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August Issue 2005
Sumter Gallery of Art in Sumter, SC, Presents Exhibitions by Zernie Smith and Laura Moses
The Sumter Gallery of Art in Sumter, SC, presents two solo exhibitions: Full Circle: A Retrospective, featuring works by Zernie Smith and Outlook: Charleston, featuring photographs by Laura Moses, on view from Aug. 4 through Sept. 11, 2005.
Zernie
Smith
Zernie Smith, a native of South Carolina, working
mainly in pastels, mixed media, and oils has created a diverse,
whimsical, body of work informed by fairy tales, folk art imagery,
and iconic imagery from far-flung cultures. Much of Smith's work
is marked by bold colors, but at times he employs softer tones
as a way of re-exploring familiar themes. Pieces in a series may
have a shift of colors and/or components, as though the "question"
the artist is pursuing is constantly shifting (perhaps like the
playbox sand mixed with acrylic paint Smith has used to produce
some of his most impressive work).
Smith explores the heaven/earth dichotomy leaving the viewer suspended
- like so many of the objects in his paintings - between four
realms: the past, the present, the future and the never been.
These worlds coexist timelessly in a range of color and imagery
that encourages the viewer to reexamine his/her preconceived notions
of stability and balance.
The use of children's playbox sand makes sense given the artist
was an elementary school teacher until 1988 when he quit teaching
to become a full time artist. The cement-like sand/acrylic substance
slathered onto a prepared wood surface has been used to create
textural works that pay homage to environs as different as the
beaches of Charleston, SC, where he lives, to the pyramids and
deserts of Egypt he visited many years ago.
The artist states, "During my high school and college years
I painted in oils. After I quit teaching, mixed media pieces using
acrylics and various objects and materials occupied me for several
years. During this time, I also produced many sculptures. Due
to lack of space for 3-D pieces, I worked in acrylics, as well
as the sand/acrylic mix to produce colorful, somewhat surreal
paintings. Pastels occupied me for the longest period of time
(6 years). Recently I have returned to painting with oils having
come 'full circle' back to my origins".
Smith majored in art at the University of South Carolina and studied
under Edmund Yaghjian. Smith is twice winner of the Piccolo Spoleto
Outdoor Art Show Mayor's Purchase Award, as well as nine other
Best of Show awards. His work is in private, public, and corporate
collections throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.
Laura
Moses
A Sumter native now living in Charleston, Laura Moses began taking pictures in junior high school with a Kodak instamatic camera. In high school, she received an Argus-Cosina 35-mm as a gift from her parents and never looked back. Moses learned to develop and print photographs in the Sumter High School darkroom (fittingly, the current site of the Sumter Gallery of Art). Moses' passion for photography continued in college where she mounted a solo exhibition her sophomore year at Davidson, as well as an exhibition to accompany Davidson's Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1987.
The vitality and richness of Charleston, the
artist's adopted home, provides an abundant source of subject
material. In addition to Charleston's renowned architectural beauty,
Moses finds inspiration in the charm and quirkiness of its residents,
and in the natural splendor of the lowcountry. This inspiration
is reflected in the stunning color photographs of light, sky,
architecture (both fine and mundane), that comprise Outlook:
Charleston, and the contrast and shifting interplay between
these elements.
For her solo exhibition Bound for Glory at Charleston's
City Gallery in 1986, Moses assembled a collection of her favorite
images. While living in Cambridge, MA, for five years, Moses was
awarded a grant from the MIT Council for the Arts to produce a
photo essay of Charleston for a 2001 exhibition Facing South.
Cate McQuaid of the Boston Globe, reviewing Facing South
from which the pieces in Outlook: Charleston are drawn,
wrote, "Laura Moses' color photographs - reveal an artist
with an eye for color, pattern, and line."
Having returned to SC, Moses' work is currently featured in the
multimedia presentation Forever Charleston at the Charleston
Visitor Center, and in private collections nationwide. She is
a frequent contributor to the "Last Page" of Charleston
Magazine.
For more information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Gallery at 803/775-0543, or at (www.sumtergallery.org).
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