Tri-Star Arts: Knoxville’s Marble Legacy as Cultural Foundation

Knoxville, Tennessee, has always been a city defined by stone and story. Its Tennessee pink marble, quarried for more than a century, adorns buildings from the National Gallery in Washington to New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Today, that same stone forms the architectural heart of one of Tennessee’s most ambitious cultural institutions: Tri-Star Arts at the Candoro Marble Building.

Founded in 2014, Tri-Star Arts cultivates a state-wide conversation in contemporary art, linking regional voices into a shared cultural framework. Its initiatives are lasting: a main gallery and artist studios at the restored Candoro Marble Building; the Current Art Fund regranting program in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation; collaborative projects across the state; and LocateArts.org, a digital archive preserving Tennessee’s artistic present for future reference.

The Candoro building itself, a Beaux-Arts landmark designed by Charles Barber in 1923, embodies the continuity Tri-Star Arts affirms. Restored by the Aslan Foundation in 2021, its marble façades and tree-lined grounds now serve as a living platform for contemporary culture.

Exhibition as Record — A Better View Of The Rising Moon

On view in Tri-Star Arts’ Main Gallery + Project Space from September 5 through October 25, 2025, A Better View Of The Rising Moon presents new works by Knoxville-based sculptor John Douglas Powers.

Curated by Brian R. Jobe, Tri-Star’s Director and Co-Founder, the exhibition situates Powers’ kinetic and sound-based sculptures within Candoro’s marble galleries. The works — including Cloud (2025) and Starburst (2025) — explore rhythm, reflection, and the quiet mechanics of wonder.

“Powers’ work captures the tension between motion and stillness,” Jobe remarks. “To present these sculptures within Candoro’s historic spaces is to watch Tennessee’s past and future in dialogue. The exhibition is not only a moment for Knoxville, but part of the artistic memory we are steadily building for the state.”

“Each exhibition at Candoro is inscribed as part of Tennessee’s artistic memory — a record that links the past to the future.”

The show opened with a reception on September 5, preceded by an artist talk that drew collectors, students, and curators into direct exchange. Such framing reflects Tri-Star Arts’ practice: exhibitions are not simply installed, but embedded in conversation and documentation.

Reflecting on the presentation, Powers notes: “These works are meditations on perception — how light and movement shape our sense of time passing. To install them within the marble architecture of Candoro is to let the sculptures converse with permanence itself.”

Artist Profile: John Douglas Powers

John Douglas Powers is among Tennessee’s most critically recognized artists. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award, the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant, and the Southeastern College Art Conference Fellowship, Powers is Professor of Sculpture and Time-Based Art at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

His work has been exhibited at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The MIT Museum, Wichita Art Museum, the European Cultural Centre (Venice), the Hunter Museum of American Art, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, and the Vero Beach Museum of Art, and reviewed in The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Artforum, Art in America, World Sculpture News, The Boston Globe, and featured on CBS News Sunday Morning.

“Powers’ practice stands at the threshold of technology and poetry,” observes Panu Syrjämäki, Editor-in-Chief of ART Walkway. “His ability to render motion as metaphor situates him not only as a leading figure in Tennessee but as an artist of national and international consequence.”

“Powers renders motion as metaphor, demonstrating how perception itself becomes a sculptural material.”

The Exhibition in Context

Tri-Star Arts defines each exhibition as a reference point within Tennessee’s cultural continuum. A Better View Of The Rising Moon is not only a solo presentation; it is a documented marker, preserved within an institutional archive that affirms Tennessee’s artists within national and international dialogues.

Alongside Powers’ work, Tri-Star’s grounds currently host Root by Knoxville-based artist Jason Sheridan Brown (on view through October 18). Together, these exhibitions position Knoxville within a broader conversation on materiality and environment in contemporary sculpture.

Tri-Star Arts: A Decade of Institutional Building

Since its founding in 2014, Tri-Star Arts has expanded across four enduring programs:

• Exhibition Program at Candoro — Four to five shows annually, presenting local, national, and international voices. Each is curated and archived as part of the institution’s record.
• Artist Studios — Four residencies within Candoro, currently home to Casey Field, Rachel Sevier Dallery, Ashley Pace, and Risa Hricovsky. These studios establish Knoxville as a working hub, while preserving the trajectory of each artist in institutional memory.
• The Current Art Fund — A regranting initiative in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting Program, distributing support to Tennessee-based artists and projects.
• LocateArts.org — A statewide digital archive that ensures Tennessee’s presence in national research and reference networks.

“Tri-Star Arts establishes continuity: ensuring what is created in Tennessee endures as cultural reference.”

The Candoro Marble Building — From Showroom to Archive

Tri-Star Arts’ home at the Candoro Marble Building is itself a statement of continuity. Built in 1923 as the headquarters of the Candoro Marble Company, it embodies Knoxville’s industrial heritage and architectural ambition.

Restored by the Aslan Foundation in 2021, the site now serves both as preserved landmark and platform for new cultural production. “To see contemporary art animated within these historic walls is to experience Knoxville’s layered identity,” reflects Sylvia Peters, Board Member and Founder of The Delaney Project. “Candoro is no longer just a monument to what was, but a stage for what is and what will be.”

“Candoro has shifted from showroom to archive — a site where material history now frames cultural permanence.”

The Second Decade as Continuity

As Tri-Star Arts moves into its second decade, its trajectory is clear. The institution will expand its exhibition program at Candoro, strengthen the Current Art Fund’s statewide reach, and extend curatorial collaborations across Tennessee. Plans for 2026 are already underway, positioning Knoxville as both regional anchor and national reference point.

The vision is both steady and progressive: to ensure Tennessee’s artists are not only visible in the present but inscribed into the enduring cultural record.

“Institutions that sustain beyond a first decade establish not just presence, but permanence,” affirms Panu Syrjämäki. “Tri-Star Arts now carries the responsibility and the authority to ensure Tennessee’s contemporary art is preserved as part of the national canon. Its work at Candoro is not a program of the moment — it is the foundation of memory for generations.”

“Institutions that endure beyond their first decade do more than present; they preserve. Tri-Star Arts has crossed into permanence.”

Practical Information

• Exhibition: A Better View Of The Rising Moon by John Douglas Powers
• Curator: Brian R. Jobe
• Dates: September 5 – October 25, 2025
• Artist Talk: September 5, 3:30–4:30 pm
• Opening Reception: September 5, 5:00–8:00 pm (artist present)
• Venue: Tri-Star Arts at the Candoro Marble Building
  4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920
• Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 am–5:00 pm (closed major holidays)
• Admission: Free

Beyond Marble: Continuity into Permanence

With A Better View Of The Rising Moon, Tri-Star Arts affirms its dual role as custodian and catalyst. The exhibition anchors Knoxville within an international dialogue while the institution’s broader programs preserve Tennessee’s artistic continuity for future scholarship.

As it enters its second decade, Tri-Star Arts demonstrates that the marble of Candoro is more than stone: it is foundation. Upon it rests an institution dedicated to remembering, connecting, and advancing Tennessee’s contemporary art into permanence.

“What was once quarried here as marble now returns as memory,” reflects Panu Syrjämäki. “Tri-Star Arts has transformed Candoro from a showroom of material into a repository of meaning — and in that transformation, it ensures Tennessee’s art will not only be seen, but cited.”

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