This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Monkey on a Tree, 1984
ARTIST: Susan Rothenberg; Buffalo, NY 1945-2020 Galisteo, NM

Susan Rothenberg the Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné book will be included ($28 value), print listed on page 72-73.

Susan Rothenberg attended Cornell University until the head of the department discouraged her from studying sculpture. She lived abroad for a year before returning to complete her undergraduate studies in 1967. After briefly attending the Corcoran School of Art, she moved to New York in 1969, where she continued sculptural experiments and began to paint minimalist-inspired geometric grids. In 1973 Rothenberg's frustration with such minimalist issues as flatness and anti-illusionism produced the first of the horse paintings for which the artist became well known.

While her first exhibitions of these expressive, painterly, and psychologically-charged iconic images were coolly received, by 1978, when she was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art's New Image Painting, her unique blend of abstraction and representation was seen as the herald of a resurgence in painting. In 1980 Rothenberg was included in the American pavilion of the Venice Biennale; in 1982, she was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and was the only woman included in the influential Zeitgeist exhibition in West Berlin. Traveling surveys of her work have been organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1983) and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1994). Bill Goldston invited Rothenberg to work at ULAE after seeing her paintings in the Whitney Museum of American Art's 1983 Biennial Exhibition. (Source: ULAE)Her works are in major collections, PMA, MFA Boston etc.

Lithograph, printed in one color from one stone on Richard de Bas paper
Edition 6/32
30 ½ × 22 ½ inches
Printer: Keith Brintzenhofe
Publisher: Universal Limited Art Editions, New York
Framed by Blackbird Framing

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Little Chickadee Says Hello, 2020
ARTIST: Moni Hill , Born Berlin, Germany 1971 | Active Asheville, NC

Moni Hill discovered her love of painting in 7th grade in Cincinnati, OH, and was lucky to have an art teacher (Mr. Ferguson) who let her blow through the classroom supplies, recognizing that she needed to paint. Hill is inspired by the natural world and believes that colors can transform spaces and lives. In her artist statement, she says, "We live in a world of contrasts and humans are wired to look for patterns. I love the challenge that presents me when I paint. My paintings embrace contrasts and revel in opposites as a way to make paintings that celebrate differences. The orange brings out the best of the blue-the teals and greens accentuate the reds! The big broad strokes highlight the details. Every painting contains worlds where contrasts, opposites, and differences make an interesting, complex, and beautiful whole! My process involves layering paint, sanding off the layers, putting on more layers, more sanding and layering until an interesting history of making the painting is revealed. I paint with acrylic on wood. I love how quickly acrylic dries and allows layers to build. I appreciate how wood holds my liberal application of paint and vigorous sanding with the power-sander." (Source: Bender Gallery)

Acrylic on panel
36 × 36 inches
Courtesy the Artist and Bender Gallery

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Red and Black from Leafblower series, 2013
ARTIST: Kevin Hogan; Born Liverpool, England 1954 | Active Asheville, NC

Kevin Hogan makes sculptural installations, paintings, prints, drawings, and mixed media artwork. His earlier work was almost entirely black and white, and he focused more on line and shape within the work. His experimentation with printmaking led to an exploration of color. He has exhibited in North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, New York, France, and Germany. He was a founding member and director of the Asheville Working Press in Asheville, NC, and an art critic for the Asheville Citizen-Times. Hogan has given lectures at the Cooper School of Art, Kent State University, St John's Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 1988 he received the North Carolina Individual Artist Fellowship, in 1992 the La Napoule Foundation/NCAC Residency in La Napoule, France, and in 1998, a Vermont Studio Center Grant. Hogan's work is in the collections of Nations Bank, the Law School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the SAS Institute in Cary, NC, The Hearst Corporation in Charlotte, NC, and the Asheville Art Museum. He is also in numerous private collections in the US, Canada, Germany, France, and the UK. (Source: Asheville Art Museum)

Acrylic on paper
72 1/2 × 29 1/2 inches
Framed by Blackbird Framing

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Points Connecting State II, 2020
ARTIST: Dan Namingha, Born Keams Canyon, AZ 1950 | Active Santa Fe, NM

Dan Namingha is a painter and sculptor and a member of the Hopi-Tewa tribe. He is the son of Hopi potter Dextra Quotskuyva and a sixth-generation Hopi artist. Namingha studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, NM, and the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he was influenced by the work of Jackson Pollack, Adolph Gottlieb, Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Norman Rockwell. This work was printed at Black Rock Editions, which is in the former location of Landfall Editions. Namingha's abstract works reference the physical and spiritual world and life on the Colorado Plateau.

