September Issue 2001
USC Beaufort Features Work by Joyce Martin Perz in Beaufort, SC
The Arts Council of Beaufort County will present an exhibition entitled, Exploring Boundaries: Painting/Sculpture, by Chicago artist, Joyce Martin Perz, at the USC Beaufort Art Gallery, from Sept. 4 - 26, 2001.
Chicago artist Joyce Martin Perz, before ever
visiting the South Carolina Lowcountry, has figured prominently
into its local, cultural history. While her serious art comprises
mixed media and three-dimensional assemblage, and what she terms
Color Constructs, it was a brightly designed fiberglass cow that
began the artist's on-going relationship with our community.
Perz's Merci Henri, a bovine homage to the colorful cut-outs
of French modernist Henri Matisse, preceded this exhibition by
over a year. Merci Henri was one of the 28 Chicago Art
Cows sent to Beaufort for last summer's Cows on Vacation,
the initial public art partnership between Chicago's Department
of Cultural Affairs and Beaufort's local arts council. During
that early experiment to introduce art in public places, tragedy
struck when Merci Henri was vandalized and discovered in
flames. Despite this misfortune, the project, and the smoldering
Art Cow, would rise above the ashes.
Within weeks, a local auto-body repair specialist, Jeff Teter, had volunteered to rebuild the cow into a fire-fighting bovine, complete with helmet, ladder, and boots. The Beaufort community-with the help of Mayor Bill Rauch, the Beaufort Fire Department, and the Arts Council staff-welcomed a new public art resident, now called Backdraft. It was the beginning of a true creative, community comeback.
And a thousand miles away, in Chicago, Perz
was working to help Beaufort overcome the loss of her bovine opus.
Perz quickly designed a miniature copy of Merci Henri and
sent it to our community along with a museum book on the art of
Matisse and a gracious letter to the people of Beaufort. These
kind gestures, following the sad loss of her Art Cow, completed
our comeback.
But the dialogue continued well after Chicago's Cows on Vacation
returned to the Windy City. The Arts Council began working with
Perz to present an exhibition of her serious art, beautiful and
formal objects, at the USCB Art Gallery. The result is this exhibition,
Exploring Boundaries: Painting/Sculpture, and a continuation
of our fruitful partnership between cities and creative communities.
Click here for an interview which Arts Council gallery coordinator, Gina Gartner, had with Perz.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Arts Council at 843/521-4144 or at on the web at (http://www.beaufortarts.com).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.