Posts Tagged ‘City Gallery at Waterfront Park’

A Look at a Couple More Spoleto/Piccolo Festival Exhibits

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Both the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals are over, but as usual with the art community, while most of the performing arts groups have packed up their seasonal offerings – the visual arts are still here and you can still see both of these exhibits I’ll be talking about.

While the festivals were still going on I found a nice parking space very close to the front door of the Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts at the College of Charleston School of the Arts in downtown Charleston. Lucky me! I wanted to see what Mark Sloan, curator at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art was offering festival viewers this year. It’s always something funky and very interesting. I liked what I had already seen of publicity images.

This year it was the exhibit, Call and Response: African to America/The Art of Nick Cave and Phyllis Galembo, on view through July 16, 2010. Sloan’s exhibitions are so popular that both Spoleto and Piccolo were claiming it as one of their offerings, but I think Spoleto would win that tug of war.

(We just received new info this afternoon. Mark Sloan has told me that they changed the ending date of this exhibit to June 26, 2010. That’s unfortunate for us and a lot of folks who won’t get to see this exhibit. Our July issue of Carolina Arts will still carry the July 16 ending date. We’re sorry to bring you this news. We now have an answer why this exhibit is being closed early – Sloan says the College has decided to tear up the concrete floors of the Cato Center and replace them with blue tile during July.  They had no choice.)

I wasn’t disappointed and I doubt anyone else who saw this exhibit was either. Nick Cave’s “sound suits” were spectacular as were the photographs of Phyllis Galembo of African costumes. Right off, walking in the gallery I was blown away by the lineup of several of Cave’s colorful costumes. That’s what you want in an exhibit – a knock out visual as people enter the gallery space.

After a quick look around I sat and watched a video of Cave’s “sound suits” in action. The first part was set to music and the repeated phrase, “This is a journey into sound”. The second part was just the sound the suits made on their own as a dancer moved around. I liked the second part better, but sat there in the cool viewing room imagining what an event it would have been to have live dancers in each of Cave’s suits – coming to life – off and on, as viewers jumped when the dancer began to move. Now that would have been a heck of a performance art event, but I wouldn’t want to be the person inside one of those suits – for very long. But, the video gave us enough idea of what we would see – when the suits are in motion.

You would think that photos hanging on the wall wouldn’t stand a chance next to Cave’s “sound suits”, but Phyllis Galembo served up striking images of real African costumes which hold their own next to an “Americanized” version. In fact, I tended to appreciate these costumes more as they were made by people reflecting their natural surroundings and local customs. Actually, I think I felt that way as Cave’s suits reflected America’s culture – which isn’t always the prettiest picture. And, at that moment I felt a little embarrassed of what Africans would be thinking about us if this exhibit was shown there. Which is what I expect Sloan wanted us to see in this exhibit – the contrast of cultures. Maybe not, but then you have to go see this exhibit and come up with your own ideas.

I ran into Sloan while I was at the exhibit and he said that a few gallery spaces in Japan were interested in this exhibit. That was no surprise to me as the new generations in Japan have developed a pretty funky culture themselves – funkier than ours.

You can read a press release we posted at Carolina Arts about this exhibit at this link.

After viewing this exhibit I looked at the art on display in the Hill Exhibition Gallery just outside the Halsey Institute. I’ve got to find a way to get the folks at the College to inform me of these exhibits – how long they will be up, so I can inform readers about them. Upon viewing what was there, my favorite was a print by Samantha Theall entitled Rachel in nice Lighting.

Next, I went to the City of Charleston’s City Gallery at Waterfront Park to see the exhibit, Contemporary Charleston 2010, on view through July 3, 2010. This show has a shorter life than the Halsey Institute show, so you better go see it – if you’re going.

This exhibit is a production of the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, curated by Erin Glaze, (City Gallery at Waterfront Park) coordinator and artist Max Miller.

The premise of this exhibit was to have 10 local visual artists create works specifically for the exhibit that have been inspired by the work of 10 local poets. So ten artists were matched up with ten poets.

