Jim Ann Howard / Mother Me Mother

Richard Painter / Burghers of Calais

Lain York / Permian Chapters

April 5 – April 26, 2005

Reception: April 5, 5-8pm

This month Zeitgeist gallery reaches back to well-worn paths to present three regional artists that share over 25 years of history together at Zeitgeist gallery.

Mother Me Mother - Jim Ann Howard

Jim Ann Howard’s ensemble features work from her series, Herstory, in which she was asked to provide pencil and charcoal drawings of earth mothers and female deities from the archeological record for a collaborative book project with author Donna Wilshire, Virgin, Mother, Crone, Inner Traditions: Myths and Mysteries of the Triple Goddess (Rochester, VT, 1994). Howard spent 6 months doing research at the Jungian Institute in Manhattan, working from images found there as well as from objects in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other private collections in the area.

Jim Ann Howard is a Nashville-native and studied painting and drawing at University of North Carolina, Greensboro and College for Women, Bristol, Virginia. After years in Boston, NYC, and Central America, Howard now resides in Nashville. 

Her work can be found in public, corporate and private collections including The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA; and Shawmut Bank of Boston, MA. Her work has also been collected by renowned artist-colleagues such as Louise Bourgeois and Sue Coe.

Burghers of Calais - Richard Painter

Richard Painter’s ensemble of 5 painted panels executed on sewn felt were the product of a six month residency in Liestal, outside Basel, Switzerland, sponsored by the Christoph Marian Foundation which, at the time, was partnered with Austin Peay University. 

Based on Rodin's Burghers of Calais, this work commemorates the heroism of six leading citizens (burghers) who in the fourteenth century, offered their lives to the English king in exchange for the lifting of his siege of their city at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. Having seen the casting of the Burghers in Paris, Painter took his cues from another casting found outdoors at the Kunsthalle in Basel for its weathered patina, and from German multi-media artist Joseph Beuys’ use of felt for its symbolic, transformative power.

Richard Painter is a native of Gainesboro, Tennessee whose work can be found in the private collections of the CEO of Coca-Cola, the Vice President of Turner Broadcasting, and the President of American General as well as the Tennessee State Museum. 

Painter lives and works in Smithville, Tennessee, and has exhibited in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Germany, and Switzerland.

Permian Chapters - Lain York

Lain York’s ensemble of 12 birch panels references the Permian geologic period which lasted from 299 to 251 million years ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. The distinction between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic eras is made at the end of this period in recognition of the largest mass extinction recorded in the history of life on Earth.

This installation was conceived to convey the idea of an extremely long period of time; the Permian period lasting 48 million years. The kinetic arrangement hopes to invoke the presence of tectonic plates shifting and bumping into one another over a timespan and with a force inconceivable to the human mind.

Lain York is a native of Nashville and is very excited to be showing with two of his mentors.

York is a graduate of the University of Tennessee whose work has been exhibited locally/nationally/internationally in contemporary galleries, public art programs, academic spaces, artist-run initiatives, and museums. In 2015 he had a solo exhibition, “Selections from the National Gallery”, at the Frist Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee. His work can be found in the permanent collections of EMI Los Angeles, the Savannah College of Art, The Tennessee State Museum, the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, FirstBank Tennessee, and the Music City Center. His work has been published in New American Paintings, New York Arts Magazine, and Art Papers.