without words,” she said.
Lowe, 30, came from Elmira, N.Y., to study at UNCG. Her work explores themes of family, memory and place.
She drew inspiration and materials from a tree next to her grandparents’ home that aged as they did.
Backlighting shines through her double-sided drawings, created with charcoal that Lowe made from the tree’s pine cones.
She, too, uses real hair in an abstract image of her family’s home. When her family members got haircuts, they sent the trimmings.
She asked her parents to each take a photo every hour they were awake over one week. She published the photos in seven small books.
“It’s almost like a narrative as you go through them,” Lowe said.
Søndberg received her undergraduate degree in metal design and jewelry. She worked as a jewelry artist in Greensboro before entering UNCG’s graduate program.
At UNCG, Søndberg learned to fabricate steel sculpture. She bends steel rods by hand into various shapes and spray paints them, creating works that resemble line drawings moving through space.
Art preparators Susan Taaffe and Shane Carrico, who install exhibitions, talked them through installation details.
Woods had to make a blueprint for “Gelled Down Baby Hair,” an installation made in seven parts. “I had to trace it, take pictures of it, go to the computer and Photoshop it with measurements,” she said.
They filled out loan forms, listing insurance values and sale prices.
Then last week, they installed their art.
“I’m really excited to see what my family thinks,” Woods said. “They are not really artists, so it’s going to be interesting to see how they interpret the work. It has layers of meaning, which is a reflection on their history as well as mine.”
At Sunday’s opening, the artists described their work to family, friends and Weatherspoon supporters. They will give another public talk Tuesday.
Stephanie Woods posed for pictures with her family and her art.
“I have seen my daughter’s work, but never heard her verbalize the content of her work,” said her father, Joe Woods. “I was pleasantly surprised. It is rewarding to see her doing things she wanted to do.”
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Their artistry will get more exposure in New York. Thanks to UNCG, they will exhibit in an August show at Southfirst gallery in Brooklyn.
As they prepare to leave UNCG, they ponder their future.
Xu wants a job with a nonprofit art organization, museum, university or Asian studies center in the United States.
“I’m excited that I can keep exploring something, and scared of unpredictability,” Xu said.
Søndberg, who taught a sculpture class while at UNCG, is looking for adjunct teaching jobs at area colleges. She will resume jewelry-making, but also pursue commissions for her metal sculpture.
And she’ll have more time to spend with her 3-year-old son.
Woods will teach art this summer at a children’s camp run by Greensboro’s African American Atelier.
She has applied for teaching and gallery assistant jobs, as well as artist residencies.
“I have built a lot of relationships here, and I’m anxious about actually leaving,” Woods said. “Now I have to start all over and build new relationships in another place.”
Residency programs offer another opportunity for artists to immerse themselves in their work — making, discussing, networking and critiquing, said Mariam Stephan, who directs graduate studies for UNCG’s art department.
They also help new MFA graduates transition from the sheltered environment of college — and put them on the radar of the art world.
“They have the mental space and time to keep that ball rolling,” Stephan said.
Lowe will teach this summer at Greensboro’s Center for Visual Artists. She is applying for residencies and exploring teaching possibilities.
“I’m ready to step out and test the waters and see what’s out there for me with my new degree,” she said.
https://www.greensboro.com/go_triad/masters-of-creation-art-students-trade-homework-for-life-s/article_5eb11a78-6195-557c-b617-10716851aa96.html
Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at (336) 373-5204, and follow @dawndkaneNR on Twitter.