My first impression was that this year’s show was not as strong as last year’s offering. (See my entry on the 2009 exhibit at this link. I guess since I hadn’t the time to attend the poetry readings by the poets matched up with the visual artists – I was missing the connections or inspiration that was supposed to have inspired these works. I tend to like my visual art – straight up – stand alone. That’s me, but I wasn’t seeing a lot of connections, but I also don’t have the inclination to work too hard to find connections. It’s like having to read an artist’s statement (several pages long) telling you what a certain work means. If I’m looking at the work and I don’t get the message – I usually don’t see it after reading the statement either. It’s either there or it isn’t. Anyway – I wasn’t feeling the connections. The closest I came is when painter Sarah Haynes painted a portrait of Dennis Ward Stiles, the poet she was matched with, entitled Denny.

I don’t think that’s what the curators had in mind, but the good thing is – I really enjoyed Haynes’ works – whether it had a connection to Stiles poetry or not. To me, her paintings were one of the high points of the exhibit. Of course I would have liked to see the Waterfront space filled with her work over a group show any day.

There were other works I liked there too. I liked the (sort of bleached out looking photos) by Timothy Pakron. Having spent almost 20 years working in a darkroom, I’m still thinking about his process, but I’m not concerned if I ever figure it out completely – I liked the technique. Why get hung up on the process?

I also liked the pop art style works by Juilo Cotto. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but I’m not a conservative when it comes to art. I like works that make other people cringe too.

Maybe I wasn’t falling in love with a lot that I saw, but it’s worth the visit and you’ll probably think I’m nuts or at least find things that speak to you. Frankly, if I see a show that I really don’t like – you probably won’t see anything written about it from me, and there was enough of that to go around this year, but I didn’t see everything. There is never enough time to see everything. So, don’t just assume that all the shows I haven’t mentioned were unmentionable.

Hopefully the powers that be will step out of the formula they are using to select Piccolo Spoleto exhibits next year. The formula is worn out and the results are showing. At least that’s how I felt when looking at the lineup of offerings, but then again – this whole festival thing is nothing new to me – like others.

You can read a press release we posted at Carolina Arts about this exhibit at this link.

Now, lets see what wonders the dog days of summer bring. I mean as far as the visual arts goes – as most of the performing arts community will be taking the summer off.

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The Big Piccolo Spoleto Exhibition at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, SC

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

What do you do when the weathermen are calling for 100+ degree temps in the Charleston, SC, area? Why you jump in your car and travel to North Charleston, SC, to photograph an outdoor sculpture exhibit and then head to downtown Charleston to check out the big Piccolo Spoleto exhibit, Contemporary Charleston 2009: Revelation of Process, featuring works by Dorothy Netherland, Jonathan Brilliant, Ben Timpson, Karin Olah and Ishmael, on view at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. Surely, you didn’t think I was going to cut grass or rake leaves.

More about the outdoor sculpture exhibit in another blog.

I purposely put off seeing the exhibition as City Gallery at Waterfront Park as I knew it would get a lot of chatter during the festivals by local and regional media, but after the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals were over – coverage would drop off a cliff. But, the show is still on view through July 26, 2009. People still have a month to go see it, but most of the media will have moved on to today’s news. They have all been there and done that.

I’ve read a lot of those pre-event articles and reviews, but didn’t absorb much. I was waiting to see it for myself. I do agree that this is one of the best exhibits that I have seen at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. Was it the best Piccolo Spoleto exhibit ever? I wouldn’t go that far, but it would be in the top five – maybe number two or three.

Would I crown Erin Glaze – King of Curators? She did a good job, but I’d have to see a few more shows under her hand before I could come close to saying that. But, it was a heck of a first time. This space has gone through a lot of gallery directors, gallery coordinators – whatever the title is from day to day. There’s no telling who will be in charge next year. Well, I know – Ellen Dressler Moryl is in charge and next year she may decide to feature one of her friends. You just never know. So, I’m not letting this show change my mind about the direction of this gallery space and what the future will bring. I always have hope, but I’m also a realist.

