The Candoro Marble Building is a study in contrasts. Nestled in South Knoxville’s proud, idiosyncratic Vestal neighborhood, it’s an unexpected architectural jewel—a 101-year-old Beaux-Arts landmark built as the office and showroom for the Candoro Marble Company.
The building’s history is carved into its pink marble walls, but its present hums with the energy of contemporary art, hosting five exhibitions annually under the stewardship of Tri-Star Arts.
Purchased by the Aslan Foundation in 2014 and restored in 2021, the building is a space where past and present coexist. This comes through in Greetings From Vestal IV, the latest group show featuring Candoro’s four resident studio artists—Rachel Sevier Dallery, Casey Field, Risa Hricovsky, and Ashley Pace—whose work engages with the building and its legacy.
From the Inside Looking Out
The Candoro Marble Building isn’t just a container for art—it’s part of the story. From the checkerboard marble floors to the gauzy light that filters in through original steel casement windows, the space seeps into the creative process of its artists.
Risa Hricovsky’s contributions to Greetings From Vestal IV include rock-type sculptures, each one a cratered-out mishmash of color and texture, displayed on the gallery’s windowsills. The view beyond the glass becomes part of the art itself – one window frames the formal Cypress-lined allée leading to the front entry; out another, you see the skeletal ruins of a massive fabrication facility, now not much more than rusty scaffolding for kudzu and cover for groundhogs and coyotes.
Risa says she works with dualities in her art – order and chaos, beauty and decay. Another: “We’re in this extremely beautiful building, almost too nice to be an art studio, and that factory is the view from my studio.”
She points out the window to a chain-link fence, demarcated with occasional “No Trespassing” signs, that separates the Candoro building from its former fabrication facility. It’s fun to imagine the possibilities for the property’s future but unclear what could be preserved from an EPA perspective. That tension finds its way into Risa’s work.
“I think those rocks that I have in the windows, those pieces are about a post-human future,” Risa says. “They’re beautiful but also nihilistic, but also hopeful. I think about how, once we’re all gone, the earth will do something new and beautiful.”
A Space That Speaks to Art
Casey Field creates portraits that blend contemporary sensibilities with classical techniques, drawing on her experiences as a mother and woman in the American South. She reflects on how the environs of Candoro unconsciously informed her work in Greetings From Vestal IV.
“I think there are certain ways that the architecture of the space seeps in, and sometimes it’s not necessarily something I’m aware of until I’m painting on a square – Oh, I’m surrounded by these beautiful square tiles every day,” she says.
Another portrait in the show includes an archway, whose inspiration Casey attributes in part to medieval art. “But then I realized, Oh, I walk through the arch of this building, every arch of this building, every day,” Casey says. “I do think the things that surround us, no matter what we do, seep in.”
Architect and artist Ashley Pace explores the textures of East Tennessee in her mixed-media installation, Hints of Gladness, which mimics the region’s crumpled geology with fabric and fragmented maps. Her Candoro studio helps her create art while juggling life’s demands. “For me, it’s coming to a place that has beautiful light and is calm,” she says. “I tried to work from home for a long time, but it’s just too distracting. Coming here gives me focus.”
Brian Jobe, Tri-Star Arts’ director and co-founder, works closely with Gallery Associate Wesley Roden to design exhibitions, considering everything from the natural light to how works interact. “The pieces speak to each other,” he says. “They sort of call out across the room, and themes emerge—things the artists might not have even noticed in their own work.”
Brian compares the process to solving a puzzle. “Every show has iterations, and this one was no different,” he says. “You find connections you wouldn’t expect, like how the red wax in [Rachel Sevier Dallery’s] floor piece ties into the colors in Casey’s painting. Little things like that make it all come together.”
