August Issue 1999
City Gallery in Charleston Features Two Exhibits in August
The City Gallery in Charleston, SC, will be showing Viewing Machine, an exhibit featuring sculpture by Stephen Smeltzer through Aug. 10. The exhibit, Humble Pie, will feature sculptural works by Mark Stuart Woodward, which will be on view from Aug. 13 through Sept. 14.
Of the exhibit, Viewing Machine, Stephen Smeltzer says, "Even though this sculpture was designed to view prints from afar, do not limit yourself to this one perspective. Please be free to interact with this sculpture and to move its axis. I am concerned with the ability to fabricate my conceptual ideas into visual works of art. The process of discovering my idea and refining details within its production results in determining my art."
Smeltzer has been a resident of Charleston for six years, currently majoring in Studio Art at the College of Charleston and will graduate this winter. He has exhibited extensively on campus having been twice chosen for the Young Contemporaries show at the Halsey Gallery. Smeltzer has use of the College Sculpture Studio, where he is privileged to extensively use this space due to his diligence and dedication to studying art.
Of the exhibit, Humble Pie, starting Aug. 13, Mark Stuart Woodward says, "I've been cursed with a stubborn gene that has ironically blessed me with the necessary tool of persistence. Self-taught, I began like most; limited to crayons and playdoh. However, by trial and error and by befriending some knowledgeable folks, I have gained much experience in an array of materials. My goal is to manipulate these materials into a piece that pleads with the observer to participate in its purpose and meaning."
Woodward graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in Biology and entered a master's program in California, but his vocation interrupted his naturalistic studies. He instead got a job creating flora and fauna for the Banana Republic stores. As chief sculptor, he was responsible for making toucans, elephants and jungle scenes. After a corporate takeover and change in shop-fitting policy, Woodward decided to move back to Charleston and begin sculpting for his own fruition. His compact studio/gallery is located at "The Common" in Mt. Pleasant, SC, on Shem Creek.
Woodward's 20 varied pieces to be displayed in Humble Pie are of modest dimensions and he is readily submissive when talking about his love of natural phenomena. However, his sculpture is deeply concerned with manipulating matter by carving, modeling or casting to represent an object. The object transports his narrative. This process is as old as the so-called Venus of Willendorf, some 25,000 years BC.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery
listings or call the Office of Cultural Affairs at 843/724-7305
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC
29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.