By Melinda Ludwig
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – This month the Orgain Gallery of the Customs House Museum features the collage art of award-winning artist Anne Bagby in the exhibit Layered Expressions.
Combining layers of glaze over layers of patterns and images, Anne creates quilt-like visions, stitching together patterns of bold colors that often feature the human face and words. There is a nostalgic feel to the modern pieces of art. The end result is a lyrical piece of textures that leaves the viewer with a sense of familiarity.
Anne says of her work, “The paintings play with the boundaries between design and texture. My work is deliberately formal and beautiful. The quilt tradition, oriental rugs, and the kaleidoscope inspire the fabric-like look, the lack of volume and deep space and the use of multiple images. In these paintings the edges are firm and significant, but the surface is my primary concern. My paintings are concerned with the relationships we have with the world and with ourselves and with who we want the world to think we are.”
A resident of Tennessee, Anne studied at the University of North Carolina and Queens College in Charlotte. Her work has been published in New American Painting, Watercolor Magazine, Artist Magazine, and Somerset Studio Magazine. Bagby’s work can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. including Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Nashville, and The U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies. She has been teaching workshops since 2004; and has produced an instructional DVD of her process. Layered Expressions will be on view at the Customs House May 7th through July 6th.
Located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets, the Customs House Museum is the second largest general museum in Tennessee. For more information on above events contact Terri Jordan, Exhibits Curator, at 931-648-5780 or terri@customshousemuseum.org.