What we’re about
Interested in art-making in Charlotte? Want to learn more about entrepreneurship in the arts? Or have a fun date-night with music, art, and food? Look no further! McColl Center is a local arts non-profit, with a gallery space, studios, and fully equipped labs with tools for all your art-making and educational needs!
McColl Center hosts workshops for people to learn about different art mediums, have fun, and meet new creatives. Keep on the lookout for workshops that are posted regularly. All workshops are taught by professional artists. No prior knowledge required unless stated in the description.
McColl also has a variety of different classes with subjects such as grant writing, tips on how to meet curators, and art-handling. These are posted regularly and are a good way to gain insight into the art-world and how to succeed in the arts.
Once a month, McColl hosts Front Lawn Friday! McColl Center throws its doors open as a HUB for creativity. Walk through the galleries, visit artists in their studios, hang out on the lawn, purchase beverages, and eat yummy food from a food truck. A perfect night for the family or a great date-night.
Our Labs:
Woodshop, Ceramics, Metal, 3D Printer + Laser Cutter, Printmaking, Media
Upcoming events (2)
See all- CONTEMPORARY ART + MUSIC: Exploring the Temperaments Through History, Sound, andMcColl Center, Charlotte, NC
Date: Thursday, December 12 —Thursday, December 12, 2024
Time: 6:00 PM —9:00 PM
Cost: $10Please join us on Thursday, December 12 at 6pm for "Exploring the Temperaments Through History, Sound, and Sight", a multimedia performance combining music, art, and art history at the McColl Center.
The evening will consist of an introduction to the temperaments, a presentation of paintings by Artist-in-Residence Andrew Leventis , a discussion with art historian Dr. Bonnie Noble, and musical performances by Cynthia Lawing, Dylan Savage, and David Russell.
About the Artist:
Andrew Leventis makes meticulously detailed oil paintings of contemporary vanitas, a motif popularized in early still life in which food, flowers, and other perishable objects represent the fleeting nature of life and the passing of time*.* Leventis received an MFA in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and an MA in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting from the American Academy of Art, Chicago. He has exhibited internationally at museums and galleries, most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland (2024); Novilla, Berlin (2023) the Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, NC (2022); the Venice Arsenale, Italy (2021); and York Art Gallery, UK (2021). Leventis’ work is represented by SOCO Gallery. He lives and works in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In a nod to the still-life painters of the Dutch Golden Age, North Carolina-based artist Andrew Leventis considers the historical and contemporary significance of vanitas. Inspired by photographs of fridge contents taken by his friends and colleagues, Leventis’ images are strikingly familiar. They speak of domesticity, a quiet intimacy that is part of our everyday lives. Each interior tells a story: packed shelves that betray a sense of hurried anxiety, surgically clean steel compartments half-filled with raw meat, or neatly arranged dairy products and condiments to satisfy an overindulgent palate. Although less explicit, the core themes of vanitas paintings – the fragility and transience of life and the hollowness of worldly pleasures – are present. Traditional symbols of the genre like skulls, extinguished candles, books, and musical instruments are replaced by sets of whole chickens, a pig head, a slab of butter, or everyday treats, such as a carton of heavy cream, a jar of pickles, or beer bottles. Similarly, decadent piles of objects existing purely for our own entertainment and satisfaction reflect our futile desire for hedonistic consumption in contemporary society and a primal need for self-preservation. Leventis began to work on this series during the Covid pandemic, which forced him to grapple with the caducity of life. His oeuvre casts a spotlight on our human shortcomings and fears, but does so with compassion and understanding, for others as well as himself.
Residency generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
- Multiple Impressions: Encaustic Collagraph Printmaking with Jeffrey HirstMcColl Center, Charlotte, NC
Date: Friday, January 31 —Sunday, February 2, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM —5:00 PM
Location: McColl Center
Cost: $635
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, January 29
This is a three-day workshop. 10% early bird discount if you sign up before November 1, 2024.Friday, January 31, 10:00 - 5:00 PM
Saturday, February 1, 10:00 - 5:00 PM
Sunday, February 2, 10:00 - 5:00 PMEncaustic Collagraph printmaking explores the process of making print plates using encaustic medium. Creating print plates with encaustic medium is super spontaneous, immediate and painterly. The plates can have a textural surface or have extremely flat passages.
The class will cover surface manipulation, creating multi-layered color prints using Akua Intaglio inks and viscosity printing. In addition to encaustic collagraph, artists will also explore making print plates with gel medium, which has similarities to encaustic collagraph process. Drypoint will also be covered in class, as the drypoint process provides a nice contrast with both encaustic collagraph and gel medium plates.Level of experience*: open to students of all levels*
About the Artist:
Jeffrey Hirst earned an MFA from Louisiana State University in 1990 and has worked as an artist since then. Hirst has been showcased at venues around the U.S. and Europe and is represented by Addington Gallery in Chicago and Brandt Roberts Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Hirst has been a visiting artist at universities around the United States conducting encaustic and printmaking workshops. He owns Hirst Printmaking in Chicago which is a printshop specializing in experimental printmaking and mixing painting and prints. Hirst is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, and his work is in numerous public and private collections.
http://www.jeffreyhirst.com
