Posts Tagged ‘Corrigan Gallery’

A Trip to Charleston, SC, to see Colin Quashie’s Exhibit at Redux and the French Quarter Art Walk

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

Some people say that 60 is the new 40. Maybe, but on this day I was feeling my 60 years in full force. Last week I spent three fast days taking in the arts. I was in Columbia, SC, for a few hours on Thursday doing an emergency gift trip to One Eared Cow Glass. I spent more time in the car than in the gallery, but it was worth it. On Friday, I went to Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, seeing the exhibit that helped set a record for viewers of Carolina Arts and doing a bit of the art walk in Charleston. By Saturday morning I was back in North Charleston, SC, doing the North Charleston Arts Festival I blogged about earlier. On Sunday, I was dead.

I did the blog about some of the North Charleston Arts Festival exhibits first as they will end on May 12, 2012. For info about other exhibits being offered visit (www.NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com).

So, Friday I went to see The Plantation (Plan-ta-shun) featuring works by Colin Quashie as it was going to end in a few days. I didn’t want to miss the exhibit that launched over 112,000 downloads of our paper. It was the first time I’ve been to Redux since their major renovation and the place looked great. Seeing Quashie’s works up close was a testament to the mission of our paper. We exist only to show you what you have an opportunity to go see every month. We don’t want to be your outlet to the visual arts in the Carolinas – we want you to go see art. No matter how good things look in the paper, they will never look as good as they do when you’re standing in front of them.

Quashie’s works were even more powerful seeing them in their true scale – something we can’t duplicate in our paper. These works were much larger than I expected. I know we sometimes give the dimensions of works with some images we present, but they’re just numbers until you’re standing in front of the actual works. It works the same way for smaller works too.

I love the works that poke fun at how “Madison Avenue” might market slavery today. They’re clever statements about the past and present, but I loved Quashie’s portraits more. I can’t write in “art speak” but I hope this exhibit finds other venues in the Carolinas and I hope Quashie continues the series. And, I sure wouldn’t mind featuring more works by him on our cover – someday down the road.

While at Redux I discovered they have another gallery space, called the Conolly Studio Gallery which features current works by some of its studio artists every eight weeks. This was news to me and a slip by the folks at Redux by not informing us about it. It was a good thing I checked it out, as while there, I ran into one of my favorite artists, Karin Olah Knowlton, who left Charleston for a Rocky Mountain high to live in Colorado and got to meet her very new daughter Ali. Karin has some of her new floral works (fabric paintings) on exhibit at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston. That was an unexpected pleasant meeting.

Go see her works at RLS soon – I bet they won’t last long before they are sold and off to new homes.

Next stop – Charleston’s French Quarter and my first stop there was Nina Liu & Friends, on State Street, as Liu was back in town for the Spoleto season. She finally moved to her new home in Mexico this winter, but is still looking to sell her “prime location” home in downtown Charleston. And, Spoleto visitors always bring a new crop of future Charlestonians – they come – they fall in love – they move to Charleston.

The gallery is presenting the wonderful black and white photographs of Michael Johnson through June during Spoleto. You would think that since she moved to Mexico the gallery would be a little sparse, but it was full of art. So all of you Nina Liu & Friends fans – the gallery is open and ready for business, but the building is also for sale.

You hear that greater visual art community out there? A gallery/home in the heart of Charleston’s French Quarter art district is available for anyone interested in opening a gallery or expanding their business to Charleston. Of course I’m not looking forward to the day when Liu is gone to Mexico for good – I’ll miss her and our conversations.

I got to Nina Liu & Friends well before the Art Walk officially opened and she was having some new lighting installed, so I slipped out to go over to Robert Lange Studios, just around the corner on Queen Street, to see those works by Karin Olah Knowlton, and then I walked over to Lowcountry Artists LTD on East Bay Street to see the exhibit,  Painting With Fire: Lowcountry Impressions in Clay, featuring works by Marty Biernbaum, on view through May 31, 2012.

That’s the beauty of the French Quarter – you can’t toss a stone in any direction without hitting an art gallery. If you run and just barely stick your head in each door you might be able to visit them all in one art walk, but you really have to narrow your visits to a few if you want to see some work and if you’re like me – there will be some talking going on too. I don’t get to the art walks that often, but I still know a lot of folks there.

Biernbaum’s works looked great in our paper, but also much better in person. And in person you can get that tactile experience too. I’m not saying you can touch all art works, but it’s usually OK with pottery. Just remember – you drop it – you bought it. And you don’t always have to pick things up to get a little feel.

That exhibit was about 20 minutes from officially opening, yet they say they had already sold a third of the works. Better get down to see this exhibit fast. Of course they have lots of other art there too, so you won’t have to leave empty handed if the pottery is all sold out, but I bet Biernbaum has some backup works on hand.

I checked back in at Nina Liu & Friends, but Liu was busy with another art walk matter and it was just after 5pm so I headed across the street to see the exhibit, First Light by Shannon Smith, on view through May 18, 2012 at Smith-Killian Fine Art, on the corner of State and Queen Streets.

