January 17–February 21, 2020
UNC Asheville’s juried international exhibition, Drawing Discourse, will open with special events on Jan. 17-18 featuring renowned artists including Juror, William Beckman and Jason Franz. The exhibition features 44 works of contemporary drawing selected from among 1,053 submissions by 366 artists in 5 nations.
Beckman will provide an opening lecture about his drawing practice from 5-6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18 in the Kittredge Theatre at Warren Wilson College. Beckman's talk will be followed by a reception in the Holden Gallery from 6–8 p.m. Born in Minnesota, William Beckman earned his B.A from Cloud State University and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Beckman has an extended list of publications, most recently; William Beckman: Drawings, 1967-2013 where C. Butler states; “As one of the leading realists working in the United States, William Beckman is celebrated for the intimacy and emotional power of his figurative drawings”. Beckman is represented by Forum Gallery, NY and has had solo exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC; Frye Art Museum, WA; Indiana University Art Museum, IN; Hudson River Museum, NY; and Allan Stone and Forum Gallery, NY. He has received numerous purchase awards for the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the Thomas R. Proctor Prize from the National Academy of Design. Beckman’s work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and the Museum Moderne Kunst, Vienna, Austria to name a few.
Special events on Saturday, Jan. 18 will begin with coffee outside the gallery at 9:30 a.m., followed by a panel discussion, Conversations and Coffee, featuring William Beckman, Jason Franz and Tamie Beldue, from 10-11 a.m. in Kittredge Theatre. Closing Visiting Artist Lectures by artists Erin Wiersma and Adonna Khare conclude the exhibition programming on February 20 & 21.
All Drawing Discourse events are free and open to everyone. For more information, email exhibit organizer Tamie Beldue, UNC Asheville associate professor of art and department chair, at tbeldue@unca.edu.
