KEVIN ANDREW GALLERY + STUDIO 109 Roberts St. - Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 351-9690
kevinandrew.art/gallery
The Power of Collective: Inside Kevin Andrew Gallery + Studio
By Natasha Kubis
On any afternoon in Asheville’s River Arts District, visitors pass brick warehouses humming with creative energy before stepping into Kevin Andrew Gallery + Studio. Inside, finished canvases hang beside works still drying,blurring the line between studio and exhibition.
Paint, process, and presentation unfold together, revealing the rhythm of the artists whose practices vary in medium, scale, and tone. Rather than presenting a singular aesthetic, the studio operates as a collective where distinct voices coexist and visual contrast shapes the space.
“Meet the Artists”
Kevin Andrew Structure, Chaos, and Self-Discovery
Kevin Andrew’s path to painting was unconventional. Before relocating to Asheville, he worked in Chicago as a civil and structural engineer, handling steel, concrete, and load-bearing systems. After years in engineering and corporate IT, he transitioned to abstract painting full-time, driven by self-exploration.
His background in structure informs his large-scale abstractions, where control meets spontaneity, clean negative space meets graffiti-like movement, and sweeping Art Nouveau–inspired curves emerge. Tension and vulnerability guide the work.
As Andrew says, “By embracing fear and surrendering control, I create from the edge of breaking. My intention-tension-suppression dance transforms into raw, unrepeatable expressions of my evolving self. This is the most authentic I have ever felt in my lifetime. Welcome to my chaos.”
Christy Vonderlack: Bold Energy as a Focal Point
Christy Vonderlack’s canvases radiate fearless energy. An intuitive abstract expressionist, she works with acrylics, India ink, graphite, spray paint, paint sticks, and self-fabricated tools, creating physical and experimental compositions.Raised west of Chicago and influenced by the Santa Fe art community, she built a 21-year career in advertising before becoming legally blind, a shift that reshaped her artistic voice.
Working from a small farm outside Asheville, her emotionally charged compositions emphasize movement, saturation, and texture. Blindness has heightened her contrast sensitivity, resulting in visceral works that energize neutral interiors.
Heather Clements: Quiet Narrative for Intentional Spaces
Heather Clements brings a softer, contemplative presence. Her paintings blend realistic portraiture, abstraction, and layered botanical forms, with faces emerging from foliage between vulnerability and strength. The work invites stillness, offering emotional depth that resonates in thoughtfully designed interiors.Raised in Northern Virginia, Clements earned her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. She began her professional career in Panama City, Florida, where she owned a gallery and alternative venue space before serving briefly as curator at the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida. Now based in Asheville, she creates intuitively across paintings and murals. She has expanded into creating interactive art with her new book “Pull Me Apart,” which includes pull-tabs, spin wheels, and layered elements that explore the human psyche.
Bridget Benton: Layered Memory and Meaning
Bridget Benton introduces tactile narrative to the collective. An Asheville-based encaustic and collage artist, she layers photography, botanical monoprints, found materials, and expressive marks beneath beeswax and resin. Her surfaces evoke memory, with fragments appearing and receding like moments revealed, concealed, and reshaped over time. Benton describes her work as “an attempt to capture not a moment in time, but the impact of that moment… mapping an internal landscape.”
Plants she monoprints, collected collage materials, and photographs from global travel anchor her work in lived experience. With over two decades of teaching and practicing as an artist, she is the author of The Creative Conversation: Artmaking as Playful Prayer and has held leadership roles in nonprofit arts organizations. Benton’s work thrives in nature-forward, eclectic interiors where symbolism, story, and personal history are embraced.
Shela Anmuth: Intuitive Abstraction and the Joy of Process
Shela Anmuth’s work explores the quiet magic of abstraction, evoking mystery and memory through layered spontaneity. Working with collage, acrylic, oil, and cold wax, she allows each layer to guide the next while honoring composition and value.
For Anmuth, the process itself is the joy- a lifelong exploration through materials, texture, and unconscious expression. After relocating from Philadelphia to Asheville in 2010, the region’s vibrant arts community reignited her creativity, leading to layered abstractions that resonate with collectors seeking thoughtful, personal, and emotionally resonant works.
The River Arts District continues to evolve, but inside Kevin Andrew Gallery + Studio, one idea remains constant: homes are living reflections of who we are becoming. Sometimes, the most essential structural element in a room is not steel or stone, but the art on the wall.