6-color lithograph on paper
Edition BRE State II
Publisher: Black Rock Editions
Sheet: 25 5/8 × 25 ¾ inches
Framed by Blackbird Framing
Courtesy Black Rock Editions

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Villi, 2009
ARTIST: Seth Haverkamp, Born USA 1980 | Active Knoxville, TN

Seth Haverkamp graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carson-Newman College and studied with internationally-known artist Nelson Shanks at Studio Incamminiati, as well as renowned artist Robert Liberace. Known for his unique still lifes and portraits, Haverkamp derives his primary inspiration from beauty-color, form, and the drama of light and dark. His wife and children are a frequent subject of his work. As Haverkamp says "The meaning? It is found in beauty. At the moment, that's enough." In 2019, Haverkamp's painting "Mars Rising" won the Draper Grand Prize in the Art of the Portrait Exhibition competition for the Portrait Society of America. For his portrait "Essie's Headress," Haverkamp won the "People's Choice Award" in the 2013 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition. Other honors include a Certificate of Excellence in the 2011 Portrait Society Competition, a Best in Show award at the 2008 Portrait Society Competition, and a finalist award in the Art Renewal Center's 2011 International Competition. Haverkamp was a finalist in the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 ARC international painting competition in the portraits category. Haverkamp's work has been highlighted in many publications, including American Artist, International Artist magazine, and the online magazine Artists on Art. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions across the United States. Haverkamp regularly holds workshops throughout the United States. Living just outside Knoxville, TN, he also opens his home-based studio for classes and demonstrations once weekly. (Source: Bender Gallery)

Oil on panel
Framed 24 × 18 inches
Courtesy the Artist and Bender Gallery

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Spring Break, 1993
ARTIST: Betty Anglin Smith, Born South Carolina 1946 | Active Charleston, SC

Betty Anglin Smith has been living and painting in the Charleston, SC, area for the last 40 years. She is the owner of Anglin Smith Fine Art, along with the rest of the Smith family of artists. Her works have been exhibited in galleries from New York to San Francisco. Both the Gibbes Art Museum in Charleston, SC, and the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC have featured her works. Her collectors include Walt Disney World, IBM, Johnson & Johnson. and private collectors all over the world. In her artist statement, Smith says, "My deep respect for and my spiritual connection to the natural landscape are central to my painting. Having lived on the coastal marshlands and a tidal sound for the last ten years, I have focused my work on capturing the rawness and beauty of these surroundings. Meandering waterways, maritime forests, open vistas of marshlands, and dramatic sky patterns are my frequent subjects. Through expressionistic brushwork and exaggeration of color, I hope to express the power, peace, and emotion from experiencing these elements of nature." (Source: Anglin Smith Fine Art)

Oil on canvas
Canvas 36 × 36 inches

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

A Portable Model Of?, 2019
ARTIST: John Knuth, Born Minneapolis, MN 1978 | Active Los Angeles, CA

John Knuth received an MFA from the University of Southern California and a BFA from the University of Minnesota. Knuth's recent solo exhibitions include Powerplant at Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy; Base Alchemy at 5 Car Garage, Santa Monica, CA; Master Plan at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL; Elevated Uncertainty at Marie Kirkegaard, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Fading Horizon at Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA. His works have recently been included in group shows at International Print Center, New York, NY; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; MassArt, Boston, MA; Self-Titled, Tilburg, NL; Loudhailer, Greene Exhibitions, China Art Objects, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, CA, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

John Knuth's creative conjurings challenge traditional notions of art-making, even in this millennium. His paintings force extreme tension between the sacred and the profane, creating stunning works by way of indelicate techniques. Knuth's mission is to take something traditionally regarded as base and to make it into something magnificent, where the materials feel secondary to the radical result. Knuth's approach is alchemical. Like an art world diviner, he conjures the elements, from making burn paintings with distress flares and metallic space blankets to using fly regurgitation to make the most incandescent, shimmering paintings. He has perfected his process using flyspeck, which can be said to fall within the art historical continuum that includes the Pre-Raphaelites' Mummy Brown or Chris Ofili's elephant dung.

Knuth first gained attention for his fly paintings in 2013 when The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, made a documentary that explored his leveraging of the biological processes of flies to create abstract landscapes on canvas. The artist relishes the unpredictable outcomes of these fly works, likening the flies' organic chaos to the hectic nature of the modern urban environment. The works are landscapes that explore the boundary between beauty and decay, and the line between attraction and revulsion. For his most recent series, Knuth experimented with globes: "With the globes, I wanted to bring a new format to the approach and dialogue with which I'm engaging. In this case, it's very literal. We are irreparably changing the earth. With every shining, gleaming new structure we erect, we are changing the climate, the environment, the landscape. I am using an abstract process, but the message is direct. And it needs to be, because there is an increasing sense of desperation. I certainly feel it. So, while I'm dealing a lot with process and its transformative capacity, I'm really most interested in the realities of our world."

