Feature Articles

September Issue 2002

City Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, Features Exhibition by Phil Garrett

Artist Phil Garrett has always been attracted to images of nature. Before his recent series devoted to the spiritual dimensions of the horse, the Greenville, SC-based artist has made art depicting koi, cedars, tornadoes, and trout. For his new solo exhibit at City Art titled Memento: New Paintings and Works on Paper on view from Sept. 5 through Oct. 19, 2002, Garrett traveled to Hunting Island and Pritchard's Island on the South Carolina coast in search of images of the seashore. In 2002 Garrett was one of ten artists selected to spend a week at an artist's retreat at Pritchard's, and the journal he made there (which will be on display) serves as an important springboard for the current work.

The Main Gallery at City Art in Columbia, SC, will be filled with vibrant colorful paintings and prints devoted to the images of these islands. With the paintings, from large work at 60 by 60 inches to smaller canvases at 30 by 40 inches, the artist applies layers upon layers to the canvas. A large shell, specifically a white whelk, is rendered in deep acrylic oranges and yellow on a linen canvas. He then adds a dozen layers of transparent colors. The shell, especially in the large works, becomes a powerful object of contemplation. In other paintings, Garrett fills the space with palm fronds and other plant life, heightening the tropical colors through the layering process. Another painting (60 by 47 inches) examines the starry nighttime seashore sky. The exhibit includes a dozen or more new paintings as well as new monotypes. Garrett is well known for his mastery of this printmaking process, having served as one of the guiding spirits for the Greenville County Museum of Art's "See How We Are monotype exhibit earlier this year.

Garrett was born in South Carolina in 1948. He studied at the University of South Carolina and the Greenville County Museum School with Carl Blair and Tom Flowers in the late 1960s. During the 1970s he studied printmaking at the Honolulu Academy with Gabor Peterdi and continued his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute where he received a BFA and did postgraduate studies in printmaking until 1977. Since returning to South Carolina in the early 1980s, he has continued to paint and pursue his interest in printmaking. In 1998, he acquired a large Intaglio press and founded King Snake Press for the production of monotypes in his studio in Greenville, SC.

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