Last Remaining Cathedral
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Daniel Essig, Needle Nose, carved and painted mahogany, handmade paper, mica, metal, Ethiopian & Coptic bindings, 33 x 13 x 8 inches
GreenHill’s spring 2016 exhibition presents works by Daniel Essig and Robert Johnson, two seminal Western North Carolina artists who are inspired by man’s essential relationship to the natural world. Essig and Johnson glean materials and find subjects in what Johnson has called the “last remaining cathedral” – places where wild nature still exists. A modern-day pilgrim, Robert Johnson has hiked and sketched in wilderness regions abroad, across the United States and near his home in Celo, North Carolina for over four decades to study scenery used as source materials for his iconic painting series. The practice of Asheville-based artist Daniel Essig also involves a close relationship with the natural world. Since childhood Essig has collected and preserved fossils, sheets of mica, rusty nails and old books. Objects from his studio’s archive of treasures embellish the sculptural books he creates that have redefined the field of book arts. Both Robert Johnson and Daniel Essig utilize the highest level of craft in works that transmit a spiritual connection to nature and a desire to encapsulate and render permanent a world that is rapidly disappearing.
Daniel Essig’s artist books often take the form of animals with the codex or book’s pages, integrated into a larger sculptural form. N’Kisi Bricolage Sturgeon is one of two monumental sculptural books by the artist on view at GreenHill. The assemblage’s name derives from the carved wooden sculptures often covered with nails created by Central African peoples such as the N’Kisi that have informed many of the artist’s works. The five-foot-long fish in carved mahogany is embellished with mica, nails, tintypes and 1800’s text paper, as well as numerous found natural objects. The large rusty nails and small objects attached by chains to the animal recall N’Kisi fetish figures that were thought to serve as bridges to the spirit world. Fished to near extinction for its precious eggs, the sturgeon is an “ancient fish” whose morphology has not changed for thousands of years. The fish’s dorsal fins are created by eight small codexes that emerge seamlessly from the animal’s burnished back. These small books are created with Ethiopian and Coptic book binding, a style of binding books dating back to the 4th century that the artist has stated is at the heart of all of his works. Essig’s imaginative reinvention of the creature embedded with texts and vestiges suggests that the fish, like ancient forms of transmitting culture such as hand-bound books, will be carried forward through time.
Essig discovered the art of bookbinding while majoring in photography at the University of South Illinois at Carbondale. For Essig, experiencing art in a book activates the viewer in a way preferable to photographs hung on a wall. To pursue this craft discipline, Essig studied at Penland School of Crafts where he began his investigations of the Ethiopian book with Coptic binding. There he met Master bookmaker Dolph Smith whom he credits with pushing him beyond the simple Ethiopian style and into the realm of the sculptural book. Now a master bookmaker in his own right, Essig teaches bookbinding workshops at craft schools and art centers all over the country, including Penland School of Crafts. His studio is part of Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, where he has been making books and sculptures since 1999.
Within the context of this two-person exhibition GreenHill is honored to present the first mid-career retrospective of the paintings of Robert Johnson. Viewers will see a comprehensive survey of Johnson’s non-traditional landscape paintings. They will experience a contemplative journey to sites the artist has painted around the globe, from hidden hollows in the mountains of Western North Carolina to peaceful shorelines in Ecuador. Though viewers are often enchanted by Johnson’s attention to capturing the unique characteristics of a given landscape, ultimately Johnson seeks to convey a sense of a profound connection to nature that the artist has characterized as transcendental in that it allows him to submerge himself in a larger sense of being.
GreenHill’s exhibition will include major works in acrylic and oil on panel as well as works on paper. Johnson has stated that his practice of drawing from direct observation grounds his work, and ties its more fanciful narrative elements and stylistic motifs to the physical world. Beginning as pencil sketches his drawings serve as field notes for expeditions and individual plants, rock formations or insect species are singled out on the page with notations on location and rarity. Reworked with watercolor they become the basis for larger compositions in acrylic and oil. Recently Johnson has created “notebook” paintings that are not the basis for other works. Curtis Creek Field, (2014) from Johnson’s most recent series entitled “South of Asheville”, depicts a cornfield next to a promontory seen through a window-like opening surrounded by single leaves. The use of an aperture to frame the main landscape subject with specific plants, animals, and features drawn in “close-up” on the surface of the picture plane is a central compositional strategy in Johnson’s works seen in paintings such as Machu Pichu, 2010. In Curtis Creek Field single leaves from the brilliant display that draws visitors to the mountains each year are noted with their tree type. A diagram of “bear scot full of grape seeds” is also highlighted and this earthy detail suggests man’s land use overlaps with that of the site’s natural inhabitants and the field, Johnson states, is actually cultivated to attract wild game for hunters.