Acrylic and flyspeck on globe
15 × 14 × 13 inches
Courtesy of the Artist and Hollis Taggart

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Synthesis Print, 1993
ARTIST: Ida Kohlmeyer, New Orleans, LA 1912-1997

Ida Kohlmeyer was a matriarch among American artists, achieving international acclaim without ever leaving her native New Orleans. Although she did not begin painting full-time until she was in her mid-thirties, Kohlmeyer's work has been represented in well over 100 solo exhibitions, including a major retrospective at the Mint Museum of Art. Her work is in the permanent collections of over 80 institutions, including the High Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Kohlmeyer's joyful abstract paintings and sculptures reflect the spirit of New Orleans and her long fascination with folk and primitive art. Based on her own developed alphabet of various organic and geometric shapes, the works transpose Kohlmeyer's passions and delights into compact, colorful, and celebratory images. (Source: Jerald Melberg Gallery)

Screenprint on paper
Edition: 63/100
Frame: 34 5/8 × 38 inches
Image: 22 3/8 × 26 3/8 inches

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Gold Half Moon , 2022
ARTIST: Alex Bernstein, Born Spruce Pine, NC 1972 | Active Asheville, NC

Alex Gabriel Bernstein grew up in a creative environment with access to many of the artists of the American Studio Glass Movement. As a child of two established glass artists, William and Katherine Bernstein, the beautiful surroundings of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western North Carolina where they lived played almost as much of a part in his inspired upbringing as did the breadth of teachers around him. Bernstein studied psychology at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and worked at a children's psychiatric hospital before making the decision to pursue his artistic endeavors full time. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Crafts and went on to teach at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Penland School of Crafts, and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass. Most recently Bernstein was the Department Head of Glass at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts, but he decided to return to his hometown, Asheville, NC, in 2007 to set up a studio and focus on creating his own work full-time. Bernstein has recently mounted solo shows at Chappell Gallery in NYC; Hooks Epstein Gallery in Houston; Habatat Gallery in Royal Oak, MI; and the William Traver Gallery in Seattle. His work is included in numerous collections, including those of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Glasmuseum Frauenau in Germany, the Mellon Financial Corporation, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Asheville Art Museum. (Source: Alex Bernstein)

Cast and cut glass
11 × 19 ¾ × 4 ¼
Courtesy the Artist

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Forewarning (The Pandemic Series), 2022
ARTIST: Bill Hall, Born Alabama | Active Asheville, NC

Bill Hall's minimalist intaglio prints and collaged prints are tonal studies in contrast to darks and lights in geometric grids or in linear patterns that subtly reference and pay homage to the aesthetics of Barnett Newman. As a master intaglio printer at Pace Editions in New York for almost 30 years, Bill collaborated on hundreds of print editions and worked with many well-known artists, including Helen Frankenthaler, Jim Dine, Chuck Close, Mary Heilmann, Robert Mangold, and James Turrell. Hall says, "Contrary to a lot of minimalist art, I am not reaching for pure abstraction. Instead, I pose questions about reality with contrasts, random design, movement, and ambiguities. In my work, flat shapes move in or out of the picture plane. Surfaces are stained and scarred, as if seen from a topographical viewpoint. I often use grids to establish order, then employ random means, like the throw of dice, to bring tension and disorder." Hall retired from Pace Editions in 2015 an now lives and works in North Carolina. (Source: Momentum Gallery)

Linocut and etching collage
15 × 12 inches
Courtesy Momentum Gallery

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Necklace and earrings set, 21st century
ARTIST: Terry Logan, Active Richmond, IN

Terri Logan has garnered many awards and prestigious gallery placements, including regular representation in the annual SOFA exhibitions. Each piece, entirely handmade from beach stones, is unique due to the individuality of the stones involved. As she wrote some years ago, "Becoming a jeweler/metal smith was less than a direct path for me. I was a psychotherapist for 18 years before I decided to become a full-time artist. Like most of us, I began making art around the age of three. Art was my first real language, my first record of the world and my experiences. By nine, I knew I had some talent, but it wasn't until my twenties that I discovered sculpture. Narrowing my academic pursuits became a difficult task since I hate to refuse myself anything, thus I was fortunate to secure a double major. I was a second year BFA sculpture student with a child-psychology co-major when my studies were interrupted. Economy and efficiency led to the decision to graduate early with a BA from Indiana University. In graduate school, I was able to unite my love for art and psychology by receiving my clinical degree, MAT (Master of Art Therapy) from Wright State University. Thus, I began a wonderful professional career, a general private practice in which I utilized the arts in many forms of treatment, diagnosis, and prevention. Therapy was an intense and demanding profession, and for me, it had a life-span. With burn-out approaching, retirement plans set in motion, I took a jewelry class at a nearby art center. I was three again! I was making art! I'm now 10 in 'jeweler years' and still discovering my identity. My work is based on formal concerns, design principles and function. Coming from a fine arts perspective, function is a new and important dimension for me. Coming from a psychological perspective, I make jewelry because of the intimacy the function allows. I use metal and stone (river rocks) because they are inherently strong materials. The combination of metal and stone allows me to integrate the industrial and organic elements of our world. These materials are rich in their historic value, and intrinsic to our growth as a civilization; their abundant character, separate or in relation to each other, offers me infinite possibilities as a language." (Source: Remarkable Things at Stowe Craft)