But, I, like others, would like to see Glaze do a few more exhibits – on her own. She added some touches to this exhibit which really helped the viewers get a grip on the process of creating art – in the artist’s own words and actions. Austin Nelson, who created the video clips – shown in a loop at the gallery near each artist’s works  really gave those who took the time to view them an insight into these artists’ world  – the process of creation. Also, there were small stations which also showed more details of how these artists work or where they come from – their influences and backgrounds, or in some cases – the world they were focused on. Beyond an exhibit catalog, these two elements added much to this exhibition.

So, on to the works.

When I entered the gallery I turned directly to the left – avoiding the  70,000 pound gorilla in the room. These were works by Ben Timpson. The first works were small boxes, mounted on the wall, with a framed round magnifying glass – which you were to look through. What you saw was a small image backlit by white light – like a peep show. These unusual images were made up of parts of other objects – some from plants, bugs – whatever. I found these interesting works of art. But once these same type of images were blown up to a much larger scale – presented like a painting – they lost some appeal. But that’s just me. Others enjoyed these works as much as I did the smaller boxes.

This was the first time I’ve seen any work by this artist, so it would be hard to make much of a judgement on whether I liked it or not overall. I liked the small boxes and the fact that some were placed really low – maybe for better viewing by children or to make adults think the effort of bending down would reveal something naughty. Anytime you make the audience work for their supper it’s a good thing.

I next moved upstairs where I knew I would find Karin Olah’s works. I must declare up front that I’m a big fan of Olah’s work, Linda and I own one of her works, and I even put one of her images on the cover of Carolina Art’s May 2009 issue – one of our last color covers for awhile. I hope it’s not too long before we get back to color covers. So, I’m already sold on Olah’s work. But, she never fails to amaze me and show me she has places to go that I have not seen.  I  look forward to a long journey following her work.

And, it was apparent many others wanted to take that journey too. Olah had an entire wall of smaller – very nicely priced works – mostly sold. She by far has sold the most works during this exhibit. Now, that is not the purpose of these lofty exhibitions at non-profit gallery spaces, but most of the time – even at major museums – the works on display by living (contemporary) artists can be purchased, if they are not on loan by a previous buyer. So, although no one is keeping score – I like the fact that many others enjoy my taste in art and Olah’s work. She also sold some of her larger works too and I must say this is another good sign that the economy is getting better – even if at a snail’s pace.

As an added touch for this exhibit, Olah also used some of her same graphic techniques on the walls of the gallery to link some of her works together. I liked the effect, having known the work and knowing this is not usual. Others may not have seen it the same way, but I must say that when this same technique was used to blend Olah’s work together with the other artist sharing the upstairs space (Ishmael), the linkage seemed to be a train wreck to me – especially when that linkage went into one of Olah’s works. Again, just my personal feeling, but they could be feelings over another subject altogether.

The artist Ishmael’s roots are in street graffiti. I am not a fan of street graffiti at all – especially when it is done on other people’s private property. Olah and I have had discussions about this subject – on opposite ends of the subject, but I hope we respect each other’s points of view. She’s a fan and I’m not, so it’s hard to say if my feelings about the mingling of her art with his doesn’t stem from my views on graffiti. I hope I’m being objective.

Now all that aside, I liked Ishmael’s works in this exhibition. I have no problem with the technique of graffiti or style – as long as it ends up on materials owned by the artists. Hey, I don’t care for billboards either. But, I always have to wonder how this artist would feel if some of his street friends came into the gallery space and did their thing on his works – would he feel honored or violated? My guess is – publicly honored – no big deal – part of the process, but privately a little violated – especially during his big moment – especially if it had happened to one of the works that had sold and the buyers no longer like the “tagged” work.

So, I’d like to see more of Ishmael’s work – on canvas, board, even gallery walls, but not out on the streets. He’s got too much talent to see it white washed away by citizen groups cleaning up the streets.

Next, I walked downstairs – again avoiding the gorilla, and checked out Dorothy Netherland’s works. I’ve seen her work before in many places and I like what she is doing. Although Netherland was born in the 60’s, I wouldn’t think of her as living in the same time period as I did, born a decade earlier, but her work focuses on that time period when I was growing up. By the time she was 10 years old it was the 70’s and America had changed a lot. So, when I look at her imagery I see my past as a child – I’m one of the little boys with the cowboy hat and silver six-shooters.

