Widely collected artist Curt Brill will be available for a meet and greet this Friday, Sept. 7 during the Boone First Friday Art Crawl at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts as a part of the Fall Exhibition Celebration. His work ‘At a Glance: Gestures of Curt Brill’ will be featured.
The Appalachian had the opportunity to speak with Brill about his life and art.
Q&A with Curt Brill
The Appalachian: How did you get involved in the arts?
Curt Brill: “It’s something I’ve done my whole life. It started in early childhood– my mother was a painter, I had a number of cousins who were in the arts and it seems like all of the birthday presents or holiday presents I ever got were art materials. It was just kind of natural for me to start doing stuff.”
TA: This exhibit features work in several different media. Do you have a favorite to work with?
CB: “I have always been very attracted to clay. So a lot of the pieces that are in the exhibit are actually bronze, but the originals were done in clay. Actually, my earlier training was actually as a potter.”
TA: Do you feel that audiences have different reactions to your work now as opposed to when you started out?
CB: “That’s a really hard question to answer because the first part would be that I’ve had galleries or dealers that I’ve worked with for many years, and I’ve had very successful shows, and the next time they schedule me for a show I show up with a new body of work and their first response is ‘what are you doing to us?’ because essentially the work has always sold well and the response has been really good even with the new work.”
TA: Do you have a favorite piece from this collection?
“You’re going to ask me to choose between my children?”
TA: Well, is there one that you particularly had fun with or are excited to see reactions to?
CB: “There is one piece, it’s a seated piece just a little bit bigger than life size called ‘Dana’. Bronzes are done in editions, which means that there’s more than one copy of each of my bronzes. I do very small editions but that particular piece—a really good sculpture park outside of Manhattan has just purchased that as a part of their permanent collection. So that’s one that has already reached some national acclaim.”
TA: Is there anything you would like to tell our readers about this show?
CB: “I would ask that anyone who goes to any of these exhibits to keep an open mind, and realize that even if they don’t particularly respond or like a work each has its own little story and if people give it time even without an explanation the work itself will tell them something. I’d just ask them to explore all of the work.
And I will say that I will also be there at the opening, and it’s always nice if people have any questions or just want to chat. I know that even when I go places I’m a little hesitant to jump in and chat with people but I would say that it’s always to meet people when I go to openings, so I would say just jump past the barrier and say hello.”
The Fall Exhibition Celebration takes place at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts this Friday, Sept. 7. Doors will be open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. At a Glance is currently on view and will be available through Saturday, Nov. 24. The event and the exhibition are free and open to the public.
Story: LOVEY COOPER, Intern A&E Reporter