2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
More than what meets the eye
Local artists display their artwork in restaurants around Raleigh
Meredith Richbourg
Issue date: 3/27/06 Section: Features
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Some area restaurants have made it as easy as ordering a grande Mochacchino. Displaying collections by local artists has become a ubiquitous feature of many local restaurants and coffeehouses.
April & George, an upscale wine bar located in Glenwood South, offers an extensive gallery devoted monthly to an up-and-coming local artist. When the restaurant debuts a new artist's collection -- on the first Friday of each month -- the bar is "always packed with a totally mixed crowd," Sara Brothers, an April & George bartender, said.
"We get other area artists coming to see their friends' work, we get students and young professionals. There are always people just mingling," she said. "Most of the sales happen on that night, but people come in to see -- and occasionally buy -- the art all month long."
Featured this month is creative genius and Raleigh resident Kenbro. Kenbro's paintings and murals depict everyday scenes -- looking out from a kitchen window, from inside a taxicab or a parlor. But instead of similarly mundane landscapes outside, the windows show black-and-white scenes of a UFO or a photograph of the Earth from space. This clever conjunction of images immediately impresses audiences with sheer size and delicate craftsmanship.
But simply don a complimentary pair of 3D glasses, switch the natural lighting for that of a blacklight, and Kenbro's works reveal another layer of interest. Images that at first boasted little appeal, such as cushions on a settee or the faucet on a kitchen sink, now pop in three dimensions. The photographs of alien signs in a cornfield or spaceship attacks -- depicted in a grainy grayscale -- become twice as intriguing when illuminated with florescent, blacklit hues.
These works of art aren't merely eye-candy for those munching on biscotti or sipping merlot. Artists use the publicity from restaurant displays as a vehicle to sell their works.
Kenbro priced his murals, which range in size from 20 inches by 24 inches to five feet by four feet, between $225 and $625.
"Part of the reason his show is doing so well," Brothers said, "is that he priced his art so well."
