The Billingsley family will be exhibiting a wide variety of work in the Main Gallery this February. Although all are artists, each member of the Billingsley family creates very different work and this exhibition will be no different as it will have both two dimensional and three dimensional work. Each artist in the family brings something unique to the exhibition in both concept and style. We look forward to showcasing the work created by this talented family. 

Photospheres of the Exhibition:

Click the images to enter an interactive photosphere of the exhibition. Two views are provided. 

Front View

Side View:

Catherine Billingsley was born and educated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and received her BFA in Weaving and Textiles from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1969.  She moved with her family to Greensboro, NC in 1986, then to Greenville, NC in 1992, and then back to Greensboro in 2017.  While in Greenville, Catherine returned to school and in 2003 earned her MFA in Textile Design from East Carolina University in Greenville.  For the next 5 years she was part of the adjunct faculty and taught the entry-level textile survey course and all levels of weaving.
Catherine has worked as an independent artist doing commissions and exhibiting mainly in the midwest and southeast.  Her largest commission was done for the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC in 1992, and it hangs in their Administrative Wing.  Woven of wool, the hanging measures 42” high and 32 feet long.  Her most recent commission for St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Greenville was completed just before Easter, 2013.
Catherine also has taught weaving for the Milwaukee Area Technical College (WI) and the Center for Creative Arts in Greensboro, NC, as well as for weaving guilds in the midwest and southeast, and she is recently retired from teaching weaving in Ayden, NC.  Between 1989 and 1993 she and her husband owned and operated the Kessenich Loom Co.

Carl Billingsley is a sculptor who primarily works in cast metal, stone, wood, and steel. ​He is one of the grandmasters of iron who brought iron artwork to the art world in the United States. He started his career as a wood shop technician and then rose through the ranks to become the Area Coordinator and head of the Sculpture Department at East Carolina University. During this time as a professor, he was able to maintain a studio practice and has exhibited all around the world. Some of his notable awards include a semi-grande prize at the "Toya Mura International Sculpture Biennale", top prize in the  “1st Guilin Yuzi Paradise International Sculpture Awards” Guilin, China, and the Andrea Stretton Memorial Invitational Award at Sculpture by the Sea-Bondi in Sydney, Australia for my installation “Red Centre”. In 2014 Carl retired from his position at East Carolina University and now primarily focuses on his studio work.

​Benjamin Billingsley is a painter and printmaker living in Wilmington, North Carolina. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro (1995). He has exhibited work in the Southeastern United States as well as in Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Japan. In summer 2015, Ben was co-director of a printmaking symposium at Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum in Sabile, Latvia; participants carved and printed large-scale 1 meter by 2 meter woodblocks using a steamroller. Ben has taught studio art and art history at Cape Fear Community College full-time since 2001. In 2006 Benjamin Billingsley received the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching. Ben participated in a collaborative interdisciplinary performance art piece as part of the Sarus Site-Specific Art Festival; he also participated in the No Boundaries Art Colony on Bald Head Island in Nov 2016. Recent professional activities include serving as a visiting artist in printmaking at East Carolina University (Feb. 2019), participating in a three-person exhibition "Carved / Painted / Printed" at ACME in Wilmington (July/Aug. 2019), installing an outdoor print/earthworks/sculptural piece at SELU conservancy in Radford, VA as part of the Tristate Sculptors' Conference (Oct. 2019), and creating a collaborative printed/painted mural with students from DREAMS of Wilmington for the Bald Head Island Conservancy as part of No Boundaries 2019.