"Echoes from the Earth" Art Exhibit, featuring Jenny Wilson & Betsy Cox

The Gallery at Towngate is proud to host “Echoes from the Earth,” featuring paintings by Jenny Wilson and ceramic works by Betsy Cox.

The exhibit is on display September 8—November 18, 2023. The Gallery at Towngate is open 11am-1pm Monday through Friday and during all events.

An opening reception takes place Friday, September 8 from 6–8pm. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments are served. Drinks, including beer and wine, are available for purchase.

About the Artists

Jenny Wilson was born in New York City in 1958.  Raised in a family of artists and musicians, she was involved in most aspects of the arts, including dance at Lincoln Center, art at the High School of Art and Design, and music as a flute performance major at the University of Southern Maine.  After a 12-year stint in Switzerland, Jenny chose to finish her higher education at WVU as the first and only female to be a grad assistant in the jazz department.  Jenny has worked as a music and art teacher and has raised two excellent children, who are musicians in their own right.  Jenny and her husband, bassist Nathan Wilson, work together as a team in their chosen music and art professions.  Jenny’s work is often included in national juried shows, regional galleries, and in many private collections.  Jenny maintains studios in Morgantown, WV and in Chevy Chase, MD.

Betsy Cox has been a ceramic artist for more than 27 years and is from Glen Dale where she maintains her studio. She works in various styles with a concentration in primitive types of firings, which include woodfiring, Raku , pit and Saggar firing. Her love of archaeology has a profound impact on her styles, shapes, and surfaces. Experimentation is a keyword that describes her work. She uses local clays and minerals in the creation of her works. Her works are in many private and corporate collections. Most recently, she created decorative ceramics for the Health Plan Corporate building and the Oglebay main office building, both in Wheeling , WV. She has three works in the WV permanent art collection in Charleston at the West Virginia State Museum. Various area doctors and law offices have her artwork on display. Betsy is both professionally and self-taught since 1995. Her work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibits in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and she has received numerous awards in juried shows.

Artist Statements

Jenny Wilson
Betsy and I have a deep connection to all things Earth.  And as the Earth needs water, air, and fire, we are connected through our work to all these natural elements. Our way of seeing and then expressing this connection is very complementary, giving the viewer both a two dimensional and three-dimensional aspect of the process. As a painter I am very much concerned with surface and texture like a potter, while as a ceramic artist Betsy has been experimenting with graphic elements on her vessels. Our connection to the Earth and the process of growth, decay, and rebirth seem to reverberate in our work. Betsy’s work as a ceramic artist seems very strong and courageous to me. Her pots are not delicate.  They are rough and chunky and full of vitality. I strive for this in my painting and am inspired to be large, strong, and courageous in my paintings. Our show title “Echoes from the Earth” embodies in a few words the essence of our creative expression.

Betsy Cox
The ceramic works I create are primarily decorative objects created on the wheel or hand built. Whether made as container type vessels or wall pieces, they all have a common thread, nature and archaeology. My love of both highly inspire the works. I primarily use primitive firings saggar, raku, pit and wood—all of which are ancient ways of treating clay objects. Trees, plants, and wildlife emerging from the earth can be seen in the work, further strengthened by the use of old wood and tree fungi as handles. Plant materials are used in my glazes as added colorants along with local clays. With the addition of some locally made cut nails, old wire and found objects adorn vessels representing trees and plants reaching from earth to the sky.

The Gallery at Towngate

Towngate Theatre is well known in Wheeling and its surrounding communities for community theater productions, children’s theater, concerts, ballet, film screenings, spoken word and other performing arts events. But did you know that Towngate is also an art gallery?

The Gallery at Towngate is a small space gallery that features the work of local and emerging artists and focuses on community engagement, inclusion and the mingling of visual and performing arts.

2023-24 Gallery at Towngate Exhibition Schedule:

September 8–November 18, 2023: “Echoes from the Earth,” featuring Jenny Wilson & Betsy Cox
January 20–February 25, 2024: West Liberty University Creative Arts Therapy Student Exhibition
March 1–May 19, 2024: Ceramic artists TBD in conjunction with Ceramics Take Over Wheeling
May 31–August 5, 2024: Ariane Sarno