I’ll never admit to having a favorite out of the Smith clan, but Linda claims I’m partial to Shannon’s work. I’ll invoke the 5th in any court, but she had some spectacular works on display, but I also saw a pretty fantastic view of Charleston from Mt. Pleasant by Jennifer that evening and it was just a year ago when Betty’s abstracts knocked my socks off. And, being an old black and white guy myself – Tripp holds his own in that clan of artists. So, how could anyone pick a favorite? That’s what I say and I’m sticking to it.

My next stop was going to be Corrigan Gallery, further down Queen Street, to see the exhibit, Landscape Reconfigured, featuring new works by Linda Fantuzzo on view through May 30, 2012. I don’t know if it was the heat and humidity, the week of work, or the fact that my age was catching up with me, but that walk seemed like a couple of miles instead of a few blocks, and I was feeling it all.

The one disadvantage of the May art walk in Charleston is that at this time of year in Charleston, at 5pm the sun is still bearing down and well after the art walk is over the sun is still up. Because I’m an hour plus away, I can’t show up fashionably late like some when the temps are a little better and I still have to make that hour plus trip back home.

I finally made it there and I’m glad I did. I’ve known Linda Fantuzzo for a long time – way before Linda (my Linda) and I started doing an arts newspaper, and her works just keep getting better and better and they started out good. She was part of the old John Street art colony – back in the day with Manning Williams, Bill Buggle and Bobby Brown. If you know these folks – you’ve been around Charleston for a long time. We (Linda and I) were doing photo processing on John Street, but the City ran us all off when they built the Visitor Center causing high rents to settle in on John Street.

I got in a few words with Fantuzzo and Lese Corrigan, but this gallery was filling up fast and these folks needed to talk to some real customers. While I was checking out some of the other works in the gallery, I was offered some help by a young lady who I guessed was helping Corrigan out, she might have been an intern from the College of Charleston, I’m not sure, but she told me about Mary Walker, Kevin Parent, and John Moore’s work – which I was checking out. I never know what to do is a situation like that. I know these artists’ work well, but she didn’t know that and I didn’t see any reason to say anything – why should I, and what would I say that wouldn’t seem rude? She knew her stuff – much better than some I’ve encountered in a similar situation. I once had a gallery helper try to tell me Corrie McCallum was dead long before she passed and there was nothing I could say to change her mind.

Situations like that make me think of saying – “Look, I know Corrie McCallum, I’m a friend of Corrie McCallum – you don’t know diddily about Corrie McCallum,” and then storm out – but I don’t. What would be the use in that? I’m just an old dude who has forgotten more than some know, but a new generation is in control now. This wasn’t the case – this young lady knew her stuff and she was a real asset to the Corrigan Gallery. And, the next person might not know who these artists are.

I hate to admit it, but after Corrigan Gallery I was finished for the evening. I was going to be lucky to get back to my car and endure that hour plus drive home. Luckily, a good night’s rest made it possible to do the North Charleston Arts Festival’s Main Event the next day.

If people want to sell me on the notion that 60 is the new 40 – I know I felt a lot better when I was 40 and I’m not doing too badly now, but what else do you want to sell me – the Brooklyn Bridge?

You can read more about these exhibits in the May 2012 issue of Carolina Arts. You can download a copy of the paper at this link (http://www.carolinaarts.com/512/512carolinaarts.pdf).

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Posted in Charleston SC Visual Arts, North Charleston SC Visual Arts, SC Visual Arts | Comments Off

A Visit to Downtown Charleston, SC’s Art Walks – May 6, 2011

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Even though I haven’t been to many art walks in Charleston lately, it’s still our backyard as far as art communities go. I don’t know everyone there now and many don’t know me, but for a lot of the folks who have been there more than a few years, it’s hard for Linda and I to just slip into a gallery and not be spotted. Gallery owners and artists seem to gravitate to us – one because we’re friends with a lot of these folks – at least we feel we are, and two, we haven’t seen most of these folks – face to face in a long time. So we’re like a blast for the past.

It would be nice to do an art walk and not be working, but the nature of these events is always social/working. I want to write the trip up for our blog and they hope I’ll write it up – everyone needs publicity. The problem in Charleston is we know and meet so many people we want to talk to that I end up doing more talking than taking photos. So, I have some images to not make this blog all words, but in no way all that I should have. I’m sorry for that. We got some from the galleries or their websites.

I’ll refresh people’s memory of the weather on May 6, 2011, in the Charleston area. A forecast called for scattered showers, but it seem to be raining most of the day up here in Bonneau, the headquarters of Shoestring Publishing Company on the shore of Lake Moultrie. And just as it was about time to leave, the rain came down hard, but the weather wizards said the system would clear out of the area by 6pm. This time I was hoping they were right. It rained pretty hard all the way to Charleston’s borders, but as we crossed that border the rain stopped and the sky opened up.

By the time we found the same parking space I used in visiting the April art walk, the sun was shinning. Thanks to whoever saved it for us. The rain had cleared the air and cooled it down to a very pleasant 75 degrees. We’ve had some great weather as far as temps go lately – although dangerous at times.  At least there weren’t any tornado warnings on May 6.

