Feature Articles

October Issue 2002

Burroughs-Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Features Exhibition by Ellen Kochansky and Jamie Davis

Two rural South Carolina artists with cutting-edge, contemporary sensibilities will be exhibiting at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, through Nov. 3. The Art Museum invites the public to view the works of artists Ellen Kochansky and Jamie Davis.

Ellen Kochansky: Recollections presents 17 sculptures and 25 two-dimensional works by the Pickens County, SC, artist who is joined by her husband at the Museum with his exhibition Jamie Davis: Vantage Point. Davis' 28 mixed media wall sculptures reveal the artist's fascination with the macrocosm of planets, stars and galaxies and the microcosm of the natural world - the world of the garden and the woods with plants and insects. Kochansky, whose reputation has been built on her quilts and other works as a fiber artist, more recently has been creating a "new vocabulary" for her work which focuses on humanizing design for homes, offices and public spaces. "The image of old things taking on new meaning has combined with the theme of community to open a new dimension for my art," Kochansky has said as she describes her commitment to "design sustainably, to aim for simplicity in materials and ideas, and to honor and renew fragments of the past."

Ellen Kochansky

Recollections brings together layers of Kochansky's creative endeavors, particularly her concern with transparency, or in the words of Vladimar Nabokov "transparent things, through which the past shines!" Thus her show presents a montage of themes - 9-11, fragments from her time as a quilt designer, childhood drawings from her son, her love of text, patterns and slices of photographs, gender-sensitive textile objects - all combined in intriguing, coherent pieces. Kochansky's work is represented in private, corporate and public collections, including the White House Collection created during the Clinton administration. She has served as an American canvas panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and as a trustee of the American Crafts Council.

Jamie Davis

Vantage Points, Davis' exhibition, brings together three-dimensional "drawings," he describes as "somewhere between sculpture and painting." Davis concentrates on creating seemingly improvisational wall sculptures that communicate at least one clear message while still retaining some mystery. As varied as his media and themes, Davis' eclectic educational background has shaped his artistic vision and passionate environmentalism. With undergraduate studies at Davidson College, a BA degree in English from Vanderbilt University, a master's in English Literature from Exeter University in England, and a master's in fine arts from Clemson, as well as a year of medical school, Davis' sculptures find art in the scientific and explore metaphors of connection in the natural and human world. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the Southeast and is included in permanent collections such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Museum at 843/238-2510.

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