Vista Studios Gallery 80808

Sharon Licata and New Vibrations

2012-01-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

Chesley, Williams, Wimberly and Yaghjian

2011-12-27T12:17:00.001-05:00

When: Friday, January 27 - Tuesday, February 7, 2012

What: The Winter Exhibition, in it’s 12th year, will feature original artwork

by Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, Edward Wimberly, and

David Yaghjian.

Where: Gallery 80808 / Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

Columbia, SC 29201

Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, Edward Wimberly, and David Yaghjian are friends and full-time artists living and working in South Carolina. For the past 12 years they have convened at Gallery 80808 in January with a selection of work from the course of the past year to hang an exhibition. This exhibition began as a holiday social where we would get together with our friends and collectors to catch up and look at examples of our production from the previous year. Each of these artists have worked diligently throughout their careers to create artwork that is distinctively their own.

Stephen Chesley paints poetic and dramatic landscapes where saturated colors are juxtaposed against rich dark grounds. He is dedicated to creating daily visual records of a landscape that is devoid of the unsightly evidence of man’s presence. If and when an actual figure does appear in his work, it is someone who is fishing or oystering - someone who is reliant upon the earth for sustenance. As the casual observer, Chesley places you in the unique position of viewing a scene - an important place which he chooses to preserve as a reference in time.

Mike Williams’s interest in fish, fishing, and the habitats where fish may be found, has been the primary subject of his work throughout his career. His vibrant and bold abstract paintings are expressionistic and loose, with a palette that ranges widely from earth tones to pure cadmium colors. At times, however, focus shifts and Williams’s work takes a more representational turn. While the choice of subject matter reflects his love of nature and fishing, the actual artwork - whether paintings or sculptures - reveals the enthusiasm with which he works. A great love of music manifests itself in the lyrical quality of his compositions where his subjects assume ever-shifting forms.

Edward Wimberly’s pastels, oil paintings, and ink drawings sublimely merge fancy with a true surrealist view of society. His carefully crafted pictures delve into philosophy, state of mind, and serve as commentaries on life. Wimberly thoughtfully and suggestively weaves a myriad of surfaces and textures into his symbolist works such as: patterned cloth or drapery, chrome, gold, porcelain, and glass. Surprising arrays of unexpected elements are combined into a single work for the sole purpose of illustrating an idea or thought in a completely unique way. Within his narratives, it’s not uncommon for inanimate objects to literally come to life through his beautifully executed renderings, and the viewer is often drawn into a scene where they too become a participant.

David Yaghjian is dead serious, almost. Painting is a mandated must in his life. The reality of being an artist and having heightened sensitivity causes him to respond visually. While it is said that the character seen in much of his work resembles him, it more so represents mankind - all of us. Whether the impetus be social, political, or mythical, and whether his muse be the psyche or observed phenomena, his pictures describe the human condition. Expressions of joy, success, failure, illness, and well-being can be found here. The pictures engage, and, on occasion, lead the viewer to consider his own condition and mortality. In addition to the figurative paintings, Yaghjian has been creating three-dimensional versions of his character in the form of cardboard or pine board cut-outs.

Midlands Clay Art Society Annual Sale

2011-11-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

MIDLANDS CLAY ARTS SOCIETY’S

ANNUAL HOLIDAY SHOW AND SALE

Midlands Clay Arts Society will have its annual Holiday

show and sale at the Gallery 80808 on Lady Street in Columbia,

South Carolina. The event will run from December 1 - 4, 2011.

The Society was organized in 1987 in order to

encourage fellowship, education and creativity among the artists. Its

members consist of local potters and clay artists who promote the

appreciation of all things made in clay.

This will be a great opportunity to meet the artists who create the pieces and

acquire one-of-a-kind work from local crafts people. We will showcase

functional pottery, raku, sculpture and jewelry made out of clay.

An opening reception will be held at the Gallery 80808 on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 from 5pm to 8pm. The Gallery is located on 808 Lady Street,

Columbia South Carolina.

The show and sale will be open:

Thursday…………..December 1st from 12 noon - 8.00pm

Friday……………..December 2nd from 12 noon - 8.00pm

Saturday…………..December 3rd from 12 noon - 4.00pm

Sunday…………..December 4th from 12 noon - 4.00pm

Admission is free.

CASH and CHECKS only.

For more information about the show please Brenda Oliver at 803-545-3093

Vista Lights! It's time to take a stroll in the VISTA

2011-11-12T09:15:00.001-05:00

LEGALLY TWENTY-ONE IN TIME FOR VISTA LIGHTS!

Gallery 80808 will feature the resident Vista Studio artists during the Vista Lights celebration on November 17^th, 2011, from 5-9pm. Diversity is the theme as VistaStudios celebrates its 21^st Anniversary. The show will run from November 10^th-29^th with the Opening Night and Open Studios on the 17^th.

Vista Studios is home to 13 artists whose works range from realism to abstract, from drawing and painting to stone, ceramics, and post-consumer waste. On opening night, each artist will have his or her studio open for the public to view additional works and processes, and to meet the artists.

With a preference for strong colors and design, Ethel Brody will be trying something new this year. She will be painting with sponges on a prepared surface. The paintings will create the color harmonies she is fond of but with a much different feeling than her previous “Stripes” series.

Jeff Donovan is working with pastel on canvas to create his enigmatic studies. The strong design in his new work Long Distance shows a woman sitting on a chair with her head tilted at an impossible angle, her body leaning forward, the phone receiver held with the opposite hand you would expect. Such is the way Jeff portrays the world and the viewer is left to decipher the meaning.

Jeff and David Yaghjian recently returned from Kaiserslautern, Germany, where they participated in an Art Exchange. They worked in a group studio and ended their stay with an Exhibition of work created during that time which will remain on display inGermany.

Known for her figurative sculptures, Pat Gilmartin is working on a new series which are more abstract and ambigious in meaning than previous work. She will, however, include a more realistic figure in the show, “Woman Entwined”, made of terra cota, with black winding around the woman.

In a body of work titled “Last Words", Susan Lenz investigates the concept of remembrance, personal legacy, and our common human frailty. Crayon on silk grave rubbings, vintage household linens, recycled material, stitched and calligraphy epitaphs, and angel images are meant to reflect both personal and universal mortality, and the passage of time through generations. The exploration of final words marking others’ lives causes reflection of ones own existence.

Sharon Licata was recently awarded 3^rd place for Sculpture in the State Fair. This year, she will create a limestone installation with some of her figurative pieces titled Pompeii.

Laurie McIntosh continues working on a figurative series that she introduced last year which pertains to Body Language. In her work, this form of non-verbal communication consists of body postures and gestures- signals the brain often sends subconsciously, but which reveal the person’s state of mind. The works are oil pastel on paper and canvas.

Laura Spong paints with an energy that proves she is far from slowing down. Her abstract expressionistic work is tied together by her style, rather than by theme. All of her pieces in this show expresses the energy in which she created them.

Michel McNinch will be showing a painting in which she recently won Merit Award in the Professional Category at the State Fair Competition. Recent paintings are from S.C. Parks: Sadler Creek, Hickory Knob, and Dreher Island. Visitors are encouraged to stop into her studio and see the beginning of her new figurative series.

Kirkland Smith, known for her Assemblages of post-consumer waste which hang on the wall like 3-Dimensional paintings, will present a life-size 3-Dimensional figurative piece. This playful installation will utilize many post-consumer donations she has received from members of the community. She also plans to display the interactive Assemblage created by visitors to her solo show last month.

Stephen Chesley, Heidi-Darr Hope, Robert Kennedy, and David Yaghjian will also participate in the show.

Studies by Stephen Chesley

Also, oils on exhibition

"Book of the Dead"

For more about this work by Susan Lenz

click here.

"Long Distance," Donovan

"Late Night Songs," McNinch

"And in the End," McNinch

"Woman, Entwined" Gilmartin

"Dark Matters," Gilmartin

"Pompei," Licata

"The Prodigal Unicorn," McIntosh

"How Do I Stop?" McIntosh

"Scene VII," Yaghjian

"Would you Rather be Bored or Scared?" Spong

Free Times: Arts Feature - If ART Turns Five

2011-10-27T00:28:00.000-04:00

Free Times: Arts Feature - If ART Turns Five

Vista Lights 2011

2011-10-26T16:25:00.001-04:00

Click HERE for more information.

if ART Celebrating Five Years

2011-10-24T10:48:00.001-04:00

if ART Gallery

PRESENTS

its location at

1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, SC

if ART Gallery 5 YEARS

An exhibition of gallery artists,

introducing:

Michael Brodeur, paintings

Peter Lenzo, ceramic heads

October 28 – November 8, 2011

if ART Gallery FIFTH ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION:

Friday, October 28, 2011, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.;

& by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

At its location at 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, S.C., and at Columbia’s Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, if ART Gallery will celebrate its fifth anniversary with if ART Gallery 5 Years, an exhibition of gallery artists that also will introduce two new additions to the gallery: Greenville, S.C., painter Michael Brodeur and the ceramic sculptures of Columbia artist Peter Lenzo.

The exhibition will run from October 28 – November 8, 2011. The Fifth Anniversary Reception will take place Friday, October 28, 5 – 9 pm, at both the gallery and Gallery 80808. Exhibition hours will be weekdays, 11 pm – 7 pm.; Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm; and Sunday, 1 – 5 pm.

if ART Gallery opened its door on November 6, 2006. Prior to that, gallery owner Wim Roefs organized exhibitions at his home in Columbia’s Old Shandon neighborhood, at Lewis & Clark’s old location on the corner of Lincoln and Lady Streets and at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. Those early exhibitions included artists such as Leo Twiggs, Jeff Donovan, Carl Blair, Laura Spong, Herb Parker, Mary Gilkerson, Phil Garrett, Mike Williams, Aaron Baldwin, Edward Rice, Anna Redwine, Tonya Gregg, Tom Stanley, Klaus Hartmann and Peter Lenzo. Early break-through exhibition were Aaron Baldwin & Mike Williams: Up From The Mud in October 2005, Columbia artist Laura Spong’s 80^th birthday exhibition in February 2006 and Leo Twiggs’ Toward Another Retrospective in March, 2006.