Our first stop, due to location, was Nina Liu and Friends, at 24 State Street. The gallery is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. The exhibit being presented that evening was Defining Moments, featuring works by Susie Miller Simon of Colorado, on view through June 30, 2011. Simon couldn’t be there for this opening, but will come in a few weeks.

Nina Liu’s gallery is spread throughout three levels in her home – which is still up for sale – if anyone is interested in living in the heart of Charleston’s French Quarter district and wants to also have a gallery – or not. She’ll sell – either way. Liu is hopping to retire one day to the home she has waiting in Mexico – someday. But, we’re not in any hurry to see her go.

We noticed something strange going on. People were coming into the gallery, saying hi as they passed by, heading upstairs. Liu noticed the strange look on our faces and explained that they were regulars to her openings and they know the food and drink is upstairs. I rolled my eyes, thinking to myself that they could have at least glanced at the works in the exhibit before – running upstairs, but it doesn’t seem to bother her as another group zoomed by. Her food is very popular.


Work by Susie Miller Simon

Simon’s works give reference to imagery of the Southwestern United States – a million miles from Lowcountry art, which is refreshing at times and I’m sure a reason why her works are so popular here. I’ve included an image, that I’m sure wasn’t in this exhibit. I got it off the Internet just to give you an idea of what the work is like. But you’ll see some images like this and some very different, but you’ll be able to tell it came from Simon.

It was reassuring to see some of those folks who rushed upstairs eventually filtered down to see the exhibit, one even asking about the price of a work found upstairs. A good time for us to move on.

For the second month in a row, I was focused on going to Smith-Killian Fine Art, at 9 Queen Street, at the corner of Queen & State Streets. Last month it was to see an exhibit by Shannon Smith and this month to see “abstract” works by her mother, Betty Anglin Smith, as well as works by a very strong group of SC’s contemporary artists including: Carl Blair, Eva Carter, Matt Overend, Laura Spong, Leo Twiggs and Scott Upton. The exhibit, Contemporary Carolinas – an Invitational Exhibition, will be on view through June 12, 2011.


Works by Laura Spong (L) and Leo Twiggs (R)

The week before we had talked with Laura Spong at Vista Studios in Columbia, SC, during Artista Vista (read about it at this link) and knew she would be there. And, I was hoping to see and talk with Carl Blair, whom I haven’t seen in a while. Blair, was the one and only member of the Commission of the SC Arts Commission who listened to my complaints and tried to do something about them. The one and only! A true arts leader in SC – a rare exception. Unfortunately he didn’t make the trip from Greenville, SC.

That’s OK – I’ll take the hugs from Betty, Eva, and Laura any day.


Work by Eva Carter

In my opinion, the day William Halsey passed on, Eva Carter became Charleston’s top “abstract” artist, if not one of the best in SC. After closing up her gallery a few years ago, this was the first of her work in an exhibit in Charleston. Although she has now opened a studio just around the corner from her old gallery, at 16 Gillon Street, we haven’t been able to catch her there when we were in Charleston – so we were also looking forward to seeing and talking with her and seeing what she was painting these days.

But, the real kicker in this show was to see more “abstract” paintings by Betty Anglin Smith. I mentioned in my write up of the April 2011 art walk in Charleston that we saw an unexpected work – an abstract painting by Betty at Shannon Smith’s show. We loved the work and I wanted to see if it was a one hit wonder or if we have a new abstract artists in town. Folks – we weren’t disappointed.


Work by Betty Anglin Smith

Of course as Betty put it – she’s not quitting her day job of painting landscapes – just yet. We all know there’s a smaller audience for “abstract” art in the Carolinas. But, every day we see more of it all the time – and that means more people are buying it. I tip my hat to Smith Killian Fine Art for taking the risk to present such a show – during the Spoleto Festival season in Charleston. I hope it pays off for them – so they can do it again. I know I could have spent a good bit of my lottery winnings there that evening. Now all I have to do is win one.

This was a great show of works from some of SC’s best artists, not painting what most people expect to see when they go to Charleston to see or buy art. But, I’ve always said there is a lot of this kind of art being made in Charleston – you just have to work a little to find it.

What a good time to transition over to Corrigan Gallery, located at 62 Queen Street – one of those places you won’t find what some people call “Charleston” art. But, you will find plenty of art made by Charleston artists. The exhibit, Egg Meditations, the continuation of a ten year exploration by Yvette Dede, was being presented. The exhibit will be on view through May 31, 2011. I swear it’s been that long – ten years since I’ve seen work by Dede on view in Charleston. At one time she ran Print Studio South, which eventually turned into the Redux Contemporary Arts Center (which hasn’t sent a press release about its May/June exhibit yet). But, that’s what happens when you become an adjunct college professor. You spend more time teaching than exhibiting.


