Meet artists and learn about their work at a new artist-operated Charlotte gallery

For years, Amy Murphy Curlis and her husband, Shawn, have enjoyed visiting local galleries and meeting artists wherever they travel. Now they hope to bring that same kind of experience home to Charlotte.

The couple recently launched Carolina Fine Art, a new gallery and retail concept, to highlight the work of Charlotte-based artists and help them sell their creations.

The Dilworth gallery is open six days a week and is artist-operated. That means when customers stop by, they have the opportunity to meet at least one of the artists whose work is displayed there.

“This gallery is as much about the artists themselves as the art,” said Amy Murphy Curlis. She drew additional inspiration for the concept from her experience purchasing her first original painting about a decade ago from local artist Terry Thirion, whom she met at a gallery crawl.

Curlis enjoyed speaking to the Belgian-born Thirion, learning about her creative process and what the work meant to her.

“That was just as valuable to me as what the colors were and what the texture was on the canvas,” said Curlis, who returned the next day to purchase the painting they discussed. Afterward, she stayed in touch with Thirion.

“She really sparked the idea for this,” said Curlis, noting that Thirion has played a key role enlisting other artists to be part of the new gallery concept, too.

Curlis, a public relations and marketing professional, wanted to give back to the community by helping local artists like Thirion highlight their creative work and providing a space as welcoming to the first-time buyer as the seasoned collector.

“I don’t think you have to travel to find exceptional artwork,” Curlis said. “These artists are exceptional not just for Charlotte, not just for the Carolinas, but really anywhere.”

The gallery will remain at its Park Road site until Nov. 30. After that time, it will offer appointment-only options at artists’ galleries until it can find a new home in the new year.

Experiences reflected

Although all of the gallery’s artists are based in the Charlotte area, their individual backgrounds and experiences vary widely. That’s something Curlis thinks is reflected in their work.

“Everything they bring to their piece is such a huge part of the story,” she said. “When you ask an artist how long it took to paint something, the answer to that could probably be ‘my entire life.’”

Getting to know their back stories is part of the experience, Curlis said.

For example, the gallery features work by Manuela Strada, an Italian-born artist whose latest landscape series, “Remembering Italy,” is painted by memory. She tries to evoke sensations as much as imagery through her abstract paintings.

Outside the gallery, Strada teaches art classes to patients and staff at the Levine Cancer Institute, where she works as artist in residence in the healing art program.

There’s also painter Ráed Al-Rawi, who was a political cartoonist in Baghdad, Iraq, before coming to Charlotte more than 30 years ago. His work often includes surrealist elements, like the mural of flying people and animals he created for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2019. He teaches art at Central Piedmont Community College and has shown his work nationally and internationally.

Painter and jewelry artisan Babette Reynolds uses oil and cold wax to create her abstract landscape paintings and incorporates vintage elements and found objects in her necklaces, earrings and other artisan jewelry creations.

Alongside her art practice, she is an attorney and a financial services risk management executive who also served six years active duty as a military intelligence officer in the Army.

Some artists are well-established while others, like architect and oil painter John Komisin, are new to the gallery scene. A longtime student at Braitman Studio in Charlotte, Komisin’s work has been featured in art shows but never represented by a gallery.

“So this is a big step for me,” he said.

Komisin works primarily in oil paint, using palette knives, rather than brushes, to create his abstract cityscapes. Most of his works on view at Carolina Fine Art are inspired by Charlotte landmarks and street scenes.

“Take a look at any part of a city, and it’s this incredibly rich mosaic of forms and colors and light and shadow,” Komisin said. “And so the opportunity to take a place and interpret it as a piece of art is exciting to me.”

Someone, in turn, can interpret artwork without having additional information, he said. But he finds it to be a richer, more meaningful, experience for collectors when they can engage with the artist, hear the back story and understand the process.

Komisin enjoys creating for the community, meeting locals who come into the gallery and hearing their questions — some of which push him to reflect more deeply on his own work. (One of his favorites: “Which of these pieces is most representative of you as a person?”)

The range of prices also gives the gallery a wide appeal, he said, with artwork ranging in price from $15 to several thousand dollars. In this way, Carolina Fine Art serves people who are just starting out — curious to learn more — as well as established collectors looking for specific pieces.

Across the board, Komisin said, it fills a niche by serving anyone who craves more local experiences.

“Our city is continuing to grow,” he said. “We have a vibrant arts scene and anything that can be done to help build on that continues to make us attractive for all of the people who are going to be moving here in the near future.”

Carolina Fine Art

Where: 2400 Park Road, Suite G, Charlotte. (Until Nov. 30, then by appointment only.)

Hours: Open Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p..m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and by appointment.

Details: For more info, visit carolinafineart.com or on Instagram @carolina.fineart

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