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February Issue
2010
Gibbes Museum
of Art in Charleston, SC, Features Works by John Folsom &
the Gibbes' Collection
John Folsom
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, is presenting the exhibit, Lure of the Lowcountry, featuring works by John Folsom and works from the Museum's collection, on view in the Main Gallery through Apr. 18, 2010.
This exhibition features sixteen large scale mixed-media photographs by artist John Folsom (American, b. 1967) selected from his series entitled Lure of the Lowcountry. Folsom's photographs depict several locations in the region, including Palmetto Bluff and Edisto Island, both in South Carolina, along with Cumberland Island, GA. To explore the art-historical precedents of Folsom's work, this exhibition pairs his photographs with fourteen early Lowcountry landscapes from the Gibbes collection, including paintings by Thomas Coram and Charles Fraser.
Folsom's process begins
with a photographic image that is divided into a grid and printed
on separate panels. The panels are then attached to a large wooden
panel to create a unified image. However, the grid lines remain
visible as a reminder that the image is a construction of the
artist's making, not an objective representation of nature. Folsom
pushes this idea further by working the surface of the image with
oil paint and sealing it with a wax medium. The technique gives
the surface of Folsom's work a rich patina that suggests the layers
of history accumulated in the Lowcountry landscape.
Among the earliest landscape paintings of the region, are those
by Thomas Coram and Charles Fraser from the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. During this time period, America
did not have an established tradition of landscape painting. Therefore,
artists borrowed heavily from British aesthetic traditions, particularly
a mode of depiction known as the picturesque. Though Folsom
has not directly studied theories of the picturesque, elements
of the style certainly are present in his work. This assimilation
is the result of Folsom's knowledge of art history, particularly
the early American landscape paintings of the Hudson River School.
A resident of Atlanta,
John Folsom was born and raised in Paducah, KY. He earned
his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinema and Photography from Southern
Illinois University.
"The Lowcountry has always captivated the imagination of
artists who have visited her salt marshes and majestic oaks. We
are delighted to share these images of early landscape painters
alongside John Folsom's contemporary mixed-media landscapes. The
juxtaposition of these object reinforces our understanding of
the creative process," said Gibbes Executive Director Angela
D. Mack.
Lure of the Lowcountry is sponsored by The Charleston
Art & Antiques Forum and Charleston Gateway magazine.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery
listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or visit (www.gibbesmuseum.org).
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