April Issue 2001
Artista Vista Comes to Columbia, SC, the Last Weekend in April
Directors of ten galleries in the heart of Columbia's burgeoning art district have contrived a textually rich, vividly visual - as well as tactile - palette of experiences to give art aficionados and novices a weekend for the senses - Artista Vista takes place Apr. 27 & 28. A blending of painted, sculpted and fused works, from avant garde to installation to traditional will be on exhibition during the annual spring art crawl. Static exhibitions -group and one-person shows - will gain perspective through gallery talks by artists, and dimension from artist-led demonstrations.
One such demonstration will be courtesy of printmaker patriarch and USC art professor Boyd Saunders, who plans to cut short his own faculty retirement party to participate in the demonstrations. Saunders is lending The Fontaine Gallery his own stone lithography press; Wayne Kline, Tamarind Master Printer and Director of Rolling Stone Press in Atlanta, along with Columbia printmaker Gene Speer, will conduct the Saturday demonstrations in Lincoln Street warehouse/workshop space Clark Ellefson, one of the event's founders, graciously offered.
Other artists of The Fontaine Gallery giving Saturday demonstrations are Patrick Turk, on the art of transparent watercolors, Helen Fried on figurative symbolism, and Johnny Homewood on raku pottery. On Huger Street, artisans at One-Eared Cow Glass will demonstrate glass blowing, and at Nonnah's, Michel McNinch will give a watercolor class, and Maggi Clark will demonstrate batik-making.
One-person shows - at I. Pinckney Simons Gallery, City Art and Carol Saunders Gallery - will highlight the works of Tony Green, Angela Bradburn, and Jeri Burdick respectively. Green, just back from a month of painting and celebrating Carnival in Venice, will be showing new works - on paper and canvas - comprised in the Italian Collection 2001. Bradburn's watercolors and oil paintings for this solo show reflect intimacy on various levels, including close-range observations of natural objects resulting in larger than life perspectives. Burdick's show will include new work capturing the essence of vessels; her monoprints will have vessels as the subject matter and her ceramics will actually be vessels.
Group shows will be held at Cameo Fine Art, The Fontaine Gallery, Gallery 80808, and The Gallery at Nonnah's. Additionally, the SC State Museum's contribution to Artista Vista is the opening of Triennial 2001, where the works of 23 SC artists will be on exhibition in the Lipscomb Art Gallery through Aug. 19.
One unique approach to optimizing - in this case, doubling - the exhibition potential of the long-running Artista Vista art crawl is being taken by the artist collaborative at Gallery 80808. Their united contribution to Artista Vista is "Fuse", a studio artist-guest exhibition whereby each of the 10 studio artists in that gallery has invited an artist colleague to co-exhibit. Mike Williams has invited Stephen Chesley; Bob Allison has invited photographer Bradley Holiday, Pat Callahan will be paired with Troy Wingard, and Robert Kennedy has invited his daughter "Way Way", who is emerging as a painter of large-scale details of figures. Sculptor Carol Barks has invited Kitsy Armato.
Gallery 80808 artist Charles Dillingham has
invited stained-glass artist Richard Morgan, printmaker Ethel
Brody has invited Beau Bonnoitt, who has collaborated for the
event on a video triptych. Laura Spong's guest will be Liisa Salosaari
Jasinski whose metal works - reclaimed from a scrap metal yard
- have evolved into "the ultimate sculpture garden".
Janette Grassi teams with Bernadette Vielbig for a site-specific
installation, Googly Eyes.
Cameo Fine Art's group show will feature mixed media by Elana
Madden, Jean McWhorter, Janette Grassi, Liisa Salosaari Jasinski
and Britta Cruz, along with oil on board by divas artist, Borys
Buzkij, and oil and acrylic on canvas by Van Martin. McWhorter
is also known for her ceramics salt-glazed sculptures; in addition
to McWhorter, Salosaari, Cruz and Grassi will also have sculptures
in the show, with Grassi additionally exhibiting some of her hand-painted
bottles.
The group show at Nonnah's will include works by demonstrating
artists McNinch and Clark along with Jean Bourque, Betty Cooper,
Jan Fleetwood Porter, Edie Biddle, Ingrid Carson, and Bonnie Goldberg.
Fine art photography by Bob Lancaster will also be part of this
exhibition.
Artista Vista begins Apr. 27 with right-after-work opening receptions and opportunities to meet and talk with the artists at the multiple venues, and will continue Apr. 28 from late morning to late afternoon, depending upon the venue. All the demos will be held on Saturday.
For further info check with the various galleries
mentioned, check our SC Commercial Gallery listing for contact
numbers or call Rachel Haynie at 803/252-6397 or e-mail at (rhaynie@umcsc.org).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
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