Works by Yvette Dede

For regular readers of my views on art – presentation is a big factor with me and this exhibit was a top notch example of how to present a cohesive group of works – in this case based on the egg shape. Dede made special frames for her small works and in the intimate space at Corrigan Gallery they looked fantastic. I’m talking about the presentation of the art. I really don’t care what the wall looks like or the floor – as long as they don’t distract the viewer from the art, and in that case – that’s a bigger problem for the artist. There’s nothing wrong with the wall or floors at Corrigan Gallery – I’m just saying well presented art can look good in someone’s cluttered basement.


Works by Yvette Dede

After checking out all the variations Dede presented, we checked out some of the other works being displayed at the gallery and I came across a work which really fooled me at first in an alcove between the two main rooms of the gallery.  There was a large abstract work on one wall – blue and red. You know how I like abstracts. When I got close enough to see who the artist was,  I was, well not totally surprised, but embarrassed that it was by a good friend of ours -  John Moore. I’ve seen a lot of Moore’s abstract photographs, but for some reason this image didn’t click, I was seeing it from the side and I had just looked through some of his works in a stack and this just fooled me at first.


Work by John Moore

The real joke here is that Moore and I have talked a million times about the fact that it’s too bad he presents his work as photographs – more people would buy them if they were presented as paintings. A sad fact but true. And, the real tragedy is that many people think they are Photoshopped, but these are the real deal. He finds these outrageous colors – in man-made materials touched by nature. And, to top it off – Moore is color blind. Figure that one out and you can help me pick lottery numbers.

Moore is a purest, he doesn’t manipulate his images and he doesn’t want to fool people into thinking these are not photos just for the sake of sales. He just has a good eye, takes his time before he clicks the shutter and knows how to get the best out of his equipment and when the light is right. That’s the real art of photography.

After Linda coaxed me off the soapbox, our next stop was Horton Hayes Fine Art, at 30 State Street. We wanted to see what Mark Horton was painting these days. The gallery also shows works by Nancy Hoerter, Shannon Runquist, Bjorn Runquist and Chris Groves – all skilled painters. Now, I guess these works don’t fit the classic description of “Charleston” art in that although they are landscapes of the Lowcountry and still lifes – I just think of them as master works. You just want to be in these places put on canvas. You can feel them – smell them. We didn’t talk to anyone here – it was too crowded.


Work by Mark Horton

Seeing the works at Horton Hayes made me want to go check out Mickey Williams Studio-Gallery, the next street over at 132 E. Bay Street, at the corner of East Bay and Broad Street. This was our old hangout, once the office for IF Labs, then for Carolina Arts newspaper and Carolina Arts Gallery. I spent many a day and night in that space. It survived Hurricane Hugo as if it was just a thunder storm. This was also Eva Carter’s old gallery space.


Work by Mickey Williams

Williams paints some incredible Lowcountry landscapes. I wanted to go by and see his works and talk to him about facebook. Sometimes I get on facebook by 7am and most days by then Williams has been on for several hours – talking about the birds in his back yard, his garden or the colors in the morning sky. He’s like the good morning guy in the Charleston facebook family – which is funny – as he, like me, is technology challenged. But, he’s got facebook down to a science. I called him and asked him to send me a photo – he had to check with his wife. Sound familiar? We’re two peas in an iPod. We embrace technology – we just don’t know how to make it work.

Our last stop was at Lowcountry Artists Ltd, at 148 E. Bay Street. Their next exhibit is The Power of Glass, featuring blown glass  by Robbie Clair and etched and fused glass by Steve Hazard which will be on view from May 28 through June 11, 2011. This gallery has almost doubled in size since the last time I was in it. As a co-op gallery it has also seen many changes in the group of artists currently showing on the walls.

Another space where we could slip in and get a good look at the art first. Of course we knew some of the artists by name or work and there were a few surprises – like seeing works by Patsy Tidwell on the wall. Her gallery was one of the mainstays of the Charleston art community, but she sold it a few years ago and now it’s closed. I’m sure she is enjoying life now creating artwork vs. trying to sell other artists’ works. It’s not easy running a gallery as an artist – even when you’re doing it as a co-op of artists.

Another surprise was seeing works by Jason Luck, a Seagrove potter who has moved to Charleston. Those Seagrove potters are everywhere. Well they’re not really – but their work seems to be getting everywhere. But, you really have to go to Seagrove, NC, for Seagrove pottery. The chamber of commerce pays me to say that.


Work by Jackie Wukela

Because we didn’t have to answer a million questions as to how the paper is doing we finally got to eat some of the goodies being offered during the art walk. But, our anonymity could only last so long as I had questions I wanted to ask so we went up front and introduced ourselves to – who I felt sure was Jackie Wukela (due to facebook). She is typical of most of the folks we “know” through the paper. We’ve talked on the phone and e-mailed back and forth, but never met – face to face.

The minute we did this, Carolyn Epperly, who I’ve talked to many times at Tidwell’s Art Gallery, but not in a while, said “I thought you looked familiar.” Jackie Wukela and Lynda English, who are members of Lowcountry Artists Ltd. are also part of the visual art community in Florence, SC, where they live and have a gallery. So this was a twofer – we got to talk about Charleston and Florence’s art communities.