A Gallery Rooted in History
Beyond the main gallery exhibition, there’s Stairfall by Adam Rowe, whose cut-paper installations transform a narrow stairwell into a playful meditation on movement. Out on the lawn, Root by Jason Brown anchors a chunk of Tennessee pink marble as the foundation for a site-specific sculpture crafted from materials scavenged, harvested, and forged.
Brian emphasizes the building’s role as a bridge between Knoxville’s industrial past and its continued evolution as a cultural space.
“This building can offer so much to visitors,” he says. “The history and the contemporary art, and the richness of those as friends and counterpoints, resonates with visitors to the building.”
The East Tennessee marble industry dates back nearly two centuries, gaining prominence after an 1831 survey by state geologist Gerard Troost. By 1838, the Rogersville Marble Company began commercial production, and the region’s marble soon adorned iconic landmarks like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Grand Central Station. Locally, it features in the Knoxville Museum of Art, East Tennessee History Center, the downtown Post Office, Fort Dickerson, Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum, and Ijams Nature Center.
Founded in 1914, the Candoro Marble Company emerged as the nation’s largest producer of Tennessee pink marble. At its peak, Candoro employed 140 workers and was a major contributor to the area’s economy.
“I mean, it’s just so totally Knoxville, right?,” observes Laurence Eaton, a board member of Tri-Star Arts. “Just this absolute gem here in the middle of nowhere, and this building is so small but it’s had such an amazing impact nationally. This town has made its way all across the East Coast and into private homes and public buildings and the Capitol building. It’s just amazing.”
Declining demand for marble led to its closure in 1982, leaving the once-thriving building vacant and vulnerable. At high risk was its Beaux-Arts-style office and showroom, designed in 1921 by architect Charles Barber and featuring intricate ironwork by Samuel Yellin and carvings by master sculptor Albert Milani.
Candoro was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 but for years suffered neglect and vandalism. In 2000, a group of volunteers and angel investors stepped in to stabilize the structure and create community programming around the site.
In 2014, the Aslan Foundation led a multimillion-dollar restoration, executed by Sanders Pace Architecture, preserving its architectural integrity and paving the way for it to become a vibrant arts hub.
Connecting Art, History, and Community
In 2020, the Aslan Foundation tapped Tri-Star Arts to oversee programming at Candoro, marking a new chapter for the historic site.
“It’s a very unique invitation, in which we manage the building and program all of what happens here in concert with the Aslan Foundation, their staff, grounds crew, and administration,” Brian says. “It’s an experiment that has gone really well, and we’re really grateful to the Aslan Foundation for their stewardship of this building and lots of other historically significant properties in Knoxville.”
Tri-Star Arts is a nonprofit dedicated to fostering connections—between artists and their environment, Tennessee’s diverse art scenes, and the broader community. Their initiatives include managing the online art hub LocateArts.org, serving as a regional regranting partner for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and curating major programs like the Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art. In 2023, Tri-Star distributed $105,000 in grants to Tennessee artists and arts venues, underscoring its role as a vital support system for the state’s creative ecosystem and a facilitator for collaboration.
“I think we have seen that play out, year after year, though it’s hard to quantify,” Brian says. “I think it’s a felt thing, a conversational thing. And we have this ethos of service – we’re very content to be behind the scenes, having the art and programming in the forefront. Infrastructure is a big word that I want to frame the conversation with. And it’s been the way that we’ve journeyed through the past 10 years.”
Although slightly off the beaten path, the Candoro Marble Building is just a five-minute drive from downtown, making it an accessible destination for art and architecture enthusiasts.
“The public has never had this level of access and this many things to see upon their visit to this building,” Jobe notes. “Three years into these hours and that experience, and Knoxvillians are still learning what it’s like to come here, find it, and have reasons to come back. It’s a really special home base for us.”
The Candoro Marble Building is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., offering free admission. Greetings From Vestal IV and Stairfall are on view through Jan. 29, 2025, with Root continuing through June 30, 2025. Visit the Candoro and Tri-Star Arts websites for more details and information about First Friday and other pop-up art events.