These were the golden years, the last days of innocence for America. When I went trick-or-treating, “without” my parents, I didn’t have to worry about people putting razor blades in the apples they gave me or riding my bike several neighborhoods over and staying out late after dark. I wasn’t going to be killed in a drive-by shooting. These were Good Times or Happy Days or were those just TV shows? Of course there was duck and cover drills in school; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy; and eventually Vietnam. But we could watch reruns of I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver and think it was all innocent.

This is not a world or time period you see many artists today focused on which in itself can be shocking. Some of the imagery if looked at under today’s standards of “you better be careful” might suggest another world. Are images of an older man hugging or carrying a young girl innocent or something else? It makes you think of how did we get from there to where we are now in just a short span of time? Does the picture really tell the story?

Damm you artists – stop making us think and question. You’re going to ruin my childhood memories. But then there is always TVLand . A few episodes of I Love Lucy can take you away.

Before I move on to that gorilla, I heard someone say my name and I looked up and saw Mary Gilkerson, who was also viewing this exhibit with her daughter. Gilkerson used to write art reviews for us – way back when – and now writes art reviews for freetimes in Columbia, SC. And, I learned that she will probably be doing a review of this show on her blog, SCARTblog. So, you can look for a much more insightful review of this show on her blog.

So, finally we have the installation piece by Jonathan Brilliant, made of 70,000 wooden coffee stirrers, the same kind used at Starbucks, which takes up the entire middle space of the gallery from downstairs to the upstairs’ railings. None of the sticks are glued together – they are all woven and held in place by tension. One child could get lose from a parent and the whole thing could come crashing down. Now, that’s art on the edge.

I never did see a title for this work, and other installation works he has done are named after the space they were made in, so I guess this will be known as the City Gallery at Waterfront Park 2009 piece.

People should come to this exhibition just to see this work alone and the rest of the art will be the gravy. It’s an amazing act of art, patience, and faith. What if he couldn’t finish it in time? What if it fell apart before the show opened? What if some child did run into it at the opening? Then what do you have but a pile of sticks? I’ve seen site-specific works that were just a pile of sticks and it was not so impressive – not hardly.

I’ve always had a hard time dealing with site-specific art in that it is all just temporary, but a work like this – beyond photographs, the artists walks away with nothing but a pile of sticks. On the bright side – those 70,000 coffee stirrers can maybe live on in the creation of another installation. A painter can’t recover the paint on their canvas to use in another painting. At least I don’t think they can.

I’ve seen a lot of wonderful site-specific art throughout the years, but I always saw them as a loss – as we couldn’t keep them around for others to see – generation after generation – just pictures or written words. It’s not the same as seeing them in place, but then I guess that’s the point of it all.

I’ve seen other works by Brilliant before in fringe exhibits during Piccolo Spoleto, but this is by far the largest. According to the exhibit catalog it may be his largest work to date. And, I don’t care how many photographs are taken of the work – they will never do justice to seeing the work up close – in 3D (no special glasses needed). So go see this exhibit.

I had another 60’s flashback looking at Brilliant’s piece. My older brother and I used to make exploding projectiles out of popcycle sticks – woven together. We could throw them around the house and not break anything as the minute they touched anything solid they would explode. For a moment, just a moment – an image of a little boy (let’s say a boy in a red cowboy hat and silver six-shooters blazing away) running head first into Brilliant’s work gave me this super special effects movie in my head of the City Gallery at Waterfront Park exploding and coffee stirrers flying hundreds of feet in the air in all directions. I wonder if Brilliant has nightmares about that or secretly thinks of being that child. After all, he made it.

Well, if for some unimaginable reason you should miss seeing this exhibition, the Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, will be presenting the exhibit, Past Presence, featuring works by  Karin Olah, Jonathan Brilliant, Kevin Hoth, Dorothy Netherland, Seth Curcio, Jarod Charzewski and Tim Hussey, from July 24 through Aug. 16, 2009. It seems strange that another institution in Charleston would program such a show featuring three of the five artists in this show so soon, but it may have been a replacement show for some exhibit that had to be cancelled. Or perhaps it’s to remind folks that these artists started out first at Redux. Either way – there’s more good art to see this summer.