Before long the end of the art walk was on us and it was time to head back to Bonneau. On the ride home a few things struck me. We’ve been to two art walks in two months in Charleston and the art walks have changed – as have the galleries and artists who fill them with works since the days when we went to every one of them.

Charleston’s visual art community is moving away from what many people have tagged it as being for years, a city of artists who are in love with the city, a bad rap in my opinion. Sure there is lots of “tourist” art here to be had – it’s what most tourists want and Charleston is a tourist town, but the artists have moved on to creating what they want – hoping that the more discriminating visitors will want to take that art home. And, a good number of the artworks are being made by artists who live elsewhere – all over the US. The so called “Charleston” art is no longer a novelty – it’s now moved into the realm of novelties – souvenirs.

And, the art walks as I knew them have also changed. There was a time when an art walk in the French Quarter was a near festival – one big party event. I used to equate them to going to the Mall during Christmas – you’d run into everyone you haven’t seen since the last one there, but not so these days. There is an art walk every month in Charleston and most galleries stay open whether they’re in the group hosting it or not. So, it’s not such a special occasion any more. Still, lots of people go to them and enjoy them, but if it rains a little it’s easy to say – I’ll just go to the next one.

Of course my memories are from the 1990′s – what I call the golden age of the visual arts in the Carolinas. It might not be fair to make comparisons to current times – an age where many people are attacking the arts to gain political points and the economy has suffered one blow after another.

I for one am glad to be able to go to them again, but it might be some time before I go to the next one. We’re a little exhausted at this point and there’s so much going on all over the Carolinas. If you don’t believe me – just check our paper out at (www.carolinaarts.com). See how long it takes you to get through it all – end to end.

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Posted in About Seagrove Pottery, Charleston SC Visual Arts, Columbia SC Visual Arts, Greenville SC Visual Arts, SC Visual Arts | Comments Off

A March Through SC’s Pee Dee Area – Viewing Exhibits Here, There, and Everywhere – Part One

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Linda, my better half, and I planned a grand trek to see numerous exhibits on Friday, March 18, 2011, with the end stop being the reception for the Photofabulous exhibit, the largest collection of photography on display in SC, at the Art Trail Gallery in Florence, SC, which started at 5:30pm.

The master plan was to leave Bonneau, SC, the headquarters of Carolina Arts, and head toward Sumter, SC, to see the exhibits at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, which opened at 11am. So we left at 9am to make sure we were there on time.

From Sumter it would be a mad dash to Hartsville, SC, to squeeze in the door of the Black Creek Arts Center which closed at 1pm. That meant we had to leave Sumter before noon and hope we didn’t get stuck behind a farmer on his tractor on a winding two-lane road. While in Hartsville we would also take in the exhibit at Coker College.

From Hartsville, we would move on to Darlington, SC, to check out a couple of commercial galleries and then move on to Florence for the BIG show.

That was the plan.

To Linda’s credit, who worked a 12 hour shift on Thursday, we were driving away from our headquarters by 8:58am – a good sign. And as it turned out we arrived in Sumter a lot earlier than I expected. It’s been a few years since Sumter was on our delivery route and I expect to travel slower during the day than at night. So we had bonus time in Sumter.

No problem – we headed over to USC-Sumter to the University Gallery, located in the Anderson Library, to see Doni Jordan’s exhibit, doni jordan: tomes, on view through April 12, 2011.

When you see one image that is sent to you to represent an exhibit, it can really taint your expectations of what you will see. The written words in a press release can fill in some of the blanks, but not much. I had the impression that the exhibit would be different combinations of old printer type in window boxes – not so. There was plenty of that but much more.

I took a few photos, but the gallery space has museum lighting – which is good for getting up close to works but not good for photography and when works are behind glass or Plexiglas – flash photography is just another problem.

Part of the exhibit was a display of old typewriters – which could be considered museum pieces now, since most people under 25 probably haven’t seen many around. It won’t be long before computer keyboards are in the same boat.

In fact, many things in this exhibit will age the person who recognizes the items included. A lot of the items assembled are no longer used – replaced by new technology or soon will be – including the books which may have been made using these old tools of typography. But, Jordan makes creative use of them in making statements in her assembled works – including wood and metal type, tin type photos, binding thread, spools, and small books – with an occasional message spelled out in the mix.

You can read more in our March 2011 issue of Carolina Arts. Tick-Tock – time to move on.

We’re standing at the door of the Sumter County Gallery of Art at the Sumter County Cultural Center, at 11am, but the door is locked. Five minutes later the door is still locked. We can see through the door and people are working down a long hallway in the Patriot Hall part of the building. When we arrived I saw people unloading something at a side door so I go around, go in and find someone in the Gallery shop and ask if they are open. They are and I tell them the gallery door is still locked. I wish I had a nickel  for every time that has happened over the years.

The Sumter County Gallery of Art may still have a name connected to the past, but their gallery space rivals any at art museums in the Carolinas. It’s why they can attract top tier artists to exhibit in Sumter. That’s not a slap at Sumter – more at top tier artists. You’ll be able to see that in the photos I was able to take.