“These exhibitions did remarkably well, both in terms of critical acclaim and sales,” Roefs said. “They were a good way to start an art business in that there was not the typical high overhead of a gallery. The disadvantage was that it was hard to do much for artists in between exhibitions. When the gallery’s current location became available in the summer of 2006, I decided to open the gallery.”

After its opening, the gallery, which has some 40 artists on its roster, continued to mount exhibitions at Gallery 80808. There and at its own location, if ART has organized 53 exhibitions, 34 of them solo exhibitions. The gallery has shown the work of more than 80 artists, including more than 35 artists from The Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, England, France and Cuba.

Through such exhibitions as The Fame Factor in September 2007, The Inventory in February 2008, Salon I, II and III in December 2008 – February 2009 and Going Dutch in December 2010, if ART has shown work by many international artists, including world famous artists such as Joan Mitchell, Karel Appel, Corneille, Bram van Velde, Lynn Chadwick and Wifredo Lam. if ART has shown nationally famous artists such as John Hultberg, Ibram Lassaw, Benny Andrews, Richard Hunt and Sam Middleton and represents original Washington Color School painter Paul Reed as well as Philip Morsberger, the former head of the art department at England’s Oxford University.

The gallery is an active participant in the informal artists’ exchange between Columbia and its German sister city Kaiserlautern, an exchange that is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. Among gallery artists who have traveled to Germany are Mike Williams, Stephen Chesley, Janet Orselli, Dorothy Netherland, Laura Spong, Tonya Gregg, Brown Thornton, David Yaghjian and Jeff Donovan. The latter two currently are in Kaiserslautern for a 10-day symposium and exhibition. if ART represents five artists from Kaiserslautern: Klaus Hartmann, Reiner Mahrlein, Silvia Rudolf, Ralph Gelbert and Roland Albert. It also represents Dutch artists Kees Salentijn and Sjaak Korsten.

“I’d like to think the gallery has raised the bar in Columbia,” Roefs says. “I hope that the quality of the exhibitions in terms of the art presented and they way they were designed have added to the local art scene. Also, it’s unusual to have a gallery here with so many artists from abroad. It’s even more unusual for a gallery in South Carolina to show the work by artists who make the history books about 20^th century art such as Mitchell, Appel, Van Velde, Chadwick and Lam.”

if ART also has published almost 20 exhibition catalogues and almost 50 essays about gallery artists, all but a few written by Roefs. “Those catalogues are especially unique,” Roefs says. “if ART since 2006 by a long shot has published more exhibition catalogues than all other art galleries, art centers and museums in Columbia combined. South Carolina galleries seldom publish catalogues, and museums do so sporadically. I am not always sure that people realize how unusual it is for if ART to have produced these catalogues. But I think they are important. They help educate the public, they create a record of artists’ achievements, they obviously are a great way to promote those artists and they are among the most important resume lines an artist can have. A lot of if ART’s catalogues were modest affairs – small catalogues produced on color copiers – but their very existence is unique within the local context. The catalogues for exhibitions by David Yaghjian, Jeff Donovan, Edward Rice and, twice, Laura Spong, are, I think, of museum quality.”

Cats on a Leash Return with GATOS LOCOS!

2011-10-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

GATOS LOCOS! Cats on a Leash – Still crazy after 26 years

Gallery 80808

808 Lady Street, Vista Studios, Columbia, SC

Reception: Friday, October 21 - 5 to 9 PM

Show/Sale hours: October 22-23, 11 AM to 3 PM

“Trying to get a group of artists to work together is like trying to walk a bunch of cats on a leash”.With that statement as the driving force, a select group of SC artists drew together in 1985 to establish a creative synergy that continues to pull them together today. The artists are:Jeri Burdick – clay and mixed media, Eutawville; Clay Burnette – pine needle baskets and handwoven scarves, Columbia; Heidi Darr-Hope – magical amulets and talismans, Columbia; Clark Ellefson – lamps and tin robot things, Columbia; Judy Hubbard – batik and textile assemblages, Columbia; Lee Malerich – mosaics and textiles, Neeces; and Marcy Myers –mixed media, Lexington.

They are more than friends. They encourage each other to color outside the lines and the invitation to this exhibition is the product of this philosophy. Each black and white card was individually doodled and embellished-- definitely in “Off Leash” style.

The upcoming Cats on a Leash exhibition will be held at Gallery 80808 – Vista Studios on Friday, October 21 through Sunday, October 23, with an opening reception on Friday from 5to 9 PM.The show will continue on Saturday and Sunday from 11AM to 3 PM.

When not exhibiting together, the individual artists remain committed to their own personal art careers. Collectively, they have shown in more than 600 exhibitions nationally and internationally, received more than 40 grants and fellowships, appeared in more than 225 books, magazines and newspaper articles, received over 100 commissions from corporate and private collectors, developed almost 300 workshops and lectures and participated in almost 100 active memberships on boards and committees. They have established and managed small art businesses and have set a standard for proactivism in the arts and community that is pervasive and commendable. Two are Verner Award winners, the top South Carolina governor’s award for the Arts. As a group, their creative energy has pulled them together for almost three decades – with no end in sight.

Boys Abroad

2011-10-13T17:02:00.001-04:00

Resident Artists, David Yaghjian and Jeff Donovan, are working at an Artist Residency in Germany. It will be exciting to see the work they did there.

Latest News | MidlandsBiz

2011-10-07T15:09:00.000-04:00

Another great article regarding Kirkland Smith's art and latest show: Latest News | MidlandsBiz

Transforming trash: Stand back and take a good look - On the Scene - TheState.com

2011-10-07T14:50:00.000-04:00

The State did a great article on Kirkland Smith's art and upcoming show.

Transforming trash: Stand back and take a good look - On the Scene - TheState.com

KIRKLAND SMITH - Oct 6-18

2011-10-03T17:07:00.000-04:00

ARTIST TURNS CONSUMER WASTE INTO FINE ART

Items Destined For Landfill Find New Life in 3-D Paintings
Columbia artist Kirkland Smith will present an exhibition of work created almost entirely from Post Consumer Waste items collected from friends and family members. The 3-Dimensional items have been assembled into large representational "paintings" including portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Bob Marley, and Audrey Hepburn. The show, "Re-Created", will be held at Gallery 80808 in the Vista from Oct. 6-18th, with the opening reception on Oct. 6th from 5-9pm.

At close range, the image is unrecognizable but the individual items are not. Viewers will recognize items that consumers discard daily: plasticbottle caps, make-up containers, cell phones, and fast food toys. Viewed from a distance, the Assemblages come into focus to reveal representational images- primarily portraits. "The challenge in getting a likeness is getting the values right. Working with objects instead of paint is like putting a puzzle together. The challenge is getting each piece in the right place."

Kirkland, a classical painter, began creating the Assemblages when she entered an environmental art contest and decided to use post-consumer waste as her "paint". She was looking for a powerful way to drive home the message of the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Giving new life to discarded objects, she made something new. She created a haunting portrait of a child. By giving a face to the problem of litter and pollution, she points out that is people that are the problem as well as the solution.

The Opening Reception of "Re-Created" will be Thursday, October 6th, 5-9pm, and the show will run October 6-18, 2011. Gallery hours are weekdays 10am-5pm, Saturday 11-5pm, or by appointment.

Vista Studios/Gallery 80808
808 Lady Street
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 252-6134

email: Kirkand@KirklandSmith.com

www.KirklandSmith.com

www.VistaStudios80808.com
# # #
If you would like more information or images, please call 803-622-7838 or email Kirkland@KirklandSmith.com .

2011-10-02T10:36:00.003-04:00

Click image to enlarge

CLAY WORKS: LUND, COCKRELL, AND CARR

2011-09-27T16:25:00.001-04:00

CLAY WORKS2011

An Exhibition of Clay Sculptures by Columbia Artists,

Sandra Carr , Rita Ruth Cockrell and Richard Lund.

September 29 - October 3, 2011

80808 Gallery

808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC 29201-3104

Opening Reception

Friday Sept. 30, 2011

Meet the Artists 6-9 pm

Gallery Hours:

Thurs. Sept. 29, 10-5pm

Fri. Sept 30, 10-4pm

Sat. Oct. 1, 12-4pm

Sun. Oct 2, 12-4pm

Mon. Oct 3, 10-5pm

If you have any question please call

Richard Lund 954-812-8342 or Sandra Carr 803-665-6255

The Carolinas have a long history and tradition of artists who work with clay.

This exhibition Clay Works 2011 features three contemporary artists who live and work in South Carolina:

Sandra Carr

Rita Ruth Cockrell

Richard Lund.

Each of the artists use clay as a sculpting medium. Rather than make functional pieces, they use clay as a medium for personal expression. Each has a distinctive style. They create sculptures with conceptual meaning, taking the viewer past the decorative to a more emotional experience.

Artist Statements:

Sandra Carr

Clay represents healing for me as an artist. It has been forgiving, stable and has the capacity to change when altered by outside influences. All characteristics I admire and strive for. Sculpting figurative pieces allows me to tell a story in my work or communicate a feeling. It speaks for me when I choose not to.

