Hoss Haley’s “White Ripple” was created in the North Carolina mountains
The Mint Museum’s internationally-renowned Craft + Design Collection is celebrating the acquisition of a work that further cements the museum’s reputation as a leader in the fields of craft and design.
Hoss Haley’s White Ripple (2013) was acquired with the help of a grant from the Windgate Foundation, and is currently on view on Level 3 in the Mint Museum of Craft + Design galleries of Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street in Charlotte. Haley is a self-taught artist who grew up on a farm in Kansas, where he learned machining and steel fabrication at an early age. He later studied blacksmithing in Texas and New Mexico, including an apprenticeship under the renowned metalwork artist Tom Joyce. Today, he is a highly respected teacher of his craft, having taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, and elsewhere.
To create White Ripple, Haley used washing machines from his local scrap yard. He developed a way of stripping the metal from these large appliances, and custom designed a press die to form a sine wave pattern in the individual plates. White Ripple is an ode to these bright glistening surfaces of enameled steel with their embossed circular patterns, evocative of gentle ripples in water.
“White Ripple is a significant work that belongs in a major museum where it will be preserved, exhibited, and interpreted for a large and diverse audience,” said Annie Carlano, the Mint’s senior curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion. “This work greatly enhances the museum’s collection of modern and contemporary metalwork. Moreover, it underscores the institution’s deep commitment to regional and North Carolina craft.”
The public is invited to contemplate White Ripple along with other selected works from the Mint’s permanent collection this Saturday, April 12, as part of the international “Slow Art Day” movement. The global, all-volunteer event invites the public to engage in slow contemplation of works of art at local museums and galleries – five works of art for at least 10 minutes each – followed by informal discussions of the works with friends. Over 200 museums and galleries around the world are participating, including the Harvey B. Gantt Center of African-American Arts + Culture, the Mint’s neighbor in the Levine Center for the Arts. The Mint will provide handouts at both Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph this Saturday suggesting works of art to contemplate – free after museum admission. More information available at slowartday.com and mintmuseum.org/happenings.
A significant acquisition, White Ripple is part of the Mint’s Collections Initiative. Last fall, the museum announced the launch of the three-year Collections Initiative with the help of Bank of America, which donated a monumental canvas by California artist Sam Francis to the museum. The painting, Untitled (Seafirst) 1979, at approximately 19 feet tall by 38 feet wide, is one of the largest by size in the Mint’s collection and is one of the first works seen by visitors to the atrium of Mint Museum Uptown. Many other significant acquisitions have arrived or are in the process of arriving at the museum as a result of the Initiative, and more announcements will follow soon.
For further information on the Mint’s Collections Initiative and how to get involved, contact Leigh Dyer at leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org or 704.337.2009.