Feature Articles


August Issue 2000

Here's a Carolina Arts Update! 7/22/05

erl originals gallery in Winston-Salem, NC, is now closed. The following is no reflection on the artist(s) mentioned in this article. They still deserve the historical fact that this exhibition happened.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Winston-Salem Journal's Dec. 10, 2004, edition: "In late September, (2004) erl's owners, Peter and Lee Swenson, and the company they operate, Bogart Management Group, were foreclosed on by their bank. They were barred from their gallery at 480 West End Blvd. for being months in arrears on rent and utilities. Peter Swenson is facing numerous tax-fraud charges, as well as a growing number of civil lawsuits filed by creditors seeking to collect payments they say are long overdue".

 

e.r.l originals in Winston-Salem, NC, to Showcase Italian Master Glass Artist and Landscape Painter

Intricate flameworked Venetian-styled goblets and figures by Italian master glass artist Emilio Santini and traditional Italian landscapes by former Winston-Salem resident Garrett Speirs will be featured at e.r.l originals in Winston-Salem, NC, through Sept. 6.

Emilio Santini

Born in Murano, Italy, Santini, who comes from a centuries-long line of glass blowers, has been working with glass since the age of 11. He has studied under some of the living legends of modern Venetian glassmaking, among them his father, Mario Santini, also a master glassblower; glass master Giacinto Cadamuro; and painter Renato Barsato. He also studied at the Universita di Venezia in Venice, Italy.

In addition, Santini's teaching resume is extensive, including such premier glass educational facilities as Pilchuck, Penland, Urban Glass, and the CMoG Studio. Public collections of his work include The Corning Museum of Glass, The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, Sheffield Museum in Sheffield, England and Museo du Arte Contemporanea Ca Pesaro in Venice, Italy.

Santini's work includes a wide range of handmade, unique torch worked glass ranging from detailed miniature bottles, intricate multi-piece groupings, perfume bottles, goblets, and figurative pieces. His glass pieces have been exhibited across both Europe and the United States.

Garrett Speirs, who paints in oils, egg tempera and gouache, works in Italy and California, painting traditional landscapes of rural Italian vistas and architecture. Generally, impressionist in style, his brushwork was described in a recent issue of The Dallas Morning News as "splashy in one work, streaky in another and exacting in yet another. His colors, especially shades of blue and orange used to mimic the shadow and light effects of sunset, are at times breathtaking."

Speirs' works have been shown at numerous galleries, among them the Poesuggi Italiani, Theater Arts Gallery in High Point; Plein Tuscany, Moms Gallery in Columbia, SC; the Thesis Exhibition, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Speirs holds a master of fine arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Utah. He has also studied at the University of Georgia.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 9336/760-4373 or visit their website at (http://www.erloriginals.com).

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