By Susan Jedrzejewski, McColl Center for Visual Art 

Beginning their term the second week in January, McColl Center for Visual Art welcomes our 2012 Winter Artists-in-Residence. Several opportunities are available to visit the Center to meet our artists, including events on January 17 and 27th.

Not previously open to the public, McColl Center for Visual Art now invites the community to sit-in on Artist to Artist, a free and intimate presentation where each resident has a chance to introduce themselves and their work to one another through brief slideshow presentations. Join us in the boardroom on Tuesday, January 17 from 6 to 7:30 PM to hear from each one of our artists.

Or join us for our Opening Receptionon Friday, January 27 from 6 to 9 PM as we welcome the arrival of our newest group of residents and the Converge exhibition. “Converge” explores themes of identity and inclusion featuring works by alumni Knight Artists-in-Residence, Quisqueya Henriquez and Sonya Clark. The works showcased in the exhibition represent a convergence of art, history and diverse cultures using a variety of materials and techniques. For more information about planning your visit www.mccollcenter.org or call 704.332.5535.

The 2012 Winter Artists-in-Residence include:

• Margarita Cabrera, Knight Artist-in-Residence, is a Mexican-American artist, activist and organizer whose soft vinyl sculptures representing potted plants and automobiles address timely issues related to border relations, labor practices and immigration. Turning crafts and their manufacture into a vehicle for social commentary, Cabrera draws on the community to help create collaborative works of art that are used as a platform to raise political and socio-cultural consciousness as a means for survival and empowerment for the Spanish-speaking immigrant community. Working with displaced immigrants – Cabrera organizes workshops and ad hoc corporations to close the gulf between third world production and first world consumption.

• Dawit Petros, Knight Artist-in-Residence, has lived in three different continents: Africa, Europe and North America. The effects of his nomadic life are evident in his work, which is inspired by history, cultural memories and minimalism. Petros uses mixed media, installation, video, performance and photography as a springboard to delve into relationships between subject, object and location and the transformation that happens though migration. Petros was born in Eritrea, raised in Kenya and Canada and lives and works in Brooklyn. He has exhibited his work in group exhibitions throughout Canada and the US, including the Studio Museum in Harlem and Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI.

• Rashaad Newsome, Gantt Center Artist-in-Residence, uses performance, video and collage to investigate power and status associated with people of color and the gay community. Newsome borrows intensively from hip-hop music and popular culture to create work that challenges current ideas regarding social protocol and hierarchy as they relate to human behavior. Newsome is presently showing at the Marlboro Gallery in New York City. He was born in New Orleans and received a B.A. in Art History at Tulane University before studying Film at Film Video Arts in New York City. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including New York, Prague and Berlin.

• And Matthew Steele, a sculptor from Bloomington, Indiana; Mary Giehl, Carolinas Health Care Artist-in-Residence from Syracuse, NY; Patricia Leighton and Del Geist, UNCC Artists-in-Residence and painter, David Theissen, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school teacher as our Gail Peacock Art Teacher-In-Residence.