Nancy Kubale & Lori Schappe-Youens

media release: April 21 - June 4, 2023  

Opening Reception Friday, April 21, 5pm-9pm, open to the public

Shows open online Saturday, April 22 at 10 AM CDT

Nancy Kubale and Lori Schappe-Youens: Like-Minded

Nancy Kubale  is a full-time ceramic and mixed media artist living southeast of Asheville, in the foothills of Rutherford County, NC. Her work uses figures influenced by equal parts classical statuary and folk art to explore our shared human experience.  Kubale is inspired by poetry, secular philosophy, religious texts, fashion, and contemporary culture and addresses the human pursuit of Truth. Constructed using hand building techniques, her works are layered with terra sigillata, slips, stains, oxides, and glazes and often require three to five firings. The resulting ceramic sculpture is assembled with wood, metal, fiber, and found objects.

Lori Schappe-Youens creates colorful, highly textured paintings reminiscent of abstract expressionism. For 30 years Schappe-Youens has split her time between two continents, having a home both in the Midwest and in South Africa. Her work combines evocative imagery, enigmatic figures, and an intense palette which sometimes incorporates less conventional mixed media elements such as sand, saffron and tea into her highly layered paintings. Schappe-Youens paints largely intuitively, responding to the work through added layers as the painting evolves before her. These paintings develop a narrative through this process, symbolic elements emerging to tell an emotive story with insightful observations on the human condition, often with an element of humor.

Virtual Artist Talk with Nancy Kubale and Lori Schappe-Youens Thursday, May 11, at 5pm This online event will include: a video walk-through of the exhibition installed in the gallery, conversation with the artists about their current exhibit, Like-Minded, followed by a Q&A with the audience. Broadcast through Facebook live and available on our website, the recorded video will also be available to view after the event has ended.

Figurative: Group Show

This group show features works in a variety of media that utilizes the human form. Artists in this exhibit include: Randall Berndt, Jessica Calderwood, Gerit Grimm, Kelli Hoppmann, Stacey Johnson Hardy, Yeonsoo Kim, Debbie Kupinsky, William Lemke, Marlene Miller, Ryan Myers, Wendy Olson, Jean Roberts-Guequierre, Gregory Schulte, Pranav Sood, and Ariana Vaeth.

no. 5: Inhale/Exhale . . . Until the Last Breath by Katherine Steichen Rosing 

Katherine Steichen Rosing explores invisible forces in forests and watersheds related to climate and other environmental issues through vividly hued paintings, intricate mixed media works, and immersive installations. Inhale/Exhale contemplates intricate connections between forests, watersheds, and climate. Rosing’s installations, video, and paintings juxtapose the duality of contemporary existence, balancing climate anxiety with the exuberance felt in daily interactions with the natural world. This exhibition is supported (in part) by the Women Artist Forward Fund and the Forward Art Prize.

Upcoming Artist Talks

In-person Artist Talk with Katherine Steichen Rosing , Saturday, May 6, at 2pm: Join us at Abel Contemporary for a conversation with Katherine Steichen Rosing where we will discuss her current work featured in Inhale/Exhale...Until the Last Breath followed by a Q&A with the audience. Free and open to the public, this live event will be held in gallery no.5 on the second floor of the gallery and  recorded for later viewing on our website.