Contemporary Focus 2012

Contemporary Focus is the KMA’s annual exhibition series designed to serve as a vital means of recognizing, supporting and documenting the development of contemporary art in East Tennessee. Each year, the exhibition series features the work of artists who are living and making art in this region, and who are exploring issues relevant to the larger world of contemporary art.

The three artists selected for this year’s exhibition have a common interest in referencing the urban environment, the boundaries along which nature and civilization intersect, and the way in which ordinary images can serve as metaphors for complex realities.

Mark Bradley-Shoup

Bradley-Shoup produces intricately crafted paintings and works on paper based on his own manipulated photographs of urban environments. Prevalent themes in his work include “consumption and growth,” “expansion and recession,” and “the elegance of brutality.”

Bradley-Shoup is based in Chattanooga, and teaches at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Technical Community College.

www.markbradleyshoup.com

Joshua Dudley Greer

Greer creates color photographs whose enigmatic imagery is informed by the artist’s interest in film, urban lore, and the built environment’s relationship to the natural world. He was included in a recent Oxford American article on 100 emerging Southern artists to watch.

Greer is based in Johnson City, where he is a visiting assistant professor of photography at East Tennessee State University.

www.jdudleygreer.com

Andrew Scott Ross

Ross is a multi-media artist who fabricates elaborate sculptural installations made up of tiny, hand-cut works on paper. His compositions resemble primordial landscapes populated by various human and animal characters.

Ross is based in Johnson City, and currently teaches drawing as a member of the art faculty at East Tennessee State University.

andrewscottross.com/home.html