Rita Ruth Cockrell

Born and raised in South Carolina, I love this place, every road side weed, every red clay road, leopard clay bank, shadow of white sand. After traumatic event with myself, my mother and authorities, I began working in any medium that came my way, always going toward the inside to go outside. Believing that if I can be good enough, some aspect of truth or beauty would help me understand that even if I can't get there, the glimmering of the source comforts me.

Richard Lund

I moved to Columbia South Carolina three and a half years ago. Shortly after I arrived I joined the City of Columbia Arts Center studio which began my working with clay. I have been an artist many years creating paintings, photographs and sculptures but clay was a new exciting medium for me. Sculpting in air dry clay offers me a seductive tactile experience that other mediums can not give. As I mold, move and pinch the clay with my hands it allows me to easily release my ever changing imagination and ideas realizing them in three dimensions.

RESIDENT ARTIST SHOW Sept 12-27

2011-09-09T10:36:00.004-04:00

The Resident Artists of Vista Studios will exhibit their work from Sept 12 - 27. Hope you can come by and check it out.

Whirling Dervish

Black Chlorite

$2,200

Repose

Marble

$2,000

Lemon, 5x7, oil, $250

"Fishy Trio"

FIRE! An exhibition of alternative firing techniques

2011-08-27T12:33:00.001-04:00

Fire - An exhibition of alternative firing techniques

Reception date/time: Friday September 9th 2011 5pm to 9pm

Show schedule: Thursday September 8th 12pm to 9pm
   Friday September 9th 12pm to 9pm
   Saturday September 10th 12pm to 9pm
   Sunday September 11th 12pm to 6pm

Contact information: Tim Graham 803-420-7429  cell

Fire is an exhibition of alternative firing techniques. A wide range of alternative techniques will be on display including saggar firing, sawdust firing, woodfired stoneware and porcelain, raku, and others. Mike Van Houten, Joyce Rau, and Tim Graham create ceramic works that directly involve the use of fire in to enhance the surfaces of their works generating results that are beyond the scope of electric and gas kilns. Using fire in this manner involves a great deal of risk. The range of variables involved are much greater than those with which the artist has control. A range of consistency is possible; however details and nuances are elusive.
It is the balance between the two that makes for the excitement and fulfillment. The greatest rewards are often the result of the greatest risk.

Mike Van Houten

Mike creates raku, saggar, horsehair decoration and other alternative processes to create his work. His work is primarily wheel thrown, at times incorporating slabs of clay to create contrast. He has invested greatly in developing his copper matt raku glazes often achieving beautiful contrast between the carbon black and iridescent glaze.

Joyce Rau

Joyce utilizes the sawdust firing technique to finish her works. Her large bulbous vessels are created very thinly layering strips of clay slabs. In some works she creates contrast with the random patterns of carbon created by burning sawdust by applying stains or previously fired glazes.

Tim Graham

Tim uses a kiln fired with wood to enrich the surfaces of his vessels. Using stoneware, porcelain, glazes and slips, the works are fired to a high temperature creating opportunity for the ash and flame from the burning wood to interact with the surfaces. He primarily creates wheel throw peices, occasionally slab formed ones.

David YAGHJIAN Everyman Turns Six Reception Photos

2011-08-25T09:11:00.000-04:00

DAVID YAGHJIAN Everyman Turns Six

2011-08-13T17:32:00.002-04:00

if ART Gallery

PRESENTS

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

Columbia, SC

DAVID YAGHJIAN

Everyman Turns Six

August 19 – September 6, 2011

Artist’s Reception: Friday, August 19, 2011, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Gallery Talk: Sunday, August 21, 2 p.m.

Catalogue Signing: Sunday, August 28, 2 – 4 p.m.

Gallery Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sun., 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

SEE THE TV INTERVIEW HERE.

Six years ago, Columbia artist David Yaghjian painted a guy in underwear resembling himself, twice, for a fundraiser around the theme “Fool for Art” for the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum. The two paintings triggered a new body of work, often dubbed the “Everyman” series, which Yaghjian has pursued ever since. The often loosely rendered paintings are a dramatic change from the usually precise paintings of urban landscapes and architectural structures that Yaghjian was known for, although not a total break, as the catalogue essay by if ART Gallery owner Wim Roefs argues.

if ART Gallery will open an exhibition of six years of Everyman paintings at Columbia’s Gallery 80808/Vista Studios on Friday, August 19. The exhibition will run through Tuesday, September 6, and present some 100 “Everyman” paintings and sculptures by Yaghjian of the past six years. The opening reception is August 19, 5 – 9 p.m.; the gallery talk, August 21, 2 p.m.; and the catalogue signing, August 28, 2 – 4 p.m.

The 40-page catalogue is in full color. The catalogue contains an essay, an extensive chronology of Yaghjian’s career, 57 color images of his work of the past 40 years and the checklist of the exhibition. A low-resolution version of the catalogue is attached.

Going with the flow of his imagination, emotions, free associations and hand and brush, Yaghjian has created a figure whose trials and tribulations he catches in symbolic and metaphorical, psychologically pregnant scenes that excel in ambiguity. Some of the paintings express joy, humor and elation, others are contemplative, angst-ridden, dark and disturbing, and many combine opposite emotions.

The Everyman paintings might indicate Yaghjian’s arrival as a mature artist, producing the most inspired, sophisticated, distinctive and unique work of his 40-year career. The work also has taken him beyond the canvas, creating sculptures from cutout cardboard or wood. Everyman gives Yaghjian both conceptually and artistically the most productive vehicle to date to engage himself and the world.

Yaghjian has never painted with as much fun or ease, he says. He likes to think of the work as semi-narratives. “They are scenes of a midpoint in a situation,” he says, “a point of indeterminate distance from beginning to end. These paintings are personal but not necessarily from personal experiences. Sometimes it’s just a sense of something. Sometimes they don’t have the lifespan of an experience. It’s more like a tangent or a premonition or afterthought without knowing where it came from. A lot of it is standing on the earth and feeling there is something huge underneath it that shoots up through you.“

White Chest

Between Intimacy and Decoration; June 16-21

2011-06-13T14:12:00.004-04:00

(click on images to enlarge)

Pierre Bonnard once wrote, "I float between intimism and decoration." In figurative painting, a painter often delves into a highly personal subject, channeling the intimacy between painter and perceptual experience. Expressing this intimacy, we become entranced with the materials and their decorative qualities. Decoration stems from the the Latin "decoratus," which in the 16th century meant "to grace or honor." This is implied in painting through a transcendent process of expression through color, light and surface. In these paintings, all three artists embody this liminal stage that exists between intimacy and decoration.

Ansley Adams works from her own home's interiors, embodying the warmth and familiarity we encounter within our own spaces. The small scale of her work presents a very precious experience for the viewer. The warm temperatures of her palette and the buttery application of the paint suggest a coziness and comfort.

Jaime Misenheimer is extremely attentive to the structure and design of her large scale work. She draws from literature and her own personal experiences to influence an emerging narrative. She relies heavily on a distinct shape organization and a very subtle but complex color palette.

Laurel Steckel looks to the people in her life when developing her paintings. Her relationships with them are implicit in creating the work. Concerned with the transitory life of young adults, she embeds her figures into their temporary domestic spaces, and then transforms the space through highly saturated color and patterning. The paintings function both as a quiet portraiture and an exciting, decorative tapestry.

"Green Rug," Adams

"Yellow Room," Adams

"Barnabas," Misenheimer

"Italian Interior," Misenheimer

"Jaime with Coffee," Steckel

"Kevin in his Kitchen," Steckel

Pretty Girls; A Feminist Perspective Through Art

2011-06-06T14:00:00.004-04:00

June 10-12 2011 Friday-Sunday

Opening Reception Friday 5-10 pm

80808 Gallery/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

Columbia, SC 29201

803-463-5182

prettygirlsfeministart@gmail.com

Pretty Girls: a feminist perspective through art is a collaborative project celebrating over 10 local artists and their viewpoints on artistic, intellectual and political feminist influences. The opening reception will be held Friday, June 10th from 5pm-10pm at Gallery 80808 Vista Studios. Witness an exciting range of artistic interpretations from performance art, music, film installation, sculpture, traditional medium and…human canvas! The exhibition does not embrace a traditional definition of feminism, but showcases through diversity of ideas that the perception of a fixed feminist point of view has changed.

If you miss the opening reception there will be studio hours from 10-6 pm Saturday and 12-5 pm Sunday. We look forward to exploring the feminine identity through forms of art with our community and friends. This feminist art event brings attention to the importance of providing a safe environment for women in crisis by donating a portion of the proceeds to The Women’s Shelter of Columbia, SC. Please stay-tuned on Facebook for further updates and details of the opening reception.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pretty-Girls-a-feminist-perspective-through-art/148871178516663?sk=wall

Get Involved: If you would like to become involved with Pretty Girls: a feminist perspective through art, contact Olivia Thompson through prettygirlsfeministart@gmail.com or (803)-463-5182. She is available for interview.

Benedict College Visual Arts Faculty

2011-05-31T14:00:00.001-04:00

Benedict College Visual Arts Faculty

June 2 – June 7, 2011

Reception: Friday, June 3^rd; 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Location: Gallery 80808

Vista Studios

808-D Lady Street

Columbia, SC 29201

Contact: Vonda Wright at 803-705-4768

Benedict College is proud to once again host the visual art faculty exhibition, but this year’s exhibition will be held downtown in the Vista at the Gallery 80808 on Lady Street. The visual arts faculty consists of Tyrone Geter, Gina Moore, Alexander Wilds and Wendell Brown. Each of these artists is a master in their own rights, and complements one another with their unique and individual art techniques.

