Student-run Artery gets new location, exhibit

Walls adorned with splattered paint, graffiti and cartoonish figures greet art lovers as they enter the Artery, a student-run art gallery in Chapel Hill.

Its exhibition “Work in Progress” opened Friday night and featured new work from UNC artists. It was the first show opening this school year in the Artery’s newly acquired space at 136 E. Rosemary St.

“Our new mission is for the Artery to be an inspirational springboard and a collaborative space,” said Artery co-director Juliet Sperling. “We want our artists to be able to work off of each other.”

Senior Matt Jones — the show’s featured artist and the creator of the eccentric images in the front room — worked on a new painting while standing beside his display.

“These don’t really have a message,” Jones said of his work. “I think that’s the point. There are so many people out there telling you what you should think.”

Jones said he began his art career at an early age.

“Some of my earliest memories are drawing on my grandpa’s lap,” he said. “And I also read a lot of comics like ‘Calvin and Hobbes,’ which is kind of what influenced this art.”

He said he has grown to love the aesthetic, instantaneous qualities of art, which attracts him to street art and graffiti.

“I was kind of drawn to the subversive nature of graffiti,” he said, laughing. “I mean, it’s illegal.”

Jones said he doesn’t restrict his work to one style. His mantra reflects the diversity that the Artery’s directors said the new gallery aims to foster.

Senior Kal Fadem, the Artery’s curator, said the gallery’s new space will allow University artists to exhibit themselves with very few rules.

“We’re trying to be more installational and less traditional,” he said.

The Artery is primarily funded by Kappa Pi, the university’s art and art history honors society. The fraternity’s president, senior Natalia Davila, is one of the gallery’s co-directors.

Last year, the Artery was moved out of its original space at 137 E. Rosemary St., which it had occupied free of rent, when the novelty store Expressions decided to open a hookah bar across from its retail location.

The Artery relocated into the vacant bar space next door, where it will remain unless another business offers to move in and pay rent.

“We’re the beneficiaries of so much generosity,” Sperling said.

And the new space is far bigger than anyone was expecting.

“There’s so much more wall space,” Davila said. “We’re open to all kinds of multimedia now, like sculpture and video.”

Fadem said that the Artery is aiming to help artists find opportunities after graduation.

“When artists finish school, there’s really no set career path,” he said. “We help them get their art out there.”

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.