The City Gallery at Waterfront Park is also offering a series of lectures in conjunction with the exhibit including: On June 27, 2009, from 2-5pm – Karin Olah Lecture & Demonstration – Using fabric, Olah works in a manner that mimics the flow of paint from a brush. Intricately cut, placed, and pasted textiles are combined with gouache, acrylic, and graphite to create collage paintings that are deep in color and texture. Part 1: Informal Talk & Short Demo. Part 2: Community Collaboration. Olah will provide materials and instructions for a fabric collage painting. Everyone is invited to contribute and paint on this piece. Attendees may bring in their own fabric scraps for the collage painting! Part 3: Donate to Olah’s fabric collection by bringing in solid or striped clean, natural fiber scraps (no patterns, please). Your scrap may be part of a future collage painting! One-of-a-kind “Art-Scrap Cards” will also be sold at this event only! Take home a Karin Olah original for only $12! On July 11, 2009, Time TBA – Lecture by Dorothy Netherland. On July 18, 2009, Time TBA – Lecture by Jonathan Brilliant. These programs are free and open to the public. For further info call the City Gallery at Waterfront Park at 843/958-6484.

And, remember if you are coming from out of town to see either of these exhibits, check out some of the commercial art galleries in Charleston. There’s a lot to see in a wide variety of styles. You can find days and times gallery spaces are open at Carolina Arts Online under our Gallery Listings pages.

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My Magical Mystery Tour of Visual Arts

Monday, June 9th, 2008

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, I headed to Charleston, SC, on one of the last days of the Spoleto/Piccolo Festivals to see as much of the visual art exhibits as I2 could before some closed. This was my one window of opportunity. After this day it was on to the July 08 issue. That’s the way it always is with us – Carolina Arts. By the time we have finished our May ‘08 issue the Festivals haven’t even started. By the time the Festivals do start we’ve finished the June ‘08 issue and are delivering it throughout the Carolinas. When I’m finished with my 2,000 mile trek – at best, there are a few days left to see exhibitions which end with the Festivals. So it’s a mad dash.

Let me correct that statement. There’s no use mentioning the Spoleto Festival USA – they don’t offer any visual art exhibits – anymore. They did a long, long time ago, but not lately. So we’re talking about Piccolo Spoleto Festival shows and exhibits taking place during that time.

First stop, Charleston Artist Guild Gallery at 6 North Atlantic Wharf, which is near the City Gallery at Waterfront Park, another destination of the day. While I was still delivering papers in Charleston on June 4, one of the Guild’s former Presidents told me to check out their Painted Palettes at Piccolo show. I understood it was on view till Saturday, but I must have been mistaken. That show ended Thursday. If I had only checked my car copy of Carolina Arts, like others do before starting an art trek – I would have known that ahead of time. Don’t leave home without it!

I was shown a few works that had not been picked up by the artists or by people who had purchased some of the creations during the exhibit. It was nice to see that this wasn’t one of those shows where artists were given all the same shaped items to decorate. Just in the few I saw, you could see that some artists were thinking outside the box in putting their own creative touch on the theme of the exhibit. So I was on to the City Gallery at Waterfront Park which is at 34 Prioleau Street – less than fifty steps from the Guild’s Gallery.

The Vanishing Landscapes exhibition was the Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s 24th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, on view through Aug. 8, 2008. This is not the ending date given to us by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs – who operates the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. That’s why in Carolina Arts our May and June issues say the ending date is June 7, 2008. This is pretty typical of the info we receive from – whomever the new intern is each year – way back in April – before our deadline to print the May issue. Our July issue will have the correction, but as I’ve always said in the past – change is what Piccolo Spoleto is all about when it comes to the visual art offerings. Some years we had to promote exhibits where the location was still TBA at printing time. Other times new exhibits show up in the final copy of the official program – exhibits we never received notice of for our publication.

