The Arts Company Presents COLOR & BALANCE

The Arts Company presents a dual exhibition featuring Painter Laura Nugent and Sculp- tor Bill Starke. Both the colorful paintings and bronze sculptures tell compelling stories about universal journeys and individual experiences. The exhibit will open during First Saturday Art Crawl on September 1, 6-9 pm, and will continue through September 27, during regular gallery hours, 11am-5pm, Tuesday- Saturday. On September 1 at 5pm, before the art crawl, Gallery Associate Aaron Head will host a conver- sation with Laura Nugent.

About the Exhibit / Laura Nugent, Painter Laura Nugent creates non-representational, painterly works featuring imperfect pattern and fresh color relationships. Each painting is the story of its creation and in the narrative of these works, color is protag- onist and patterned blocking is structure. "Sometimes easily coaxed in arrival, other times deeply flawed and messy, my works are the pure expression of my experience," states Nugent. "Each new painting is a chance to start over, to use the new and the old, to combine art history and my experience. The goal of each work is finding a balance between the great sense of urgency to accomplish something beyond what I have before and a need to patiently explore its individual direction. Some paintings will boldly shout for attention from across a room, others will modestly whisper for notice." Laura also says that, for her paintings, "the meaning is in their making."

About the Exhibit / Bill Starke, Sculptor Bill Starke's sculpture is based on specific concepts or ideas. He creates stylized human figures as the vocabulary for his expression. "I'm not interested in doing large or small scale 'replicas' of things or be- ings that already exist in nature," remarks Starke. "This means the images are generated from my imagi- nation, and I invent the figures rather than working from life. The major theme of my work has been the 'human journey,' and the work and perseverance it takes to achieve the various levels we strive for along the way."

About Laura Nugent, Painter Working with a loose idea of pattern and restrained color palette, Laura creates works with insistent rhythm and restrained hues. Her method of layering paint, with both transparent washes and thick, drip- ping coats, creates depth and allows for accident. Her hand is apparent in each imperfect line that is paint- ed and her newest works show a tolerance for letting materials speak without correction. These non-repre- sentational paintings employ traditions of Minimalism, Color Field, Pattern and Decoration and textile arts.

Originally from Rhode Island, Laura graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has pur- sued a career as a full time artist for two decades. Her work is in countless private and corporate collec- tions including The Four Seasons Hotel (Chicago), Pinnacle Bank (Nashville) and Hallmark (Kansas City). She maintains a studio in Kansas City, MO and travels widely to exhibit in juried shows and gal- leries. Laura currently serves as a Charlotte Street Foundation mentor and is board president of the Kan- sas City Artists Coalition.

About Bill Starke, Sculptor Bill Starke is a Colorado artist whose extensive anatomical education plays a vital role in the development of his work and choice of subject matter. Starke's sculpture has been exhibited in multiple exhibitions throughout Colorado including The Denver Art Museum, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Col- orado Springs Fine Arts Center, and notably Salon d'Arts where in 2004 he was selected as Art & An- tiques Magazine's Emerging Artist of the Year. In 2008 his sculpture, Trojan Horse III, was awarded the Pietro Montana Memorial Award for Sculpture at the 85th Annual Exhibition of the National Sculpture Society in New York City.

Starke has been a leading artist with The Arts Company for over two decades. While most of his work is large-scale bronze commissioned for buildings throughout the country, the Nashville gallery continues to receive smaller pieces appropriate for home or interior business environments.

About The Arts Company The Arts Company is a primary art destination in Downtown Nashville on 5th Avenue of the Arts. Since 1996, the gallery continues to rely on three key words-- Fresh. Original. Contemporary.-- and often adding Legendary. Setting the pace for art in Downtown Nashville, the 22-year old gallery mission from the beginning was "to bring an eclectic selection of original art to the middle of the downtown market- place to offer individuals and businesses access to art every day."

About the First Saturday Art Crawl A free monthly visual arts event made up of an alliance of art galleries, venues, and museums- encour- aged by the Nashville Downtown Partnership-collectively invites the public to explore what has now be- come the downtown arts neighborhood admission-free. The event welcomes approximately 1,500 to 2,000 attendees each month, adding an emerging array of visual art as an integral part of Music City's vibrant downtown mix of music, theatre, and culinary arts-literally, an Across the Arts experience.

THE ARTS COMPANY 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North • Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm www.TheArtsCompany.com.