April 2014

City of North Charleston, SC, Offers Works by Susana Berdecio and Jazz Artists of Charleston Photographers

The City of North Charleston’s Cultural Arts Department is pleased to present concurrent exhibitions at the North Charleston City Gallery, located at the Charleston Area Convention Center, in North Charleston, SC. On view from Apr. 3 - 30, 2014, the gallery will be featuring photographs by Susana Berdecio as well as Jazz Artists of Charleston’s resident photographers. A reception will be held on Apr. 3, from 5-7pm.

In Discovering a Sense of Place, Susana Berdecio presents a collection of photographs that capture the artist’s vision of the unique Lowcountry landscape. Spending her childhood in Mexico and living most of her adult life in the western part of the United States, Berdecio became accustomed to photographing the vast open landscapes, tall mountains, dense forests, and winding rivers that surrounded her. Since moving to South Carolina five years ago, she has learned to adapt and adjust her techniques and artistic approach to connect to her new landscape, which she describes as dense, lush, and full of seemingly chaotic forms.

“The light is spectacular, sometimes so bright that color is muted,” she says. “The creeks, the marshes, the ocean, the clouds all offer an exquisite variety of light, tone, color and texture.”

Berdecio spends hours exploring with her camera. She then sits down with her photographs to recreate them into images that reveal the feel of the landscape, the mood of the light, and the intricacy and movement of its details. “Sometimes the images require few changes,” she explains. “Sometimes, the final result is just a small piece of the original capture where I have tried to recreate what I felt being there, adding all of the subjective elements from my past as I express how I have learned to see the Lowcountry.”

See Jazz - Jazz Artists of Charleston presents a stunning visual perspective of Jazz Artists of Charleston (JAC) and Charleston Jazz Orchestra (CJO) events from over the past six years. The carefully curated collection of images includes photographs from Jazz Artists of Charleston’s resident photographers Alice Keeney, Pricilla Thomas, Ben Williams, and Reese Moore. The photographs highlight the people, places, and moments that have shaped JAC and CJO, and capture the rhythm and swing of the jazz music that the groups perform, promote, and work to preserve.

In the words of the late Jack McCray, one of JAC’s founding board members and an icon in the Charleston jazz scene, the exhibit invites viewers to “listen with their eyes” and “think and feel beyond the category.”

Jazz Artists of Charleston is a non-profit organization incorporated to work to foster a solid and professional environment for jazz musicians, artists, students and enthusiasts in the Charleston area. Its mission is to develop, promote, and support a vibrant and creative jazz culture through concerts, special outreach events, and educational programs.

The Charleston Jazz Orchestra is produced, presented and managed by Jazz Artists of Charleston. The orchestra is a twenty-piece big band made up of many of the finest musicians in the Charleston area. CJO, now in its sixth season, has firmly established itself as the Lowcountry’s resident big band ensemble and continues to refine its sound.

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at 843/740-5854 or visit (http://bit.ly/culturalarts).

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