FRANK Gallery’s latest exhibit mixes media and perceptions

by Katherine Poole

The pages of an artist’s sketchbook are where ideas for other works take shape. Sketches are studies for paintings, blueprints for sculptures. At least, that is the perception, one the FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill challenges with its current exhibition, Drawn Together.

Drawn Together celebrates the mastery and mystery of drawing by taking the composition out of the notebook and into full view. The exhibition, on display until Dec. 22, features three artists known for work rich in detail and symbolism, despite distinct styles.

Raleigh-based artist Kiki Farish creates pencil paintings inspired by nature that are, in her words, “fleeting, uncertain, shifting.” Farish’s work is joined by that of Jean LeCluyse, who draws, literally, on her diverse experiences – as a farm laborer, a printmaker, a freelance scientific illustrator, and a nurse – to create windows into secret narratives. To complement the 2-D works, the exhibit includes mixed media pieces by Aggie Zed. South Carolina native Zed grew up riding ponies on the beach, studying her father as he repaired TVs, and passing time by drawing and playing with cheap plastic toys; she combines it all into intricate 3-D art rooted in a curiosity with the beauty and strangeness of human activity.

All together, the exhibit’s point is clear: drawing need not be the beginning. It is art in and of itself. 

109 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill; frankisart.com