I picked up one of the exhibit catalogs upon entering the building and started looking at the works. Within ten minutes I was beginning to wonder if this was supposed to be a photography exhibition – there was a lot there and I also was wondering about how environmentally connected many of the works in the exhibit were – beyond being photographs taken of nature and an artist working the word “recycled” into the medium offered on the exhibit tag.

It ended up that photography in some form or another represented just under a third of the entire exhibit and that not many of the works in the exhibit would be sending viewers rushing out to change their habits – as far as wasting our environment away.

A photograph of a heron in the marsh is not an image of our vanishing landscape – at least not yet. It could be soon. Look – all our landscapes as we know them are going to vanish eventually – no matter how much conservation we do. I expected more images of what is responsible for the loss of landscapes now. Like an image of a heron floundering in an oil slick with an oil rig off the coast in the distance. I don’t think the Coastal Conservation League, co-sponsors of this exhibit, exactly got the exhibit they might have hoped for.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with the artworks in the exhibit – there was some exceptional work there. And, I have nothing against photography. My background is in photography. I had a photography-only gallery in Charleston in the mid-’80s, but I was also the president of the local Sierra Club and an officer in the SC State chapter of the Sierra Club. Linda (my fair wife) and I did their newspaper before starting up our first arts newspaper. I’m very concerned about our environment and our landscape, but I just didn’t see a lot of imagery which should have made the cut into this exhibit.

It says in the exhibit catalog that 146 artists submitted work for the exhibition. Each artist could have submitted up to three works. There could have been 438 works submitted. I don’t know how many were submitted – it doesn’t say in the catalog, but only 65 were included in the exhibit. Many have little to do with a vanishing landscape other than words in a title. And, that’s too bad.

It’s still a good exhibit, worth seeing, that has a lot of good work and some great examples of the exhibition’s theme. So go see it and see what you think.

So what was the problem?

Well for one thing, contrary to what the written words in the exhibit catalog would lead you to believe, this was not the original exhibit planned for the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. Ellen Dressler Moryl, Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs had planned some sort of exhibit of Cuban works which fell through and the Vanishing Landscapes exhibit was plan B. The only problem was, she still wanted her friend, Dr. Mokhless Al-Hariri to curate this exhibit. It is my opinion that a better, more environmentally oriented curator could have attracted better entries and selected better works to be in the exhibit. Or at least made the exhibit smaller if good works fitting the theme were not submitted. As is, many works in the exhibit dilute the exhibit’s intent.

The exhibit’s Best of Show winner, an oil painting by Carol McGill entitled Scorched Earth, is a good example of this dilution and I’m sure it made the co-organizers cringe. This same work entered in another juried show might have been titled, Colorful Sunset.

Titles don’t make works an environmental work or an example of vanishing landscapes.

Another example is the work, Under the Oaks, an oil on canvas painting by Sally Hughes Smith. I like the image as a stand alone work, but as an example of vanishing landscapes – no. How many large oaks are we losing that are not victims of natural aging? We have laws about cutting trees this size in the Lowcountry. Of course it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. But is it a current threat? Are our oak trees on the verge of vanishing? Maybe underwater if we don’t change our habits fast.

A few good examples are: Monique Morales-Kroll’s digital photograph, Really, Lilies Have No Need For a Couch, which shows a sofa floating in a pond; Katy Perrin’s digital photograph, Recycle, which shows a mountain of compressed plastic bottles; or Karen A. Silvestro’s oil on canvas, Loss and Bloom, which shows a young woman with her head leaning on a large tree’s stump. In her hand is a new seedling. In the background is a forest of tree stumps.

One last thing about this exhibit. I found it strange that in the catalog there is no mention of where these artists are from. I know many are from the Lowcountry, but there was also a rumor going around that some artists were having their works placed in the exhibit by invitation. Rumors are rumors but this same rumor surfaced in another “juried” Piccolo Spoleto show Dr. Al-Hariri handled for the Office of Cultural Affairs. Could this be a reason for not mentioning where the artists are from or was it just an oversight? Who knows. But, it’s not a true juried show if some are being placed automatically.

But again, this is not a reason to not go see the exhibit and enjoy the works as they are. It’s just another opportunity lost in Charleston’s visual art soap opera.