Silver and green stone
Necklace: 31 inches; Pendant: 4 1/4 × 1 × 1 inches; Earrings: 2 inches

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Upended, 2021
ARTIST: Linda Gritta, Born USA 1956 | Active Asheville, NC

One day, as a wide-eyed 7-year-old standing on tiptoe at the Art Institute of Chicago with her nose inches from Seurat's magnificent sea of tiny painted dots on Sunday Afternoon sur la Grande Jatte, Linda Gritta felt the first inkling that she would grow up to be an artist. Many years and several life chapters later, she decided to devote herself to that childhood wish in earnest and pursued a degree in studio art. That solid foundation and a steady momentum propelled her in many exciting directions. Gritta approaches each fresh canvas as an opportunity to excel and as a privilege to share her passion for painting with those around her. Gritta says, "I equate inspiration with desire ... that same desire I felt at seven years old is exactly what propels me into each painting. Simply put, my inspiration comes from the teeming life both around and within me. When the richness of reality mingles with imagination, it's magical." (Source: Bender Gallery)

Acrylic and oil on canvas
40 × 30 inches
Courtesy the Artist and Bender Gallery

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Two Pair, 2022
ARTIST(S): The Clay Collaboration
White slip on stoneware
27 × 18 × 16 inches

"Clay Collaboration" began as a conversation about what new forms might be created if a group of artists worked together collaboratively. The goal was to make something together, that, created alone, would not exist. The possibilities were exciting! Raising money for good causes was also on their minds.

The collaborators included ceramists Patrick McDermott, Robert Milnes, John Ransmeier, Michael Sherrill, and Kathy Triplett, and painters, printmakers and illustrators, Betty Clark, Kevin Hogan, and Robert Zimmerman.

Milnes and Triplett provided the cone 6 clay, Ransmeier offered the use of his studio and kilns, Sherrill brought some Mud Tools. Each artist made parts in their own studio, then brought them together to collaborate on the finished artwork. About four days of collaborative construction ("what if" thinking, experiments, construction and revision) were followed by kiln firings and final finishing of the pieces. Zimmerman created the website: www.claycollab.buglogic.com, and Steve Mann took photos of the finished sculptures.

"It felt like a gamble throughout, hence the poker hand titles, all winners. We determined that the five resulting pieces should be sold individually to benefit social services and cultural institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

We are honored to offer "Two Pair," to the Asheville Art Museum Gala, with all proceeds to benefit the museum. Money raised from the sale of one sculpture has been donated to MANNA Food Bank, another will benefit the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, and one will be auctioned to benefit Open Doors of Asheville. The last sculpture has not yet been spoken for!

The artists feel that the collaboration was a success and hope that you are excited by the artwork that was created." Robert Milnes

(Note: The sculpture is in two parts primarily to make moving it around easy. The slab at the base of the piece is in a separate box. When it is permanently installed, that slab could be attached with epoxy.)

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Rejuvenate with a week on the beautiful island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean. This offering is for a one week (7 days, 6 nights) stay at a 2 BR condominium in the prestigious Atrium Resort in Simspon Bay. The condo features a queen bed and sofa bed, kitchenette, balcony, and air-conditioning. Atrium amenities include a swimming pool, salon, fitness center, concierge service, laundry, bar, and spa. The resort is right on the beach and close to shopping and more than 12 casinos. The condo cam sleep 6-8 people.

Saint (or Sint) Maarten is the smallest island in the world and is shared by The Netherlands & France.

Must use by 12/31/2023. Subject to availability. This territory may impose curfews or travel restrictions as needed due to local Covid-19 conditions. Full reservation instructions are on the certificate.

"I was an officer in the U.S. Navy for 22 years, but have always been an artist. After I retired from the Navy, my wife and I came to the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. I went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a concentration in painting, from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Following graduation in 2003, I became a full-time artist with a studio in the River Arts District. My paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the eastern half of the country, and I've had multiple solo exhibits in universities and art spaces in North Carolina and Tennessee...In addition to making my own artworks, I teach workshops and mentor young students. I also serve as a live event painter at weddings and other events." (from www.skiprohde.com)

This item will be available during the Gala's live auction only on May 21. To purchase tickets, click here.

Details TBD