EXHIBITION ARCHIVE
Birds Among Us
May 16 - July 11, 2025
STATEMENT
A SHIMMER, A CHARM, A MURDER & MORE
Birds are everywhere: in the trees, along our streets and highways, on telephone poles, and in our woods and parks. Sometimes we see them singly, sometimes in groups. Almost everywhere, if we look closely, we will find them.
Whenever I look up and see them flying, I am grateful to be in this world with them. Where are they going? Where do they live and raise their young? These are questions I ask myself.
I make birds because I want to know them better.
This show is mostly about the birds I see in my backyard, along the Eno, at the coast, and in the mountains. Some stay here year-round, while others come and go. Some never change their colors, while others brighten each spring and summer.
I strive to make each bird as clearly as I see it. I use the detritus of society—plastic bags, bits of plastic, scraps of fabric—and transform it into these animals. I offer this reuse of material as an homage to them. Like birds building their nests, I pick up and discard until the right pieces come together to form each bird.
A parliament of owls,
A murmuration of starlings,
A congregation of plovers,
An exultation of larks,
A mischief of magpies,
A round, blush, or riot of robins,
A descent of woodpeckers,
A scold of blue jays,
A college, conclave, or Vatican of cardinals,
A fling of sandpipers,
A shimmer of hummingbirds,
A charm of goldfinches,
A murder of crows.
Birds. We name them and watch them as they live among us.
Animals in the Hood
July 17 - September 11, 2021
Bryant Holsenbeck is an environmental artist who makes large-scale installations and small-scale sculptures that document the waste stream of our society and highlight the importance of the natural world. She has shown her work and taught throughout the United States and Australia. Her artwork, and her book, “The Last Straw” about her year attempting to live without single-use plastic, are the focus of a documentary on NCPBS.
Whether she is making elegant, herons sculpted of wire and found paper, or colorful fuzzy rabbits and robins out of fabric scraps, her work has a vibrancy and life which belies the castoff nature of the materials. “I make the animals I see around me. They inspire me and give me hope. They are beautiful. They are survivors of our own human neglect and greed. I feel such gratitude for them.”
STATEMENT
What are the birds around me saying as they sing their songs? Where did all those robins who are in my yard these days spend the winter? Does the rabbit who stops in stillness when I come out my back door in the late afternoon know that I see it? Is this the same rabbit that I saw hopping across the road to my neighbor’s yard? Will the possum come again this spring and raid the cardinal’s nest? Are the wrens nesting under the studio eaves? Catbirds and more catbirds everywhere. Yesterday, the most beautiful woodpecker, black and white spotted with a bright red head, came to the suet feeder in my garden.
I am grateful to be living with the wild world, which is a home for all these creatures. They are excellent neighbors.
Here is what ornithologist and writer Drew Lanham author of the HOME PLACE says about the birds around us: “same air, same, water, same soil, same earth, same fate.”
We the Animals
May 18 - June 29, 2019
We The Animals, a new exhibition featuring mixed media sculptures of recycled materials by Bryant Holsenbeck, and collages by Kathryn DeMarco opens at Craven Allen Gallery on Saturday, May 18, with a reception from 5 to 7 pm.
“Animals are survivalists. Humans are, too,” says artist Kathryn DeMarco in her statement for We The Animals. Both DeMarco and Bryant Holsenbeck are inspired by the resilience of nature in the modern world; both are keenly aware of our use of resources, using recycled materials to create their artworks-- without sacrificing the integrity of their artistic visions.
STATEMENT
Bryant Holsenbeck is an into an environmental artist who makes large-scale installations and ssmall-scale sculptures that document the waste stream of our society. She has shown her work and taught throughout the United States and Australia. Her recent book, “The Last Straw” about her year attempting to live without single-use plastic is the subject of a short documentary on WUNC-TV.
Whether she is making elegant sparrows, herons and bats, sculpted of wire and found paper, or colorful fuzzy rabbits and chickens out of fabric scraps, her work has a vibrancy and life which belies the castoff nature of the materials. “I make the animals I see around me. They inspire me and give me hope. They are beautiful. They are survivors of our own human neglect and greed. I feel such gratitude for them.”
Flight
July 13 - September 14, 2013
Flight conjures many possibilities, from lighter-than air-travel to escape. Nine artists are featured in the gallery’s summer exhibition: Harriet Bellows, Kathryn DeMarco, Larry Downing, Bryant Holsenbeck, Paul Hrusovsky, Cathy Kiffney, Jean LeCluyse, Luna Lee Ray and Matt Tomko.