While I was in the neighborhood – I was parked in front of the gallery – I poked my head into the Eva Carter Gallery, at 132 East Bay Street, as I can never get enough of the late, but great, William Halsey’s work and that of Eva Carter’s. After all I am an abstract kind of guy.

Next, I drove over to Nina Liu and Friends gallery at 24 State Street, to get a look at what was left of Aggie Zed’s exhibit, Bestiary. I can’t say this artist’s drawings speak to me but I can never get enough of Zed’s small human/animal sculptures and contraptions.

I then walked down (going South) Queen Street to the Corrigan Gallery at 62 Queen Street to see the exhibit, Celebration, featuring works by Richard Hagerty. This was one of several Piccolo Spoleto Invitational Exhibitions.

I know, I know, I know! In my travels from East Bay Street to Queen Street I was passing lots of other art galleries within an arms reach at times. My mission for the day was to see the Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s visual art offerings and a few things that would be gone by the time I would get back to Charleston next month. Damn me if you will, but there are just so many hours and too little me to get around. And, it’s been a tradition for me to talk about the Festival visual art offerings. At least those I get to see.

Anyway, Hagerty’s work is well known to Charleston’s visual art audience – he has been featured at Piccolo Spoleto several times, but this show was highly promoted so I didn’t want to miss seeing it. I had also promised an artist I would drop off a few exhibit catalogs there from the SC State Museum’s 20th Anniversary Exhibition, taking place in Columbia, SC. (See several blog entries here about this exhibit.) With gas near $4 a gallon, I’m going to make the best of all my travels these days.

Hagerty definitely has more vivid dreams and imagination than most people. His work is colorful and fanciful. His style is noticeable on first sight in any grouping of artworks – if you’re familiar with his work, but I saw – at least new to me – geometric works which I found interesting. By all the red dots (symbols of sold works) it looked as if a lot of other people found Hagerty’s work interesting too. This was an advantage for him – having his show in a commercial gallery. If this show had been in one of Charleston’s institutional exhibit spaces some people would have never considered that the works would be for sale. Yet, many times they can be purchased. Good thing for him and the gallery the City Gallery at the Dock Street Theatre was closed for renovations.

It would be nice if more commercial gallery shows were sanctioned as official Piccolo exhibitions. But then how do you choose and be fair to all?

Next I was off to the Charleston County Public Library at 68 Calhoun Street to return some books on CD – from my nightly travels delivering the paper and to see the exhibit, Intuitive Responses, by members of the Women’s Caucus for Art at the Saul Alexander Gallery – on view through June 30, 2008. This was their second exhibit (during Piccolo?). I don’t remember the first, but this was a really nice exhibit for the small gallery space.

I think many artists in the Charleston area overlook the library’s exhibit space, which is a shame. I think it gets a lot of exposure from library visitors – more than some bigger, more established exhibit spaces.

I want to list the names of the women participating in the exhibit. We didn’t have their names when we were sent info about the exhibit for the paper. They are: L. Jaye Bell, Sandra Brett, Betsey Carter, Leigh Ann Davis, Stephanie Drawdy, Rachel Herbsman, Tina Hirsig, Kate Landishaw, Laura Liberatore Szweda, and Sandy Tedesco. This might have been one of the better surprise exhibits of Piccolo. It didn’t get any press, but then not much of any of the visual art exhibits got much press, other than one or two – which seemed to get it all.

From the library I moved down Calhoun Street to the Addlestone Library (205 Calhoun Street) at the College of Charleston to see the exhibit, Richard McMahan’s MINI Museum, another Piccolo Spoleto Invitational exhibition, presented in the Sanders Rotunda. The exhibit was organized by Mark Sloan, Director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the college. This exhibit is also on view through June 30, 2008. Make sure you see it.

For 18 years, Richard McMahan, a savant living in Florida, has been creating his own personal museum collection featuring miniature replicas of the world’s greatest works of art from the collections of the world’s top art museums. It’s an amazing sight to see and wonder how someone could spend so much time working on this project featuring over 1,100 works – from modern installation works to Egyptian artifacts. Students with the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston added much to the success of this exhibit by designing and constructing a structure to house and present these mini reproductions of art. Magnifying glasses are provided.

