Reba Fraser | February 2025

Through traditional batik techniques, I create pieces that merge precise geometric patterns with the organic nature of wax and dye. Coming from a multi-generational line of textile makers and learning alongside my mother, I’ve evolved these inherited techniques into my own visual language. From my first encounter with batik, the relationship between wax, dye, and textile felt wonderfully intuitive, leading me to explore increasingly complex patterns that honor both tradition and innovation. While my company Good Goodies explores loose, flowing forms in everyday textiles, my batik practice at Lamplight will intentionally push toward highly controlled designs – creating a fascinating tension between structure and spontaneity.

Nate Northrup Open Studio | Saturday January 25 1-4pm

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Join us as our current artist in residence, the amazing Nate Northrup, hosts an open studio to share his work! Saturday 1/25, from 1pm to 4pm. Stop on by!

SWANNATOPIA RETURNS!!! “Alive at the Bait ‘n’ Tassle” | December 17 2024 – January 6 2025

Welcome back to our dear friends, Swannatopia!

Join us at Swannatopia’s Annual Holiday Light Show Eggstravaganza!

Open Dec 21 2024 – Jan 5 2025 at Lamplight AVL – 821 Haywood Road

Experimental Art Club does ChandeLURES!

An ALIVE shop and vernacular habitat fro late night hangs.

A tangential part of Deer Freaks… and Decoys! on view Sept 27 – Mar 15 below and in conjunction with The Farm at Black Mountain College at BMCM+AC

For more information, visit swannatopia.com or call 256-EGGS-4-US

Julianna Chioma | July 2025

Julianna Chioma is a Nigerian-American emerging artist working out of Asheville, NC. Through the interdisciplinary gestures of painting,ceramics, textiles, and installation her work explores myth and narrative surrounding themes of sex, power, identity, cultural and social perceptions, trauma, suffering, and modes of healing. By casting mythological characters adapted from their favorite cartoons in the role of avatars of the psyche and forebearers of truth, the work unfolds to reveal an epic journey of loss, discovery, and growth. Inspired by the trick mirror play of psychological horror, surrealism, and Nigerian folklore she builds up stratified renderings encased in stitches, paint, and mud in an effort to communicate the complex tapestry of black womanhood.

Dan and Joey | April 2024

We’re thrilled to announce that these artists have been rescheduled to April of 2025, after being unable to come into the residency in October 2024 due to Hurricane Helene.

Born and raised in the picturesque land of Asheville, North Carolina, D aka Dan aka Daniel (only when people are mad at him) is an artist whose creativity flows as freely as their love for Crocs. Known for their distinctive style, they merge the comfort of these iconic clogs with their vibrant artwork, often found sporting a pair in every imaginable color while creating masterpieces. Whether they’re recreating famous paintings or replacing famous people’s faces with their favorite shoe, you can bet their Crocs are always the muse for their next big idea. In the world of art, D proves that the right footwear can truly inspire greatness—or at least a lot of chuckles.

Nate Northup | January 9 – January 29, 2025

Artist’s Statement: “My work explores the layered complexity of time, memory and perception, where  seemingly chaotic fragments coalesce into a larger, more harmonious whole, reflecting the process of accumulation – layers of information, emotions and experiences building upon one another. Relationships between subjects are often unclear or shifting, allowing the viewer to experience multiple interpretations and draw their own connections while offering a space for personal meaning to emerge.”

Zach Cooper | March 2025

Zach Cooper is a Grammy award winning composer, producer and songwriter based in North Carolina. He has contributed to works by Leon Bridges, SZA, The Weeknd, Jazmine Sullivan, Jon Batiste, Moses Sumney, Billy Porter, and Helado Negro, among others. Zach is also a founding member of experimental soul group, King Garbage. His work has been featured in Pitchfork, The Fader, Rolling Stone, and Guitar World Magazine, and he’s released records with RVNG Int’l, Styles Upon Styles and Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings.