Tyrone Geter, painting and drawing professor, paints and draws what he feels and tends to express his own life experiences through his art. His work seeks to connect with the viewer in a positive way. He is in a constant search for the deeper meaning of our existence as human beings.

Gina Moore, professor of design illustration, uses patterns derived from woven fabrics, basket weaves, and graphic translations of street hardware. The images she creates are aesthetic interpretations of stylized renderings, juxtaposition of shapes, colors and textures. Contrasting surfaces are essential to her work.

Alex Wilds, sculpture professor, views sculpture as a creative problem solving tool that is an important ingredient for taking an idea and making it a reality. His wood and bronze sculpture creations have an Asian flair. His study of the female form is both sensual and exotic. The life sized pieces have a stoic elegance that command attention.

Lastly, Wendell Brown described as, “A risk taker in art” in a New York Times magazine article, work examines ways African Americans throughout a complicated yet consequential history practice the art of quilt making and Negro spirituals to prevail over depressed conditions. Brown’s mixed media creations incorporate the use of painting, quilting, sculpting, printing, and spirited text.

The Benedict College Visual Arts Faculty exhibition will be on display at the Gallery 80808 of Vista Studios from June 2^nd until June 7^th, 2011. The opening reception will be held on Friday, June 2^nd from 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The artists will be present. For more information please contact Vonda Wright at 803-705-4768.

It's All About Faith

2011-05-21T19:56:00.001-04:00

It's All About Faith

New Exhibition Opening at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC 29201 – Thurs. 5/26 through Mon. 5/31 - Opening Reception 6 - 9 pm on Thurs. 5/26

(Columbia, SC) – It’s All About Faith, a new exhibition at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, opens Thursday May 26^th, and runs through Monday, May 31^st. The show features new portraits, by award-winning Columbia artist Barbie Mathis, of her daughter Faith, as well as depictions of Faith Mathis by 20 other local artists and photographers, and works created by Faith herself.

“The Faith Paintings” are a series by Barbie Mathis that celebrate the individuality and creativity of her daughter, Faith Mathis, an emerging artist who dares to be herself. These paintings and photographs will be the main feature of the show.

Teens in the traditional south are often encouraged by society and/or their peers to conform, and to wear certain styles of clothing in order not to stand out or look different. Faith flouts convention, and embraces sartorial styles ranging from retro-Hollywood glam to steampunk/anime, to her own unique variation on geek-chic. This striking (and occasionally outrageous) visual “look” has made Faith a popular model in the local arts community. She has been a featured model for “About Face” (a group of artists that share a figural model in the Columbia Museum’s studios) and “Go Figure” (a group that formerly met at Village Artists), and some 20 other artists’ and photographers' depictions of her will be included in the exhibition, including works by Bonnie Goldberg, Susan Lenz, Anastasia Chernoff, and Michael Krajewski.

Faith Mathis, who will also be a featured artist, is currently an Honors and AP student in Visual Arts at White Knoll High School, where she will graduate in June of this year. She has attended summer programs at the Governor’s School for the Arts, and at Tri-DAC hosted by Columbia College, where she has been offered an art scholarship to become a studio arts major in the fall. Faith's works include pen and ink on paper with markers or watercolors, mixed media paintings, and a series of sculptures called “My Life in Dolls.” Additionally, she created a life-size sculpture, cast from her own body, which functions as an IPOD speaker. Never one to stifle her opinions, Faith is a vocal advocate for arts education in public schools where she hopes to teach art some day.

Barbie Mathis is a native of Columbia, SC, and has been working as a professional artist since 1980. Her career has constantly evolved, starting as an illustrator and designer, then becoming an acclaimed watercolorist, with an emphasis on natural subject matters and people immersed in rich, dramatic backgrounds. Barbie is a signature member of the South Carolina Watermedia Society. “How Long Must I Wait” was the first piece of “the Faith Series”, and it was included in the 2009 traveling show for SCWS. Barbie has also exhibited in numerous shows around the state, winning various awards including 1^st Place at the Trenholm Artists Guild Show in March, 2011. Her works may be seen in private collections around the country, and online at www.BarbieMathis.com, www.BarbieMathisStudio.blogspot.com, www.BarbieMathisStudio.Etsy.com . Listing of current venues will be on Barbie's Blog.

The unique nature of this exhibition is summed up in its title: it’s all about Faith. Faith Mathis is featured as both model (for her mother Barbie and for 20 other local artists) and as artist in her own right.

Both Barbie Mathis and Faith Mathis will be available for interviews and appearances in the weeks prior to the show’s opening, and at the venue the opening day of the event.

It’s All About Faith will run Thursday, 5/26 through Mon. 5/31 at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, located in the heart of the Congaree Vista at 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC, 29201. Gallery hours are weekdays 11 am – 3 pm, Sunday 1 – 4 pm. Barbie Mathis will be on hand those days to meet the public. An opening reception, with many of the featured artists including Barbie and Faith, will be held Thursday evening, 5/26, from 6 to 9 PM at the gallery.

It's All About Faith - Featured Artists

Barbie Mathis Anastasia Chernoff

Faith Mathis Michael Krajewski

Susan Lenz Ron Marsh

Howard Hunt Gail Cunningham

Bonnie Goldberg Lauren Maurer

Roy Paschal Tam Hicks

Peggy Nunn Michael Bolin

David Phillips Palei Leonard

Ingrid Carson Renee Ittner-McManus

Karen Langley Rachel Parker

Jonny Mondragon Jean Bourque

Contact: Barbie Mathis at 803-261-3038 or barbie@barbiemathis.com .

Attachments: Faith.ImagineThat.full.jpg - “Imagine That” is an Original Watercolor Painting of Faith Mathis by Barbie Mathis

Think about this a minute.

2011-05-17T17:28:00.000-04:00

Please do whatever you can to support this great school.

Nikolai Oskolkov Returns

2011-05-16T07:21:00.006-04:00

The Dixie Commissar is back with new art and music for the fourth annual Spring exhibit at Gallery 80808 in Columbia’s Vista.

Nikolai Oskolkov expresses whats on his mind with a wide variety of thematic cycles in painting and drawing. Genres flow into one another with new explorations into human emotion, thought-forms and spiritual symbolism. Nostalgic genre scenes and decorative art contrast with dramatic depictions of military history subjects, many commemorating the current sesquicentennial anniversary of the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Don’t forget your wallets and checkbooks for UNBEATABLE BARGAIN PRICES ON ORIGINAL FINE ART!

Friday’s reception, May 20 4-9pm, will also feature Nikolai on piano and the colorful Russian three-string balalaika. The Dixie Commissar also invites his comrades to bring their musical instruments for informal jam sessions at the reception.

Free Times: Art Review - Twentieth Artista Vista Moves to Recapture Past Energy

2011-05-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

Free Times: Art Review - Twentieth Artista Vista Moves to Recapture Past Energy

Corley Mill Artists' Group Annual Exhibition

2011-05-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

Artista Vista Returns

2011-04-26T16:08:00.002-04:00

Carolina Arts Article regarding Artista Vista

See Kirkland Smith's television interview regarding Artista Vista HERE.

Vista Studios Artists Present

2011-04-03T06:33:00.000-04:00

Vista Studio’s 13 resident artists invite the public to view “Prima Vista: Fresh Art at Vista Studios”, which will be on display April 26- May 10, 2011. There will be an opening on April 28^th, from 5:00-9:00pm, during the Artista Vista Celebration. Come see our new exhibition at VistaStudios/Gallery 80808 located at 808 Lady Street in the Vista. The artists will have their studios open for you to get a look at their newest work and processes.

Non-objective painter, Ethel Brody, continues experimenting with structure and color in her “stripe” series. Taking visual clues from her daily life, she creates colorful, highly organized compositions with strong graphic qualities.

Stephen Chesley continues to offer the results of his dedication to painting. In “Orsman”, he alludes to Walter Inglis Anderson, after his following of Ralph Albert Blakelock and Albert Pinkham Ryder- a notation of the incredible art spirit of all three. In “Trees, Slight Wind”, Chesley experiments with George Inness’ application of the Swedenbourgian esthetic.

Pat Gilmartin's ceramic sculpture is presented as figurative works in contexts provided by found objects, making for interesting and ambiguous narratives. In "Magic Potion," for example, two people interact with each other as well as with their own images as seen in a mirror. The meaning of this narrative is left to the viewer to interpret.

Fiber artist, Susan Lenz, will present a new art quilt called “Endless Life” in the ongoing Grave Rubbing Art Quilt Series. Constructed from crayon-on-silk grave rubbings made in Lydford, England, the state of Maine and the District of Columbia, the series focuses on a profound sense of time, personal and universal mortality, and the ache of remembrance through passing generations. “Genius” was inspired by just one of dozens upon dozens of donated, mateless socks given for a public art project called "Looking For a Mate", sponsored by the Congaree Vista Guild at River Runner during last autumn's annual Vista Lights event. Lenz will also display an installation of tagged keys called “Wall of Keys”, including “The Key to Happiness”, “The Key to Knowledge”, and “The Key to the Future”.

Sharon Collings Licata, sculptor, will exhibit works using Orange Utah Alabaster. In “Hand Aflame”, she creates an abstract where one can see both finger and flame shapes speaking to the color of the stone. In “Mountain Sunset”, the curves of the “hills” and ridges capture the orange light.

Laurie McIntosh's new series of work, “Unspoken Communications”, invites the viewer to consider what our body’s movements are saying. These oil

pastels on paper are about body language and the idea of expressing and capturing an idea of a particular communication in a single image.