Headlands, California, a major work from 1993 by Johnson which will be on view at GreenHill presents views of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, an 80,000 acre reserve of public land surrounding San Francisco Bay. Evoking certain of Johnson’s historical influences, this large shaped painting is divided into multiple panels like an early Renaissance polyptych. It may be seen as an “ecological allegory” contrasting idyllic views of the flora and fauna of this shoreline ecosystem with its history as a US Army base for the nation’s Cold War ballistic missile program. Echoing the shape of the Nike missiles depicted on each flank of the canvas, the painting recounts an apotheosis of sorts. The central panel presents a panoramic view of hilly coastal prairies rising before the Pacific. Its lower zone is devoted to what appears to be an abandoned bunker, emblazoned with the raw street syntax of many similar deserted spaces. As one moves up the canvas the reclaiming of the site by nature is evident in the overgrowth of vines and blossoming columbines and the presence of a Western Bluebird on a broken tower. At the top of the painting sea birds circle a curved promontory and a single orchid seems to suggest that even weapons of mass destruction are transient in comparison to nature’s designs.
Robert Johnson spent most of his childhood in Caracas, Venezuela. His father was a field geologist and his mother a librarian. After moving with his family to the United States at the age of 14, Johnson attended the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in painting. For three years following graduation, Johnson apprenticed for Modernist painter Karl Knaths in Provincetown, Massachusetts. At the end of his apprenticeship, he was a awarded a fellowship at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center where he was introduced to several Abstract Expressionists, including Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko. In the late 60’s, Johnson moved from Provincetown to Oakland California to pursue an MFA in Painting. During this time, his paintings made the transition from highly abstract to the more representational style he is known for today. Compelled by his love of nature, the artist moved to the mountains of North Carolina, just Northeast of Asheville, where is has lived for forty years. Johnson is one of the pioneering artists of Blue Spiral 1 gallery and his work has been an integral part the Asheville art scene.
Curated by Edie Carpenter
Associated Programs
Last Remaining Cathedral Opening Reception at GreenHill
April 8, 2016 | 5:30 – 8:00 PM (5:30 – 6pm is for members only)
Meet the artists at the opening of Last Remaining Cathedral: Illuminations of Nature featuring the works of artists Robert Johnson and Daniel Essig. The exhibition presents a mid-career retrospective of paintings and works on paper inspired by man’s essential relationship to the natural world by Robert Johnson alongside sculptural book forms in wood, fiber, mica by master book artist Daniel Essig. Members invited early at 5:30 PM, open to public at 6:00 PM. Cash Bar. GreenHill is free and open to the public.
Armchair Conversation with Steve Tate and Chip Callaway
Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Join us in The Gallery for an “armchair” conversation with Steve Tate of Goat Dairy Lady and Chip Callaway of garden design company Callaway & Associates. The discussion will be focused around the themes of ecology, sustainability and preservation—themes illustrated by the work of artists Robert Johnson and Daniel Essig in GreenHill’s exhibition Last Remaining Cathedral: Illuminations from Nature. The talk will be followed by a wine & cheese reception. The event is free and open to the public. Cash bar.
First Friday | Performance by the Van Dyke Dance Group + Pop-Up Resident
Friday, May 6 | 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Join us for First Friday and a performance by the Van Dyke Dance Group from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. GreenHill’s association with choreographer and dance historian Jan Van Dyke began 20 years ago. For the past four years Jan Van Dyke and her dancers have presented a spring performance at GreenHill that is a highlight of our First Friday performance series. Additionally, there will be an interactive program in ArtQuest with GreenHill’s Pop-Up Resident. Cash Bar. Free and open to the public. Donations appreciated.
Artist Talk | Robert Johnson
Wednesday, May 11 | 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Join us in The Gallery for an Artist Talk by one of GreenHill's Last Remaining Cathedral’s artists, Asheville painter Robert Johnson. The Gallery at GreenHill is free and open to the public. Donations appreciated.
Artist Talk | Daniel Essig
Wednesday, May 25 | 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Join us in The Gallery for an Artist Talk by one of GreenHill's Last Remaining Cathedral’s artists, master bookmaker Daniel Essig. The Gallery at GreenHill is free and open to the public. Donations appreciated.
First Friday | Performance by Mary D. Williams
Friday, June 3 | 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Join us for First Friday and with a performance by gospel singer Mary D. Williams from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mary Williams is a performer and scholar of African American musical traditions and has performed all over the United States as well as Paris. Her gospel music is rooted in her ancestral history and rings true among racial tensions of present day. She works in feature films and documentary theater, frequently collaborating with historian and writer Tim Tyson and playwright Mike Wiley. Williams is also an adjunct professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Cash Bar. Free and open to the public. Donations appreciated.
Additional Resources
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In the News
"Landscape paintings highlight nature-focused show at Greensboro's GreenHill" by Tom Patterson of the Winston-Salem Journal