Spring 2013: 'As Above, So Below' at ARC Gallery

Location: Arc Gallery (UAA/APU Consortium Library, Entrance)
Show dates: Jan. 25-March 1

Jayne Jones and Alan Finch first began to exhibit together and influence each other in the late-1980s when Finch, inspired by the European artists in CoBrA (1948-51) and their emphasis on spontaneity and improvisation in art, formed Group W, bringing together sculptors, photographers and painters. This group of young artists inspired each other and exhibited together in Tennessee for several years. Jones moved to Seattle where she opened a photography studio and Finch continued to work as a painter in Tennessee.

By the late '90s, Alan Finch formed the group Kaleidoscope, consisting of about 30 artists from East Tennessee and around the country. In 2000, Alan curated the exhibit "Transparent Things (through which the past shines)" with hundreds of works by Kaleidoscope artists. The magazine Art Papers gave a favorable review to Finch's paintings, Jones' photographs and the show itself.

Finch transitioned to stone sculpture, working with one ton pieces of marble, one of which is on display at the University of Tennessee Trial Gardens, before switching his artistic focus to photography. Jones transitioned to digital photography, began to explore painting and combined the two with mixed media. This exhibit is the result of an artistic synergy that seems to have come full circle.

The artwork in "As Above, So Below" is a combination of Jones' photographs taken from flights to and from Bethel, Kenai, Hawaii and Texas complementing Finch's close-ups of rock patterns and formations from the Big South Fork National Park in Tennessee and extreme close-ups of marine life at a wilderness area in Florida. Alan does minimal photographic editing, preferring to manipulate the object at the site using dry pigments and charcoal to enhance some of the images. Jayne draws upon her fascination with the similarity between abstract paintings by the likes of Kandinsky, Duchamp, Mondrian and the view from far above the earth. She lets each piece inform her to what degree she may further interpret the abstract qualities through photographic manipulation and choice of output media.

Jayne Jones, advisor to the Digital Art program at UAA's Kenai Peninsula College, and Alan Finch, who still resides and works in East Tennessee, invite you to interact with them in cyberspace on the KPC Digital Art Degree Facebook page and they will gladly respond to your comments and answer any questions you may have about the work.