Michel McNinch is working on a fresh crop of new landscapes depicting the beauty of our state, from the mountains to the coast.

Kirkland Smith continues her work with post-consumer waste to create “3-Dimensional paintings” that from a distance appear representational but as the viewer moves closer become abstract- and the materials used come into focus.

Artists Jeff Donovan, Heidi-Darr Hope, Robert Kennedy, Laura Spong, and David Yaghjian will also present new work and open their studios at Vista Studios. The exhibition will be from April 26- May 10. Gallery hours are weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and weekends 1-4 p.m. Please call the Gallery 80808 at 803-252-6143 to confirm hours. Their website is: www.VistaStudios80808.com.

Another Great Happening

2011-04-01T17:51:00.000-04:00

Matt Matthews is the author of Mercy Creek, winner of the 2010 South Carolina First Novel Prize. The book will be released in hardcover in May 2011 from Hub City Press.

Vista Studio Artist, Michel McNinch's work was chosen for the cover art.

Matthews will attend the SC Book Festival at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on May 14 and 15, 2011. All events are free and open to the public. Order your copy HERE.

OPEN STUDIOS BACK IN COLUMBIA

2011-03-30T17:15:00.003-04:00

SATURDAY + SUNDAY, MAY 21-22, 2011

701 Center for Contemporary Art (701 CCA) is excited to announce the return of Columbia Open Studios! During the weekend of May 21-22, 2011, we are reviving Open Studios in the City of Columbia and Richland and Lexington Counties, showcasing many of the talented visual artists in the South Carolina Midlands.

What is Columbia Open Studios, and what is its mission?

This weekend-long, self-guided tour of artists’ studios allows the public to meet the artists and see their working process. By letting people into artists’ studios, get a sense of how they work and interact directly with artists, 701 CCA Columbia Open Studios hopes to:

Provide easy access for the community to the visual arts;
Expose the public to the wealth of fine artists in Columbia and Richland and Lexington Counties;
Create new marketing opportunities for artists;
Generate excitement about area artists among seasoned collectors and first-time buyers
Further establish Columbia, SC, as a top destination for cultural tourism.

What’s the story?

In 2007 and 2008, 70 to 80 local artists opened their studios for Columbia Open Studios. The event then was held under the auspices of the now-defunct Columbia Festival of the Arts. After a two-year hiatus, 701 CCA is resurrecting the event. Columbia Open Studios fits 701 CCA’s mission of enhancing the enjoyment and understanding of contemporary art. 701 CCA is adding Columbia Open Studios to its broad range of activities, which include contemporary art exhibitions, an artist-in-residence program, concerts, dance performances and literary events.

About 701 Center for Contemporary Art

701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia is South Carolina’s newest art destination for artists and art lovers alike.

701 Center for Contemporary Art (701 CCA) is a nonprofit, visual art center that promotes understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of contemporary art, the creative process and the role of art and artists in the community.

The center also encourages interaction between visual arts and other art forms.

701 CCA offers:

Exhibitions with a regional, national or international scope in the center’s 2,500 square-foot gallery

An artist-in-residence program in a 1,200-square-foot live/work unit, where artists can concentrate fully on creating art during six, ten or twelve-week residencies

The 701 CCA Plus program at the gallery, in between exhibitions, for performing, literary and media arts

Educational programs for adults and children, including workshops, lectures, open studios, panel discussions, group tours, school presentations, etc.

Located in the former community center in Olympia, an historic mill village, all exhibitions and residencies during 701 CCA’s inaugural year, 2008-2009, engaged the legacy and materials of the textile industry, mill villages and mill workers.

Moving forward, 701 CCA maintains this focus while reaching out to bring contemporary artists and works of regional, national and international acclaim to Columbia, South Carolina. Join us!

LAURIE McINTOSH AND LYNN PARROTT

2011-03-15T08:47:00.004-04:00

LINK TO MORE INFO HERE

Laurie McIntosh and Lynn Parrott

An Exhibition of New Work

Gallery 80808

March 24-29

Opening Reception

Thursday, March 24 • 6-9 pm

808 Lady Street • Columbia, SC

803.252.6134

Camellia Art

April 1-22

Opening Reception

Thursday, April 1• 5-9 pm

1 Office Way • Hilton Head Island, SC

843.785.3535

Release Written by Irene Dumas Tyson

Writer and Urban Planner

Laurie McIntosh and Lynn Parrott are sisters. Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, they are separated by a handful of years and the several dozen miles between Columbia and Hilton Head; yet, there is one thing, beyond sisterly love, that keeps them tethered to each other: art.

And these sisters came by art honestly. Their mother, Agnes Brownell, is a highly educated and trained chemist; but at age 95, she still paints, as she has for all of her life. As Laurie and Lynn will both say, being raised in a family that supported and encouraged the creative process opened the doors for them to enjoy a life-long journey in art.

Looking at their collective work, one cannot imagine that the work is born of the same gene pool. These sisters are two very different artists who approach place and the everyday things of life with very different eyes, interpreted through diverse strokes, medium and palettes. But, this is not an exhibition of sisters in art. It is one of new work by two accomplished and authentic artists. According to Laurie, “This is the first exhibit we have done with just the two of us, but this is more like two solo shows - together but separate. Each of us is showing a new body of work that deals with a particular series we have been working on.”

Lynn’s work is born of place and speaks of a true understanding of what makes a place special, unique and beautiful. She works in oil, watercolor, oil pastel, and printmaking. Her interpretations of the landscape and the sky challenge us to see mountains, marshes and trees with new eyes. As Lynn shares, “The landscapes of the South Carolina Low Country and the North Carolina mountains provide the inspiration for my work. The magic of the tides, moon, marshes and mountains reflect my feeling of my place in the landscape.”

Pinkney Herbert, a renowned painter, praises Lynn’s work. “Lynn’s paintings are influenced by a sense of place. She has staked out her territory by responding visually to the world, transporting paint into a new realm of mark making, glazes, and color, arriving at the essence of the particular land, sea, or mountainscape.”

Laurie’s work, Unspoken Communication Series, will intrigue others to consider what their body’s movements say. These oil pastels on paper are about body language and the idea of expressing and capturing an idea of a particular communication in a single image. “Albert H. Mehrabian experimented in the late 60’s and early 70’s and came up with this calculation in terms of how important the non-verbal movements, signals and gestures are when it comes to the overall effectiveness of our communication in relaying our message to others.

Words account for only 7%.

Tone of voice accounts for 38%.

Body language accounts for 55%.

In her images, gender is not relevant, but it was very difficult for her to avoid. “As the series progressed, an occasional anomaly would appear in some of the pieces - a mask, a box, a clock - usually in front of the face. Is this artistic license or just a progression? I did not question. Are any of these self-portraits? I recently heard Alex Powers say that most of the art we create is a self-portrait or a piece of the artist in some way. Perhaps.”

But they are sisters, and this is an influence that cannot be denied. They share the interest of creating art, talking about art history, current art, supplies, mediums, events, and tools, and are passionate advocates and fellow board members for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts Foundation.

“I have so much fun sharing life with my sister, Laurie… our love of making art, talking about art, playing with art, and showing our work to anyone who will come to see it. It is a treasure to have Laurie in my now life as a fellow artist,” claims Lynn.

Laurie agrees. “Having shows is part of the experience of being an artist. Having someone to share your passion and interest in creating art is critical in the development of your craft. Having someone with whom you can have an open and honest dialog… if this someone is also a friend, then you are very lucky. If this someone is your friend and also your sister, whom you love and have experienced and shared much of the same life... it’s a winner. You can’t beat that. What we gain is an honest and open dialog about our work. This is very hard to come by.”

“What can’t be overlooked is that Lynn has been creating fine art longer than me. Watching and learning how much painting meant to Lynn was a huge influence in bringing me around to fine art after working in design for so long. I can’t remember Lynn ever living anywhere where she did not have an easel set up... even if it was in the middle of the kitchen.”

One always hopes that, one day, relationships with siblings will move beyond the brother and/or sister thing into rich relationships of common interests and mutual delight in the other’s company. Most of us are blessed with this maturity. Few of us, however, enjoy the generosity and richness of sharing more than genes and parents… sharing a passion for a vocation that celebrates each sister’s unique talents and interpretations of the world around them while finding common ground in the absolute necessity of creativity and hard work.

Through An Exhibition of New Work, Lynn Parrott and Laurie McIntosh share their most recent, individual journeys in art while enticing us to journey to a new place and consider our own unspoken languages.

Laurie Brownell McIntosh

Studio • Vista Studios • 808 Lady Street •

Columbia, SC 29201

www.LaurieMcIntoshArt.com

laurie.mc@bellsouth.net

Represented by Camellia Art Gallery,

Hilton Head Island

Lynn Parrott

Lynn is a member of the Hilton Head Art

League, “Member in Excellence” of the South

Carolina Watercolor Society, Beaufort Art

Association and the Low Country Artists.

www.lynnparrottstudio.com

lynnparrott9@yahoo.com

Locations to see other work:

Hilton Head Art League Gallery,

Hilton Head Island, SC

Hilton Head Island Library permanent

collection, Hilton Head Island, SC

The Palmetto Bluff Collection, Bluffton, SC

Esperanza Resort, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Camellia Art Gallery, Hilton Head Island

Johns Island Beach Club, Vero Beach, Florida

Chandler Gallery, Jupiter Island, Florida

A Good Example

2011-03-15T08:05:00.000-04:00

Check out this article in the State Paper regarding the new Arts Initiative at the Tapp's Building in Downtown Columbia. We are cited as an example of how an art community can work! Yes - who didn't know that?!

