Nashville Artist Lain York tospeak in ArtsS Council Series, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, AT 6 P.M.

NASHVILLE ARTIST LAIN YORK TO SPEAK IN ARTS COUNCIL SERIES,

ART: UP CLOSE & PERSONAL, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, AT 6 P.M.

FRANKLIN, January 30, 2008—Multimedia painter Lain York will appear in the second free educational program of The Arts Council of Williamson County (ACWC), “Art: Up Close & Personal,” Monday, February 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Williamson County Public Library.

The Williamson County Public Library and O’More College of Design are participating as sponsors in this series to benefit students in the arts as well as those in the community who have an interest in the arts. The lecture series is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. The main branch of the Williamson County Library is located at 1314 Columbia Avenue in Franklin. For more information about the event or the Arts Council, visit www.artscouncilwc.org or call (615) 428-3845.

According to Scott B. Hodes, director of visual arts for the Arts Council of Williamson County, “The lecturers have been asked to share the experiences that have culminated in that artisan being able to fulfill the role of professional working artist in the community, such as background, history, choices and decisions, education and technique, work experience, and artistic and life influences.”

York currently is gallery director of Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, and on the board of Fugitive Projects. In addition, he has served as preparator for the Arts in the Airport program for 18 years, has coordinated exhibitions for the Kennedy Center on the Vanderbilt Campus for the past 11 years and previously has worked with The Metropolitan Arts Commission, the Summer LIghts Festival, The Greater Nashville Arts Foundation, the Frist Center for Visual Art and the untitled artist group.

York’s work can be found in the permanent collections of EMI Los Angeles, the Savannah College of Art, The Tennessee State Museum and the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission. His work has been exhibited around the U.S., and in Europe, as well as being published in New American Paintings; New York Arts Magazine; Number, Inc.; and Art Papers.

York’s paintings deal with masks and ritualistic figures that “are portraits that exist somewhere between an interior landscape and an assumed identity.” York explains, “The idea is that of the lost record or unidentified museum piece and is an attempt to deal with the intangible through physical and ordered means.”

He continues, “These particular images, though inspired by African, Mayan, Middle Eastern, Greek Archaic masks and figures, are distilled elements. I really don’t think of them as a part of any specific culture. They appeal to me as a record or evidence of the way a society or culture tries to make sense of the human experience through art and ritual. The record of this attempt, the art objects, is common to all societies past and present. All human societies in one way or another make art; we all share this basic need.”

Originally from Nashville, York earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His works have been shown in solo exhibitions at St. Andrew’s Sewanee School, Sewanee, Tenn.; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville; and Freed Hardeman University, Hardeman, Tenn.; University of Alabama Huntsville; Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville; Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn.; and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville.

His art has also been in group exhibitions including those at the Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville; Bolm Projects, Austin, Texas; Davidson County Public Library, Nashville; Flood Projects, Ashville, N.C.; Art Chicago at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, Ill.; Tulca Arts Festival, Galway, Ireland; and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville.

He received a 1998 Arts On The River award from Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga.; and a 1996 award in The Red Clay Survey, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Ala.

The Arts Council of Williamson County (ACWC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) service organization that exists to enrich the lives of the citizens of Williamson County, Tenn., by bringing the arts and people together. The Arts Council envisions a dynamic, lively and diverse arts community, which is accessible to all and which is a major cultural destination.