I came to see the exhibits: Joe Walters: A Mid-career Retrospective, featuring a major exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by Charleston, SC-based artist Joe Walters and Anne Lemanski: Touch and Go, featuring a selection of her highly crafted sculptural works that utilize familiar forms to explore the inconsistencies and contradictions she sees in the world, from our culture’s treatment of women to its exploitation of both domesticated and wild animals. Both exhibits are on view through April 22, 2011.

If you can’t get to Sumter and you’re closer to Charleston, the Corrigan Gallery in Charleston is showing, A Riff on Nests, featuring sculptures and works on paper by Joe Walters, his first show in Charleston in many years – showing works in the same style as those being shown in Sumter. This exhibit is up through March 31, 2011.


This is a detail shot of a larger work.

I’ve always liked Walters’ animal installations and this is a little different – more flora than fauna, but in the same style where the sculptural works have the look of years of built up rust – in brown or gray.

The works on paper have the same rusty brown color and a rough surface – also implying age.

The works cry out to be touched, but please don’t. Like all things in nature – they are better off viewed from a distance than having humans touch them in our often rough and destructive ways.

Anne Lemanski: Touch and Go, is a good match for Walters’ exhibit as her works also show man’s “destructive” effects on animals.

Her work 21st Century Super Species: Jack-dor, dominates the display of animals who, in the form Lemanski presents, show how they might have adapted under man’s reign on this planet. This rabbit creature stands 8 feet tall,  has a 10 foot wingspan and is composed of many parts from other animals. The creature brings up the thought – Is this what man will have to deal with in the future if he doesn’t clean up his act and clean up the environment of this planet? According to Darwin – the animals will adapt. Of course we will too as we are just another animal.

All of these creatures, that may seem like familiar animals, have adapted bright colors or a sort of camouflage and all give off the message – man beware – even the look on a giant golden frog’s head is menacing.

Lemanski also offers a display of hairstyles of women from different decades – a commentary on how women were perceived.

One hairstyle was titled, 1960 Occupation: Housewife, was pink and resembled the logo for the movie Hairspray. You might see women wearing these dos on the popular TV show Madmen. Another, titled 1940 For The Boys, may have represented the style women wore in the war factories while their men were off fighting WWII. There were two badges or buttons on the piece which showed 40′s style pinup gals.

We have more about these exhibits in our March 2011 issue of Carolina Arts.

Before we left the Sumter County Gallery of Art we walked down the hallway where we could see people working through the door when we couldn’t get in, and they were hanging a quilt show that was going to be at the Patriot Hall Galleries – just for that weekend.


Quilt #143 – “Hanging Gardens of Bobbi Ann” by Barbara Fitzsimmons


Detail of Quilt #178 – “Fish of Another Color” by Thomasyne Martin

This was going to be the 3rd Swan Lake Quilt Guild Quilt Extravaganza. The guild has 85 members and is growing. I took a few quick photos, but the lighting was not as good there, and we were on the run. Carolina Arts is making a lot of contacts with quilt guilds it seems, but most seem to be a little shy in dealing with us – as if they are not sure we would be interested. One of our favorite works of art in our collection is an art quilt from a friend who unfortunately lives in Virginia or you’d be seeing lots of her works in our paper. Tick-Tock!

The race is on to Hartsville – a town I haven’t been to in a least a decade if not longer. Fortunately, we run into no tractors on the road – a few old geezers in pickup trucks, but no big delays and we get there in time. As we are walking through the doors of the Black Creek Arts Center I see that they are now open until 2pm on Fridays. Of course that may have been their hours for some time now, but we had 1pm in our records. It’s corrected now.

No harm, no foul, except there were a couple of interesting places we would have stopped at as we passed through Bishopville on the way. I guess that will have to wait for another trek.

The Black Creek Arts Center is showing The Pate Family Art Exhibit, featuring works by 14 members of this family spanning four generations. It began with Wilhelmina Stucky Pate, and the exhibit is on view in the Jean & James Fort Gallery through April 29, 2011.


Pate Family Tree

That’s a big family of artists and they do everything, paintings – big and small, photography, stained glass, jewelry, and architectural models. And, it seems they all work in various mediums. Makes you wonder if there is something like an art gene.


“On the Way to St. Simons” by Charles Pate Jr.

Most of the Pate family works are pretty straight forward – there’s not many hidden meanings or messages here. That was a good thing as viewing this exhibit was sandwiched in between two exhibits where you had to put your thinking cap on.


“Quiet Power” by Martin Pate

It has to be nice to come from an art family, having access to all that experience and knowledge. I guess it could be a problem if you didn’t really want to be an artist, but who doesn’t – right. Well, I might want to a little, but I’ve seen enough to know it’s no cake walk.

We have more info about this exhibit in our March 2011 issue of Carolina Arts.