News - Local / Metro

Saturday, Mar. 12, 2011

Plan to put tenants in Tapp's bldg runs into critics

Mayor backs woman’s proposal to convert space into work areas for artists, but plan has its critics

By ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com

Reach the article here:

http://www.thestate.com/2011/03/12/1733318/city-could-give-200000-to-artist.html#ixzz1GfWKIz82

Colin Dodd's Artwork to be Displayed at Gallery 80808

2011-03-01T18:43:00.001-05:00

Artwork by Colin Dodd March 3-8, 2011

Reception: Friday March 4th. 5.30pm - 8.30pm

Colin will be manning the show everyday from 11.00am to 6.00pm

Contact information is tel. 781-1429 (home),

tel. 822 3412 (work) email dodd224@att.net

Artist’s Statement:

The exhibit consists primarily of portraits such as James Joyce, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Philip Glass which are examples from a series of works I have been engaged in creating for twenty years. This group of multiphasic, biographical paintings are an homage to these highly creative, challenging and complex individuals and to the humanistic spirit of the twentieth century. These are portraits but many of them are concerned with more than just the physical appearance of the subject. They express the life and work of each person through a multi-layered technique, juxtaposing images and ideas from various sources. A significant part of the effort required to execute these portraits was to exhaustively research the individuals’ lives and works. Thus, they are didactic paintings, bringing these figures to a wider audience and greater recognition for their contributions to the fabric of contemporary artistic and intellectual life. It is intended that this quality will generate a similar experience for the viewer, providing a stimulus for further investigation.

In addition the exhibit includes landscapes in oil, acrylic and watercolor and represent my ongoing engagement with place and environment through painting.

Ethel Brody: Encore

2011-03-01T07:19:00.000-05:00

Heidi Darr-Hope Honored with Verner Award

2011-02-16T17:19:00.001-05:00

So proud of our own, Heidi Darr-Hope for being one of this year's recipients of the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner award.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Arts Commission Board announces the 2011 Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts, the highest honor the state presents in the arts. Established in 1972, the annual awards recognize outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina.

This year’s recipients are:

* Lifetime Achievement, C. Thomas (Tommy) Wyche, Greenville

* Lifetime Achievement, Mary Jackson, Johns Island

* Artist, Heidi Darr-Hope, Columbia

* Arts in Education, Terry K. Hunter, Orangeburg

* Business, Carolina First Bank, Greenville

* Business, Nina Liu & Friends Gallery, Charleston

* Individual, Steven Rosenberg, Charleston

* Organization, Carolina Youth Symphony, Greenville

* Leadership Award, Linda C. Stern, Columbia

“The South Carolina Arts Commission is honored each year to recognize the state’s extraordinary artists, advocates and others working through the arts to make South Carolina a better place to live and work,” said S.C. Arts Commission Board Chairman Dr. Sarah Lynn Hayes. “This year, we are once again in awe of the quality of work and selfless dedication to arts displayed by this round of awards recipients. They are excellent representations of South Carolina’s vibrant arts community.”

Awards will be presented at a Statehouse ceremony on Thursday, May 5. The S.C. Arts Foundation will honor the recipients and the arts community at the South Carolina Arts Gala on Wednesday, May 4. The gala is a fundraiser supporting the programs of the S.C. Arts Commission. For more about the Verner Awards or the S.C. Arts Gala, call (803) 734-8696 or visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com.

Something New at Gallery 80808

2011-02-08T11:34:00.002-05:00

Artists: K-12 students of Edgefield, Saluda, Newberry, Fairfield,

Chester, Lancaster, Kershaw, Lee Sumter, Calhoun, Richland, Lexington,

and Aiken counties

Reception: February 26, 2-4pm

Show Hours: February 24-March 1 from 4:30-6:30pm each day

Contact info: Kara Saxon 843-333-7573 or karasaxon@gmail.com

SCAEA Youth Art Month Statement

Beginning in 1961, Youth Art Month is a time, usually in March, dedicated to highlighting, showcasing, and promoting youth art and art education. On the national level, students design a flag that represents their state based on a given theme. The chosen designs are then honored at a flag ceremony in Washington, D.C. In addition, each state presents Youth Art Month events.

The South Carolina Art Education Association celebrates this month through a variety of ways, including public exhibits and receptions honoring student artists. Each of South Carolina’s four regions has developed its own Youth Art Month traditions.

Art Education….

Promotes and advocates for the arts.

Provides students with an outlet to be creative.

Celebrates individualism but honors and respects other’s views.

Gives students the opportunity to use a variety of materials to problem-solve.

Helps students to build connections to other curriculum areas and the world around them.

Allows students to examine, interpret, discuss and analyze artworks in relation to history and world culture.

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

-Pablo Picasso

Laura Spong - Age as a Administrative Device

2011-02-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

Celebrating LAURA SPONG's 85th Birthday

L A U R A S P O N G 2 0 0 6 - 2 0 1 1

Age As An Administrative Device

February 11 - 22, 2011

an if ART Gallery exhibition

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, SC

Reception: Friday, February 11, 5 - 9 pm.

For a PREVIEW & CATALOGUE ESSAYS

click here

LAURA SPONG 2006 - 2011 @ Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

In the five years since her 80^th-birthday exhibition in 2006, the career of Columbia, S.C., artist Laura Spong has taken off with multiple solo exhibitions throughout the state, brisk sales, and the acquisition of her work by the South Carolina State Art Collection, the South Carolina State Museum and the Greenville County Museum of Art. A dozen of Spong's works are featured permanently on the Lifetime TV show Drop Dead Diva and one painting, Viva La Vista, was recently displayed on a big screen at New York's Time Square. With Spong 85^th birthday coming up in February, if ART Gallery is organizing Laura Spong 2006 - 2011: Age As An Administrative Device.

The exhibition will take place at Columbia's Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, February 11 - 22, 2011. The artist's reception is Friday, February 11, 5 - 9 p.m. if ART Gallery will present a 32-page catalogue with essays by Columbia College art professor, artist and art critic Mary Bentz Gilkerson and if ART owner Wim Roefs.

The exhibition will feature paintings by Spong, an abstract expressionist, from the past five years, with an emphasis on works created in 2010 and 2011. Among the paintings on display will beWhy?, an enormous triptych measuring 60 x 144 inches. Spong completed the painting in 2011. The painting will make its Columbia debut.

"I know I have enjoyed it," Spong says of the past five years. "That has to do with success. I feel like I got affirmation and have a sense that I got more recognition. A while back a lady was in my studio, and she liked my work. 'Sometimes you see something that makes your heart skip,' she said. I still can't believe people actually mean that. But the response in recent years has made me feel more people appreciate what I am doing, which gave me more confidence. Before, I thought at times that I was just painting for myself, that I was wasting time, but when I noticed that people appreciated it, it was just more fun doing it."

For a PREVIEW and CATALOGUE ESSAYS, CLICK HERE

Art 5 Ways @ 80808 Party Pics

2011-01-28T17:19:00.001-05:00

Art 5 Ways @ 80808

2011-01-22T20:15:00.003-05:00

Art5Ways@80808

New Works by 5 Artists: Eileen Blyth, George Down, Pat Gilmartin, Liisa Salosaari Jasinski, Laurie Mcintosh

This group show at Gallery 80808 opens with a reception on Thursday, Jan. 27 (5 – 8 p.m.) and closes Tuesday, Feb. 8. The artists, in their own varied and distinctive styles, make for an exciting and vibrant exhibition of paintings, batiks, ceramic sculpture, and assemblages of found objects.

Laurie Mcintosh explores the method of wax-resist dyed fabrics, or batiks, for this show. Inspired during a trip to Africa by the Zimbabwean's colorful textiles, she has produced a collection of batik images which examine familiar themes but through a new (to her) process for creating linework and color saturation. Although perhaps better known for her oil paintings, Laurie’s batiks represent a continuation of her interest in the culture and creatures of South Carolina’s lowcountry.

Human relationships are the subject of the ceramic sculpture offered for this show by Pat Gilmartin. Narrative vignettes comprised of small figures engaged in ambiguous interactions encourage viewers to find their own meanings in the scenes. The figures, in pairs and trios, are combined with found materials, often rusty iron shapes. In juxtaposing the smooth, malleable clay with the hard, corroded surfaces and colors of the metal, Pat heightens the tension that exists among the figures.

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski was born in Finland but has lived in the U.S. for many years. The clean, modern style of Finnish design, as well as early 20^th century European Expressionism, inform her work as a visual artist. In the current show her work consists of multi-media paintings and constructions. Their varied elements include linen, foils, steel wool, gels, paints, and transfer images – all mingled through physical processes of stamping, painting, stenciling, and gluing to create complex, relief-like surfaces.

George Down, whose work is currently represented by galleries in Santa Fe, NM, and Cheyenne, WY, presents his unique constructions made from natural materials for the first time in Columbia. Using simple components found in nature – feathers, pine cones, stick, twigs, stones, shells, tree bark – Down weaves these elements into three dimensional compositions and subsequent narratives based on the graphic textures of nature.

Columbia artist Eileen Blyth is known for her paintings and assemblages. She creates constructions of found objects combined with paint and fit together as if in conversation. She is attracted to objects by their textures, colors, or surfaces, and likes to imagine how they got to be in the places where she found them. As well, the objects’ conditions, how they are continually shaped by each passing car or change of weather, interests her. Sometimes the shapes and imagined conversations work their way into other paintings and drawings. As she says, “The evolving shape, the repeated motion, the sense of metal scraping road; it all plays into the work." Eileen has a new studio in the Arcade Art Studios on Main Street in Columbia.

Hours: Opening reception Thursday, Jan. 27, 5-8 p.m.

