| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
Janaury Issue 2003
City Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, Features Solo Exhibition by Michael Brodeur
Michael Brodeur: Paintings and Drawings, an exhibit at City Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, from Jan. 16 through Mar. 1, 2003, presents an exciting opportunity to see the work by one of the region's most accomplished artists. Since 1999, when he moved to Greenville, SC, to establish the visual arts program at The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Brodeur's own paintings have become the subject of much interest. His terse, poignant, and precise paintings of domestic interiors have been featured in important juried group shows such as the 2001 Triennial at the South Carolina State Museum and the Greenville County Museum's recent exhibits From the Studio and From the Collection. This solo exhibit at City Art will serve to present Brodeur's work in a more focused light.
Like his teacher, Philip Guston, Brodeur is "a painter's painter," an artist whose technical mastery and confidence with subject matter establishes a high standard for other artists to emulate. In his economical depiction of the relationships between common objects in a domestic interior, Brodeur explores at a more metaphorical level the problems associated with interpersonal intimacy. In staging and manipulating ordinary objects such as nightstands, tables, or cups, Brodeur evokes the precarious tensions and balances within partnerships. These intimate dramas then also serve as problems that Brodeur, the artist, works to resolve, posing and then solving art problems of color, form, and composition. By exteriorizing the interior spaces, he works through a complex host of issues, visually articulating these personal spaces for a more public contemplation.
Brodeur writes of his work, "I present concrete, clear and seemingly rational relationships. But in that clarity poetic and metaphysical events occur: the tense 'dialogue' between two objects placed precisely on a table, mystery at the edge of light and shadow, the profound silence of solitude. Beyond making a connection between art and personal experience, I hope to make the personal universal. I hope to engage the spirit within each one of us. We need to bolster ourselves against the disappointments of a dispirited age."
Born in 1947 in Claremont, New Hampshire, Brodeur obtained a BA in 1970 from the University of New Hampshire. In 1971-1972, he studied art with Milton Resnick at the University of Iowa. He received his MFA in 1975 from Boston University where he studied with Philip Guston and James Weeks. He has served on the faculties of New England School of Art and Design in Boston, Palm Beach Community College, and Florida Atlantic University. Since 1999 he has chaired the Visual Arts Department at The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities Residential School in Greenville. In addition to creating the school's visual arts curriculum and program, he teaches foundation courses and upper level painting and life drawing. His work has been featured in numerous solo and groups shows, and his paintings are held in many private and public collections.
For more information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803-252-3613 or on the web at (www.cityartonline.com).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: info@carolinaarts.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.