Wiley Johnson and Eduardo Lapetina: Through the Layers

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Mon, Aug 1, 2022 - Wed, Sep 21, 2022  Mon.-Fri., 8:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.

Location

Details

Wiley Johnson and Eduardo Lapetina: Through the Layers is part of a showcase of art exhibitions, performances, and experiences accompanying the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability Conference (LEAD®), which will take place in Raleigh from August 1 – 5, 2022. The artworks are on display at Block Gallery, one of our City-owned galleries.

This exhibition brings together two North Carolina based artists who self-identify as having a disability. They each have different approaches to abstraction but have found a visual language through paint. For example, the rich thick layered colors of Eduardo Lapetina’s paintings are applied by pouring, scraping, dripping and other methods, create a complex surface texture. Meanwhile, Wiley Johnson has a more fluid approach to abstraction often allowing the previous layer of paint to show through transparent applications.

The title of this exhibition, Through the Layers, suggests more than just the use of paint and the complex surfaces created by these artists. Working as an artist with a disability, whether it be physical, cognitive, or invisible to others, informs the creative process and the artist experience. As viewers, we shouldn’t perceive this as an impediment to the art but as the culmination of a lived disability experience.

Image: Field of Lilacs by Wiley Johnson