Weekdays 11-5; weekends 1-4.

Gallery 80808, 808 Lady St., Columbia SC, 803.252.6134

For more information see www.vistastudios80808.com

"She Said You Will Know"

Eileen Blyth

"After the Storm"

George Down

"Scottish Roots"

Pat Gilmartin

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski

"The Price of Real Estate is Going Up"

Laurie McIntosh

Winter Exhibition Party Pics

2011-01-18T11:07:00.000-05:00

Everyone had a great time at the reception for Winter Exhibition XI, featuring Stephen Chesley, David Yaghjian, Mike Williams, and Edward Wimberly. Here's some proof (Click any image to enlarge):

Winter Exhibition, 11th year: Chesley, Williams, Wimberly, and Yaghjian

2011-01-05T18:54:00.003-05:00

The Winter Exhibition, in it’s 11th year, will feature original artwork by Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, Edward Wimberly, and David Yaghjian.

January 13 - January 25, 2011

Reception: January 14 6-9 pm

Gallery 80808 / Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

Columbia, SC 29201

For more information please call

803 252 6134 Vista Studios

803 206 9600 Mike Williams

803 765 2221 David Yaghjian

or go to www.gallery80808.blogspot.com

Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, Edward Wimberly, and David Yaghjian are friends and full-time artists living and working in South Carolina. For the past 11 years they have convened at Gallery 80808 in January with a selection of work from the course of the past year to hang an exhibition. This exhibition began as a holiday social where we would get together with our friends and collectors to catch up and look at examples of our production from the previous year. Each of these artists have worked diligently throughout their careers to create artwork that is distinctively their own.

David Yaghjian is dead serious, almost. Painting is a mandated must in his life. The reality of being an artist and having heightened sensitivity causes him to respond visually. While it is said that the character seen in much of his work resembles him, it more so represents mankind - all of us. Whether the impetus be social, political, or mythical, and whether his muse be the psyche or observed phenomena, his pictures describe the human condition. Expressions of joy, success, failure, illness, and well-being can be found here. The pictures engage, and, on occasion, lead the view to consider his own condition and mortality. In addition the figurative paintings, Yaghjian has been creating three-dimensional versions of his character in the form of cardboard or pine board cut-outs.

First Show of the New Year!

2010-12-19T14:36:00.002-05:00

Opening Reception – Friday, January 7, 6 pm to 9 pm

Gallery Hours – Saturday, January 8 – 11 am to 3 pm

- Sunday, January 9 – 11 am – 2 pm

Two well established SC artists team up to present an eclectic show and sale of their most recent work at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808. Paths of Least Resistance – Works by Jeri Burdick and Clay Burnette opens with a reception on January 7 from 6 – 9 PM.

Those who have followed the creative paths of Jeri Burdick and Clay Burnette for the past 35 years expect to see Burdick’s ceramic pieces and Burnette’s pine needle baskets. However, through the years, both artists have taken other paths of least resistance that some may not be aware of. In addition to her ceramic plates and bowls, Burdick will be showing hand-pieced quilts, paintings, lamps, tables and mixed media wall pieces. Along with baskets coiled from longleaf pine needles, Burnette will present handwoven scarves and beaded necklaces.

To the artists, Paths of Least Resistance refers to the flow of energy that drives them to create on a daily basis. It is the creative act that is performed with no struggle - relying solely on the natural flow of ideas, with no pressure accepted or expended. The paths lead them to their studios, where the desire to create is pacified for the moment while other time consuming demands of the day are set aside. A path of least resistance is described as effortlessly riding a horse in the direction it is already going.

Both artists have developed a strong common bond through their many years of friendship. They both were born in 1951 and have both received the SC Arts Commission Fellowship in Crafts – Burdick in 1986 and Burnette in 1988. Their works are included in the permanent collections of the SC State Museum, the Columbia Museum of Art, and the SC State Art Collection, as well as many private and corporate collections. They are founding members of Cats on a Leash, a 7-member contemporary arts group formed in Columbia in 1985. Both artists have been exhibiting members of the SC Crafts Association, Piedmont Craftsmen, the American Crafts Council, and the prestigious Philadelphia Craft Show. And both artists were included in 100 Years/100 Artists: Views of the 20th Century in SC Art, a major exhibition at the SC State Museum in 2000.

Jeri Burdick is a professional visual artist from Eutawville who has established a strong base of support in all regions of the state and has had gallery representation throughout the US and Canada over the course of her career. After obtaining a BFA from the University of Georgia and a MA from Furman University, she taught in the Greenville Co Public Schools until becoming a full-time artist in 1982. Along with her partner, Kitty Parrott, she established Radcliffe Street, Inc., which continues to offer services in residential, commercial and education applications as well as finished original art in a variety of media. In 1988 she had her first series of drawings for “The Fisherman’s Tale” selected for international publication by Green Tiger Press, with a subsequent book “The Sailor Cats” published by Simon & Shuster in 1993. She has participated in numerous group and juried exhibitions, created mural installations through the SC Artist in Residence school program and designed/installed residential and commercial mosaic compositions; all while continuing to provide unique pieces for individual and corporate clients.

Clay Burnette has exhibited his work throughout the US and Great Britain. He received AS, BAIS and MLIS degrees from the University of SC and is employed as Director of Grants and Fellowships at the SC Arts Commission. His pine needle baskets have been exhibited in over 200 events, including the Smithsonian Craft Show, SOFA (Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art) New York, SOFA Chicago, ACC Atlanta and ACC Charlotte Craft Shows. In 2000, his work was selected for inclusion in Contemporary International Basketry, an exhibit that toured the United Kingdom for two years. His works have been included in numerous printed publications including Contemporary International Basketmaking; Baskets: Tradition and Beyond; 500 Baskets; Baskets: A Book for Makers and Collectors; Beautiful Things; and Craft in America. His work is currently touring nationally in Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft & Traditional Art, presented by SouthArts, Atlanta, GA.

The opening reception for Paths of Least Resistance will be held at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street, Columbia on Friday, January 7, from 6-9 PM. The gallery will also be open on Saturday, January 8, from 11 – 3 and Sunday, January 9, from 11 – 2.

For additional information, contact Clay Burnette at claysc@earthlink.net or call 803-553-6173.

Vista Studios in Times Square!

2010-12-11T10:03:00.000-05:00

Well would you look at this?! Our recent collaboration with Marriott / Springhill Suites was picked up by PRNews wire and they put it on their jumbotron in Times Square! Laura Spong's painting looks great!

Rob Shaw to Exhibit at Gallery 80808

2010-12-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

ROB SHAW ART SHOW AT 80808 GALLERY

Local artist Rob Shaw is having an art show from December 16 to December 21, 2010 at 80808 Gallery. The opening reception will be on Thursday, December 16^th, 2010 from 5-9pm.

A native of Columbia and a graduate of USC in art studio, Rob Shaw has had numerous shows in local venues and is the featured artist at Havens Framemakers and Gallery on Gervais Stree . Principally working in oil, Shaw’s paintings include low-country themes as well as Columbia landmarks. The show is somewhat of a retrospective spanning the last six years with the majority of the work having been created in 2010. The retrospective will consist of forty to fifty images ranging from small to large.

Shaw’s Paintings from this year are signed “twenty ten” which has come to symbolize a dramatic shift in his work. These recent paintings take into consideration the way life has become so deconstructed; and with his work, Shaw tries to connect it together again. By leveling out the painting surface, he is able to connect elements of the painting that were otherwise separate. Colors blend and become symbiotic of each other. This organic feel has a soothing, harmonious look. Sometimes powerful and other times tranquil, they all give off a sense of peace and simplicity.

In an effort to set himself apart, Shaw abandoned brushes years ago. Now all he uses is a single palette knife. Shaw has a very painterly technique. He uses the paint and plays with the different ways it can be applied and manipulated. When asked about his work, he is often aloof, avoiding any direct answers. He feels that the painting is the statement and any translation to the viewer would only distort the intent. The paintings are meant to be paintings and nothing more, they are meant to be beautiful expressions of things we see every day.

Rob Shaw was the winner of the Best in Show Professional Division at the SC State Fair in 2008. He received First Honorable Mention in the 2006 NBSC Oil Painters Invitational. His paintings are in many private collections in the US and Europe. His corporate collectors include First Citizens Bank and The Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties.

For more information on Shaw’s art, please visit his website: www.robshawartist.com.

ROB SHAW

Oil Landscape Artist

803-665-2440

shawrobcrain@yahoo.com

High resolution images available upon request.

The Half and Half Exhibit Recent Work at Gallery 80808

2010-12-03T14:30:00.001-05:00

The Half and Half, a design and print studio in Columbia, SC are pleased to host an event of recent work. December 9-14

Widely known for their concert and event posters, The Half and Half marry a contemporary design aesthetic with classical printing techniques. Past work can be seen on a lot of walls, in a lot of dorms and arrested living rooms, throughout the country. Clients include CBS Records, Subpop Records and Dave Matthews Band. They have also had the pleasure of working with the Columbia Museum of Art and The Indie Grits Film Festival, here in the capital city.

The doors of Gallery 80808 in the Vista will open at 7 PM Thursday, December 9th for a viewing and artists’ reception. On display this evening will be previously unseen work designed by The Half and Half and printed using silkscreen and letter press at their College Street studio. The work will remain on the walls and open to visitors through the following Tuesday.

About The Half and Half

The Half and Half founders, Sara Thomas and Nick Wilson attended The University of South Carolina, graduating from the graphic design program in 2007. The studio opened above Sid & Nancy, in Five Points, later that year. The demands of continuous success and the menacings of a kung fu dojo took their toll, however, and the Half and Half expanded in 2009. They moved to their current, roomier space in April of that year and were joined by fellow USC graduate, Thomas Jennings, in August. They work together and live separately, at this moment, as we speak all over the metro.