It kind of reminded me of a flea circus of the arts. “Step right up – for just five cents you can watch fleas reproduce the greatest artworks known to man.”

From this library I ventured over to the Redux Contemporary Art Center at 136 St. Philip Street to see, The Constructed Image, featuring works by five American photographers who challenge the concept of truth – as documented by the medium of photography. Photos don’t lie – right?

I ran into a snag here. There was a note on the door announcing – “out to lunch – be right back.” I was beginning to run out of time and this was the last day of this exhibit.

I went back to the College of Charleston to see the exhibit, Calin Dan, at the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, but this space was already closed for the day. The exhibit is up through June 20, 2008, but I doubt I’ll get to see it. Deadlines!

I went over to Marion Square, at the intersection of Calhoun, Meetings and King Streets to visit the Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibit 2008, for the third time. I took some pictures and talked to a few artists. Considering how bad things could have been this year for this show – it seems things went all right. Not great, but all right. There were a lot of artists there with works that caught my attention. New artists from the Lowcountry and new artists from around South Carolina. Even artists all the way from the Upstate – Greenville and Seneca. Slowly this show has gotten more diverse – offering anyone something that fits their taste in art. This show is also a great place for me to get a sounding of how the visual art community is doing and what the artists are up to – from year to year. It’s interesting watching the growth of some artists, seeing how some can still surprise you, and catching up on gossip. There’s lots of gossip to be had.

This show is the “Iron-man/woman” event of the visual arts. Imagine spending the span of three weekends – outside in Charleston’s weather – sometime good – sometimes brutal. There are good crowds on the weekends but the middle of the week can be like being stuck on a ship with Ulysses during the doldrums. An artist can begin to wonder if they will ever make another sale, and then they see that familiar face walking their way – a return customer. And, life is good again. They have the wind in their face once more.

For me, a visit to this show can be torture. Linda and I have a great collection of art, but my eye – it feels I’m shortchanging it. It sees things it wants – things it covets. My eye has seen works made by some of these artists and it remembers – I have to walk away in shame. I spend a lot of time convincing my eye – someday – someday things will be different. Someday, you will not just look. But this is a burden I carry everywhere I go. It’s a curse – it’s the eyes are too big for your wallet syndrome.

Back at Redux, the door was open this time for The Constructed Image, featuring works by Luis Gispert, Daniel Gordon, Lori Nix, Chris Scarborough, and Nathan Baker. Talk about being the last hour of the last day – this was the last 15 minutes, but they kept the doors open a little longer. I’m glad they did.

That old saying – photos don’t lie – well, maybe to most people who don’t know anything about photography, but to the people who know – photographs have been lying since the beginning of the camera’s invention. Just like many painters take liberties with their subjects – so have some photographers. Imagine Matthew Brady dragging dead bodies of soldiers from a Civil War battle to make the scene look better for the photograph. It happened.

In this case, some of the photographers constructed the entire image to be photographed – controlling every small detail of the image, where others used modern technology to manipulate the image – after the fact. If you’re good at it – the average viewer will never know – left to wonder how the photographer was so lucky to catch such an image. Isn’t that what cameras do – capture images in a moment of time?

I hope a lot of people managed to see this exhibit – I was glad I did – just in the nick of time. I understand the exhibit got some national attention in Wired magazine which drew some people to Charleston to see this exhibit. How nice that they had the bonus of the Spoleto and Piccolo Festivals too.

That was it – that’s all I could see in my short window of opportunity.

One final thought. It’s a shame that with Charleston being the destination of the most art savvy audience to visit South Carolina each year that more people in the visual arts community around the state don’t take advantage of this audience. It’s a challenge with limited formal exhibition space, but it would be the best time and location for a sampler exhibition of the state’s best artists. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have transported the SC State Museum’s juried exhibition to Charleston during the festivals. Now that would have been a wonderful opportunity for the artists and festival visitors alike.

I’ve always thought that Charleston would be the perfect location for a state art museum. Just thinking out loud.

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