February 2014

Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center in Orangeburg, SC, Features Works by Janet Kozachek

The Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center in Orangeburg, SC, will present Small Works, featuring works by Janet Kozachek, on view in the Lusty Gallery, from Feb. 3 through Mar. 31, 2014. A reception will be held on Feb. 11, from 5-7pm.

Smallness in visual art evokes images of exotic Persian miniatures, an exquisitely rendered Chinese fan, a page from an illuminated manuscript, and perhaps an ancient stamp or seal. Gems such as these are more intimate than art admired from afar. They are made to be held close and understood in private meditation. Even those works that cannot be physically held, but only admired through a glass case in a museum collection, exert a hold on the viewer quite distinct from that of larger scale works. Modest, lovely, and desirable - small artworks are exciting for prodding the psyche into believing that the possession of a precious thing is within the realm of the possible.

“I have always been charmed by small art - netsuke, snuff bottles, Persian miniatures, Chinese seals,” says Kozachek. “It is a sentiment that was never entirely erased by a culture that prefers big and loudly broadcasted statements of art to tiny whispered secrets. I sometimes prefer large works, but I hold a place in my heart and in my studio for small scale art. My current exhibition, Small Works, at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, pays homage to all the little things of arts and crafts that have captivated my imagination over the years.”

“Small Works presents a large exhibition of very small art works,” adds Kozachek. “Everything is 9” x 12” or smaller. Many of the works are quite small - just two or three inches across in some instances. These include mosaics, musical instruments, and paintings. A number of these, such as the paintings of imaginary snuff bottles, incorporate small art within the body of the main work. In these I have incorporated prints of an ancient Chinese art language, known as Zhuan, or seal script. This adds a literary dimension to the art so that the work can be “read” as well as visually experienced. Other instances of dual artistic purposes are the sculptural musical instruments, which can be heard as well as seen.”

“What import may an exhibition of small works with ancient derivations have for the present? I hold that we live in an age of limitations, with an increasing population putting pressure on dwindling resources. If art marks the epoch, then visual art on a small scale is apropos. With this in mind, the paintings and other small works I am presenting here are on the scale of computer screens, i-phones and i-pads. So what may appear to be ancient, is in fact very contemporary. It is visual art in the dimensions of the lowest common denominator of public perception - experienced, observed, then neatly tucked away.”

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call Beth Thomas, Executive Director, at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center at 803/536-4074 or visit (http://ocfac.net/).

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