We went upstairs at the Arts Center and found a lot more art on display and I guess a photography exhibit, but there wasn’t any formal info – these works may always be on display. I can hear people say – “Why didn’t you ask?” And, I don’t ask, as I expect things to be clearly marked or explained – I know lots of people won’t bother to ask so I want to see how each exhibit space handles such things.

It’s like unpriced art. If I have to ask, I’m not interested – even if I can afford it. I don’t have to worry about that these days – I’m in the selling mode more than buying.

It was upstairs where I saw a new form of photography. Our background is in photography, but photography is one of the few art mediums that seems to be ever changing. There were a couple of “photographs” by Suzanne Muldrow on the wall that when I looked at them my first question is – “How is this a photograph?” But, I was to learn about that later at the BIG photography exhibit. These images looked like drawings and I didn’t see anything that would have looked like photography. I couldn’t take a photo as the lighting was bad and the work was behind glass. It was the first of many new things I was going to learn about photography this day.

The Black Creek Arts Centers seems to be set up to do all things in the arts – exhibits, performances, and education – with lots of classroom spaces. It’s probably quite a beehive of activity for the Hartsville area.

When we left the building I snapped a photo of the outside and later learned that the artwork out front was a sculpture display of old saw blades by Mike Fowle, who we had featured when I was last in Florence to see exhibits. Of course Hartsville is his and Patz Fowle’s hometown.

We drove over to Coker College, just a few blocks away from the Arts Center, parked and ate the lunch we brought with us – what a nice day – spring was in bloom and the weather was great.

The exhibit, Heather Freeman: Digital and Traditional Media, is on view through March 25, 2011, at the Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery in the Gladys Coker Fort Art Building.

In the literature offered in the gallery it says that Freeman has been interested in science since she was a child. She is particularly interested in the language and symbolic forms of science and where these intersect with mythic, religious and popular iconography.

This was an exhibit where you were going to have to read a lot of offered materials to get the message the artist was hoping to get across to the viewer or not. Freeman might be just as happy with whatever you came up with – which I’m sure is different with every viewer.

The written materials also stated that Freeman was an assistant professor of digital media at the University of North Carolina, but finding the digital media was a trick in many of the images offered.

The tags on the works listed the media as digital print on watercolor paper, with added ink, graphite and watercolor. To me, digital print would mean some sort of photographed image was involved – whether it be a straight photograph or a copied or captured image from another photograph. But in Freeman’s images I would say the digital image represented at best 20 – 30% of the image and the rest was drawn in with the other media. In some it was maybe 50-50.

Freeman says, “I believe science has merged with popular culture to become a covertly ‘universal’ religion.”

The titles of some of the works helped somewhat, but to me these kinds of images are not as strong without the written materials. That’s just me.

One image was titled, Grandma teach me to sleep. From that I assumed that these are images of dreams and nightmares – products of restless sleep. I’m glad my life is a lot simpler.

Later that night at the BIG photography show when someone heard that we had just seen this exhibit they asked if the gallery director gave us the “tour” – explaining what each image meant. I hope that’s not where we are headed, where everyone has to be spoon-fed the meaning of art.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked a lot of the imagery, received some strong vibes from some and was disturbed by others – which should make any artist happy. She made me think and I’ll forever blame her for that.

We have more info about this exhibit in our March 2011 issue of Carolina Arts.

Before we left Coker College I snapped a few photos of the Pearl Fryar topiary garden on the Coker campus.

Next up was Darlington, SC, to check out a couple of commercial galleries – The Chameleon Art Gallery and the Birds of a Feather Arts Gallery.

I’ve been to The Chameleon Art Gallery back when they first opened, but not since – again, during the old model for Carolina Arts, we could only afford to distribute the paper in areas we received income from – so we were not going to the Pee Dee much at all – even though I rode through the area each month on my way home from delivering in NC.

Since that time the gallery space had changed – with the times, or should I say economy? What was once a fully exhibition space was now part display, part service with a framing station and the rest was set up for teaching art classes. It was the first thing promoted to us when we entered.

A long, long time ago when we first started, I would walk into a gallery and if they had some new artsy knickknack items up for sale the gallery owner would apologize, and I would tell them, “don’t”. You have to do whatever it takes to bring in money to keep the doors open. After all, art galleries are not meant to be museums – where you just show art. If the doors are closed no artworks are on the walls, no artworks are seen and no artworks are ever purchased.

We had two art galleries that didn’t make the rent on their own in our past lives. We know how hard it is to keep the doors open and we started this paper to help galleries. Darlington is lucky to have art galleries.

We located the Birds of a Feather Gallery on our way out of the downtown area – with the help of Linda’s iPhone, but the gallery was closed at 2:25pm on Friday, even though the sign on the door said it should have been open. But, we don’t know what was going on so it was just another missed opportunity on both our parts. I could see that this gallery was also into art classes.

Hey, most of the press releases we get from the non-profit art centers and arts councils are about the classes they are offering. It’s what brings in the money.

There’s a lot of visual arts going on out there of all levels and you don’t have to go to the big city to have your brain challenged. Everything we saw could have just as well been on view in any of those big cities. So getting off the beaten path sometimes can bring rewards and discovery.