Carly Owens | November 11 – December 9, 2024

Carly Owens Weiss is an interdisciplinary artist based in Colorado. She received her BAD in Art
+ Design from North Carolina State University and studied crewelwork and goldwork hand
embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework in the United Kingdom. In her current work, Carly
uses hand embroidery, painting and soft sculpture to confront contemporary issues of
womanhood and expectations of gender through a personal and symbolic lens. As an artist, she
is interested in the violence of contrasts and navigating the feelings that arise when the familiar
or mundane is juxtaposed with something unusual or irrational. The tensions between comedy
and tragedy, femininity and masculinity and seduction and repulsion greatly informs her work. In
her pieces, Carly draws parallels between objects, the body and the experiences lived within it
to create contemporary vanitas imagery. Often her work depicts temporal moments, leaving the
viewer in a state of stillness and anticipation of what has either passed or is yet to come.
Carly’s work has been featured in numerous publications including Architectural Digest
(Germany), Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, BUST Magazine, The American Scholar and Frankie
Magazine. She has exhibited work in institutions such as the Museum of Arts and Design (New
York, NY), the Bomb Factory Arts Foundation (London, UK), the Boulder Museum of
Contemporary Art (Boulder, CO) and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE).
She has recently completed residencies at John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC),
Penland School of Craft (Penland, NC) and Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), where she
was awarded full fellowships. She will be a National Artist in Residence at Contemporary Craft
(Pittsburgh, PA) in 2025. She is an exhibiting artist with Tracey Morgan Gallery (Asheville, NC)
and her upcoming solo exhibition with the gallery opens November 15th, 2024.

Cecilia Moushey | August 1-17, 2024

Cecilia Moushey is a poet and artist. They grew up in Asheville and love exploring the intimate areas of life. They are currently working on a degree in Environmental Science, are mediocre at rock climbing, and will tell you all the best swimming holes if you ask them nicely. You can find their work at your local Asheville cafe and on instagram @sleeeppyybunny

Meg Winnecour with Ben Berry | July 2024

Come by the residency this July! Meg Winnecour will run an open art studio for a month, a space in which she will make her work (acrylic nature portraits on panel, watercolor and dye explorations on paper, and free-stitched cyanotypes) in a public way, and invite people to come into the space and make some work of their own, with or without her help. She will work in a new medium each week (cyanotype, acrylic paint on panel or canvas, and watercolor on paper). Her dream would be for her West Asheville neighbors to stop in for an art experience on their way to the bakery or the library, folks out running errands stopping in to see what’s going on and then getting pulled into making a piece of their own, dear friends stopping in for a chat. More than anything, Meg wants to add beauty and connection to her neighbors’ lives through time spent chatting and making a piece of art to take home.

July 2-7… cyanotypes and free-stitching

July 8-14…acrylic nature portraits

July 15-21…watercolor and dye explorations

July 22-26…cyanotypes and free stitching

Meg Winnecour is the founder, director and CLO (Chief Love Officer) of Cloud Collective Residency in Asheville, NC, the city she’s called home for over 2 decades. Meg spends her days running an artists’ and writers’ residency, teaching workshops, making paintings and stitched cyanotypes, and writing poems. She lives in a hundred-year-old house with her husband, teenage daughter, and four bossy but lovable chickens.

While Meg will be the artist in residence Monday-Friday the month of July, she will share the space with author and illustrator Ben Berry, who will be in residence weekends during July.

Ben Berry grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ben was taught by his great uncle Tomas Berry, the eco theologian, about the importance of our place in the cosmos.  Our stories are interconnected in an intimate way with the universe.   We are “not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects”  as he would say.

Ben wrote, illustrated, and published his first children’s book 2 years ago with that influence as a key part of my inspiration.  “Where Do We Come From, and Where Do We Go?  A Turtle’s Creation Story.”  It tells the Universe Story and we arrive at the present moment.

Ben’s next book will be an open collaboration with the people of Asheville where he currently lives and works.  It will be called: “I Am Not Myself, Without Everything Else.”

A children’s book, each page will be full of illustrations of the beautiful Subjects of the Universe, created by the people of Asheville. Ben will be in residence at Residency 821 weekends in July and invites all to come in and contribute a drawing to be included in the book.

Ben plans to publish through Amazon and will be distributing them to the local elementary schools in the coming year.