Jan Knipe

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is pleased to present an exhibition of recent drawings by artist Jan Knipe. Based in Radford, Virginia, Knipe uses both traditional and handmade materials to create drawings that investigate the boundaries of the medium. With muted monochromatic hues, she explores the ambiguity of shape and the relationships between objects while developing narratives around nature and architectural forms. As Museum director Amy G. Moorefield writes, "Through her facile and expressive handling of her rendering tools, she transforms perceptions of her external environment into translations that hover between the real and the abstract."

Currently Professor Emerita from Hollins University where she taught from 1987-2009, Knipe has exhibited nationally dincluding the Hackett/Freedman Gallery in San Francisco, the Bowery Gallery in New York City, the Hermitage Foundation Museum in Norfolk and the Danville Museum of Art, Virginia among others. Her work is in many public and private collections including the Weisman Museum of Art in Minneapolis, the American Council on Education in Washington, DC, and the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia. She has received numerous awards, including a fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a Cabell Fellowship, an individual artist grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and Grants for Artists Program (GAP) award from The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.

A color catalogue with essays by museum director Amy Moorefield, art historian Ann Bronwyn Paulk Ph.D., and art critic John Goodrich will accompany the exhibition.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by a grant from The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.