Next stop Florence – in Part Two.

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Gene Speer’s Exhibit at McMaster Gallery in Columbia, SC

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

As my last act during this month’s delivery of the paper I stopped in Columbia, SC, on my way back home from Charlotte, NC, to see if the Gene Speer exhibit, Line • Circle • Square, was still on view. I was in luck, but it was the last day of the exhibit (July 3, 2008).

Highway 101 Series, oil pastel

We didn’t receive notice of this exhibit until after our deadlines for the June or July issue, so this exhibit wasn’t included in the printed version of the paper or on our website, but I was interested in seeing the exhibit since seeing the work Speer had in the SC State Museum’s juried exhibit. And, I wasn’t disappointed – there, as a centerpiece of the exhibit at the McMaster Gallery exhibition, was another one of Speer’s mixed media works in his Highway 101 Series. I am really attracted to this – at least new to me – work by Speer’s. He had seven works in all under the Highway 101 Series title, but the other six were several monotypes, a lithograph and several oil pastels. I liked the oil pastel works too. Well, I liked the entire exhibit, but I’m really taken by the mixed media works and the oil pastels in this series. Some of the works are just titled Highway 101 Series and others were given subtitles like Hwy. 78 East or I-26 South.

I really didn’t see any highways in these images, but I didn’t have to in order to enjoy the works. Speer is an abstract expressionist so the works are his reaction to what he sees and feels. My reaction is on a whole different level to color, texture and shapes. Besides, if the highways I travel each month start looking to me like Speer’s works – my delivery days are over.

I’d love to see an exhibition of just the mixed media works in this Highway 101 Series.

The exhibit as a whole is a view at a wide range of techniques and media done in variations of Speer’s basic concept of vertical runs for the Highway 101 Series, grid patterns, and circular works. I read in a review by Mary Gilkerson for Free Times in Columbia that all of the works were done over the last two years. I would have thought that it might have been a longer span of time. It would seem that Speer’s has been a busy artist with a lot of ideas on his mind.

The least structured work in the exhibit was a black ink on white paper monotype entitled Bare to the Bone #4. There were no grids, no rows of symbols or any sign of organization in this piece. I guess it was a sign of Speer really letting go.

There was a small mixed media piece tucked away in a little corner of the gallery titled Short Circuit. I would have liked to take this piece home with me. I’m talking about buying it of course – if I had some money. (As many opportunities that I have had over the years to walk out of a not-so-well attended gallery with a work of art – it has never crossed my mind to do so – other than worry about whether other less scrupulous individuals do.) This work was maybe 5″ x 5″ square with small pieces of copper placed in a grid pattern against a darker gray/black background. This was sort of a 3-D version of Speer’s usual grid prints. They may have been pieces of a copper plate used to make some other print. The title might refer to a print that didn’t work out so well – who knows, but it was interesting to speculate as the piece was so different from the rest of the works – and after all it was sent to a corner of the room all by itself.

Adding to the total range of media used in this exhibit there were two other small works, one was Untitled, which was a grid pattern in acrylics, and one titled Yellow Can, which was a grid in watercolors.

A work entitled Month of June was comprised of six monotypes of black ink on white paper, with two rows of three images. These were circular shapes which looked like moonscapes. They looked more deliberate than most of the other works, so they stood out a bit in my opinion.

There were also four large circle-shaped monotype works – with lots of bright colors and lots of different shapes in the circles. They were more like the last work I can remember seeing of Speer’s in an exhibit – some time ago.

Another work in the – don’t you want to come home with me category was – This Way, an oil pastel. I can’t remember how it fit into the exhibit – line, circle, square – grid or what. I just remember writing down in my notes – I like this one too.

Highway 101 Series, mixed media

But, my all time favorite was the largest piece in the show, the Highway 101 Series mixed media work which was like the one found in the SC State Museum show – on exhibit through Sept. 7, 2008. I’m not really good at judging the size of some works, but this was maybe a 7′ long by 5′ tall work with eight rows running vertically down the piece. It’s white with colors breaking through from behind the white layers. There are some splashes of color on the outside of the white, but most of the color in the work comes from layers behind the white – making this work more muted than Speer’s other works. There could be a lot of layers of colors – it’s hard to tell, but the effect is wonderful – it had my abstract taste buds popping.

I’d love to say go see this show, but it’s over. All I can say is that if any of this sounds good to you – keep an eye and ear out for the name Gene Speer. Maybe another show is in the works somewhere in the Carolinas.

I know Speer is represented by Corrigan Gallery in Charleston, SC. And, I was disappointed that he doesn’t seem to have a website. I was hoping to link to some images of his works, but I didn’t find any sign of a site in a Google search. And I didn’t take my camera with me, so I’m sorry we don’t have any images at this time, but I’ll still be looking for some – so check back from time to time.

P.S. Since writing this we received two images from Gene Speer of works in the show and have received a web link to some other photos of his work. You can see the images @ http://web.mac.com/mcmastergallery/McMaster_Gallery/Gene_Speer.html

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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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