Contact

email: info@thehalfandhalf.com

ph: (803)666-8030

Vista Studios and Marriott's Springhill Suites in USA TODAY

2010-12-01T23:09:00.001-05:00

Dec 1 2010 8:32AM from USATODAY.com

Marriott's Springhill Suites chain wants hotels to double as art galleries

By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY

CAPTION

Courtesy SpringHill Suites

Marriott's SpringHill Suites chain today will launch "ArtNight," an arts initiative designed to give local artists visibility in hotels while exposing guests to the local arts scene.

Boutique hotels have cultivated an artsy reputation for years. But this initiative - to be launched in just two hotels - is another sign that big chains are willing to try something new to generate an artsy buzz and fight cookie-cutter perceptions.

Increasingly, large chains are striving to become hipper and offer guests the flavor of the community before they leave the hotel. Another Marriott chain - the upscale Renaissance - in October launched an official music program called "RLife Live" that plays up local, emerging artists in its hotels.

Even when chains don't have official programs in place, though, individual hotels in communities where emerging artists live sometimes take their own steps to incorporate the arts in some way.

PHOTO GALLERY: NYC hotels deck the halls for Christmas
ALSO ONLINE: Ever lost an iPad, Kindle in your hotel bed?
ALSO ONLINE: Black Eyed Peas made new album in hotel rooms

Full Story Preview sample of works HERE

Midlands Clay Arts Society Annual Show and Sale - Dec 2-4

2010-11-23T20:45:00.002-05:00

MIDLANDS CLAY ARTS SOCIETY’S

ANNUAL HOLIDAY SHOW AND SALE

Midlands Clay Arts Society will have its annual Holiday

show and sale at the Gallery 80808 on Lady Street in Columbia,

South Carolina. The event will run from December 2 - 4, 2010.

The Society was organized in 1987 in order to

encourage fellowship, education and creativity among the artists. Its

members consist of local potters and clay artists who promote the

appreciation of all things made in clay.

This will be a great opportunity to meet the artists who create the pieces and

acquire one-of-a-kind work from local crafts people. We will showcase

functional pottery, raku, sculpture and jewelry made out of clay.

An opening reception will be held at the Gallery 80808 on December 2nd, 2010 from 5pm to 8pm. The Gallery is located on 808 Lady Street,

Columbia South Carolina.

The show and sale will be open:

Thursday…………..December 2nd from 12 noon - 8.00pm

Friday……………..December 3rd from 12 noon - 8.00pm

Saturday…………..December 4th from 12 noon - 5.00pm

Admission is free.

For more information about the show please E-mail finnpottery@yahoo.com

Or call 803-699-8354

Carolina Arts Article / 20th Anniversary Exhibit

2010-11-10T16:45:00.000-05:00

Vista Studios/Gallery 80808 in Columbia, SC, Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary During This Year’s Vista Lights – Nov. 18, 2010

We offered an article about this anniversary in our Nov. 2010 issue of Carolina Arts, but as usual, we didn’t have space to give the event its proper notice. Vista Studios has been a longtime supporter of Carolina Arts and we surely want to give them all the support we can in return.

Surviving 20 years in any venture is an accomplishment, and in the art world it’s a major feat, but Vista Studios is doing much more than surviving – it is thriving. This wasn’t always the case but Gallery 80808 probably now hosts and presents more exhibitions than any other facility in South Carolina – about 25 each year.

Image by Jeff Donovan

Besides providing studio spaces Gallery 80808 has featured exhibits by many other regional artists, art groups, and even International shows like CYBER FYBER in Jan. 2009, featuring fiber works by artists from around the world, organized by Susan Lenz, one of the current studio residents.

Fiber postcards from CYBER FYBER

some of the fiber postcards

To celebrate this milestone a 20th Anniversary Exhibition, featuring works by current residents and former residents will be on view from Nov. 16 – 29, 2010. A reception is planned for Nov. 18, 2010, from 5-10pm during the annual Vista Lightscelebration.

We’re also offering some images from past shows from the last couple of years.

Here’s a little history offered on their blog found at (http://gallery80808.blogspot.com/)

It was a hot, early fall afternoon in the late 1980s when a group of artists, arts administrators and city leaders stood in an overgrown lot next to the Confederate Printing Plant on Gervais and Huger in downtown Columbia. They were there to walk through the more than one hundred-year-old building to look at the possibility of turning it into a much needed facility – artists’ studios. Structural problems with the building and funding issues prevented plans for that space from maturing and the project languished. It would be 1990, almost two years later, before Vista Studios, a joint venture of Columbia Development Corporation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, would finally open at 808 Lady Street.

Work by Nikolai Oskolkov

The history of Vista Studios is closely tied to the redevelopment of the old warehouse district of Columbia, the Congaree Vista, and its rebirth as an arts district that began more than twenty-five years ago. Much has changed in the twenty years since the opening of Vista Studios and Gallery 80808. The Columbia art scene in the late 1980s and early 90s was very different. The Columbia Museum of Art was still on Senate Street in a space that severely limited its ability to feature significant contemporary art and there was no 701 Center for Contemporary Art. City Art was still Dutch Door and doing business in St. Andrews. The only commercial galleries downtown that regularly exhibited contemporary art were Carol Saunders, Lewis & Clark and Havens.

Like most urban areas across the United States, Main Street and the downtown area had been in a decline for at least ten years as many shoppers and merchants moved to the suburbs. Using the arts as an anchor for revitalization was a growing practice, and one that the late mayor, Kirkman Finlay, advocated in pushing for the designation of the Vista as an arts district. One of the keys to the growth of a thriving art community is affordable studio space. A vital step in the redevelopment of waning downtown areas has been the creation of publicly backed, multipurpose studio/exhibition spaces for artists. One of the most well known of these spaces developed across the country during the 1970s and early 80s is the Torpedo Factory outside of Washington, DC.

Work by Patrick Parise

There were already a few artists working in renovated warehouse spaces in the Vista area – Clark Ellefson, Eleanor Byrne, and Rosie and Mike Craig – as well as arts organizations like the Columbia Music Festival Association. Despite this, visual artists were still virtually invisible in the city due to a lack of professional workspace, exhibition space and the visible presence of a concentrated, critical mass.

Several different options were discussed and later abandoned in addition to the Confederate Printing Plant before the warehouse behind Molten/Lamar Architects on Lady Street was selected for the studios. Several factors (and people) were key to moving the project forward at this point. Kirkman Finlay, who as mayor and later board chair of the Columbia Development Corporation (CDC), was a driving force behind the project. He had the vision to see the advantages of including the arts in his plans for the city’s revitalization. After going without a director for almost a year the CDC hired Robbie McClam to lead this initiative. He quickly identified the studios project as one that would provide focus for the Vista as an arts district, and worked closely with David Houston and Harriett Green of the South Carolina Arts Commission to bring the necessary constituencies together. Richard Molten and Dick Lamar of Molten/Lamar Architects, both with a strong interest in the arts community, were particularly appropriate as developers and future landlords for the space.

Work by Tyrone Geter

Almost twenty artists gathered with Molten and McClam for the walk-through of the raw warehouse space in the summer of 1989. Several months later, thirteen studios, a gallery and common area had been carved out of the area behind Molten/Lamar’s offices. The architectural firm took on most of the renovation costs – around $100,000 to install heat and air, plumbing, and dividing walls – with the CDC contributing $30,000. The state arts commission supported the project for several years with a renewable $10,000 grant. Eventually Vista Studios became self-sustaining with funding being covered by the rents for the studios and community rental of the gallery space. The CDC with its current director, Fred Delk, continues to support the art space. The Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties has also provided funding for specific projects throughout the years.

Work by Todd Oelze

Fourteen artists/pioneers moved in initially: Heidi Darr-Hope, Robert Kennedy, Tom Brewer, Barbara Bydalek, Lyn Bell Rose, Mark Bourlakas, Mike Williams, Frances Perkins, Judy Nankin, Arline Murphy, Deborah Sherer, Yvonne Ruff, Margerie Ross and Anne Bjork. The artists were selected by a panel that included USC art history professor Brad Collins, artist Eleanor Byrne along with McClam and several others. A similar internal jurying process for new resident artists continues today. The artists’ first group exhibit in the 1990 spring Artista Vista event was the symbolic culmination of the project.

Since that first exhibit, Vista Studios has continued to play an important role in the ongoing development of the arts community in Columbia. A number of other cooperative artists’ spaces have since been created, scattered across the central part of the city from Rosewood and Five Points to the most recent one in the old Arcade Building on Main Street. A thriving, active visual art community has grown out of what was a relatively small public investment twenty years ago.

Out of the original 14 studio residents, Heidi Darr-Hope and Robert Kennedy are still there. Throughout the 20 years, 28 other artists have come and gone including: Bob Allison, James C. Bassett, Carol Barks, Tyler Ann Blanton, Dana Shenkar, Paul Bright, Pat Callahan, Brent Davenport, Charles Dillingham, Reuben Gambrell, Cindy Giddings, Peggy Gordon, Jeannette Grassi, Tonya Gregg, Susan Hogue, Bill Jackson, Christina James, Robin Jones, Deanna Leamon,, Rob Lowe, Brooks Meyers, John D. Monteith, Richard Morgan, Gene Speer, Chris Thee, Brent Wahl, Amey Warder, and Don Zurlo.

The current 13 residents include: Ethel Brody, Stephen Chesley, Heidi Darr-Hope, Jeff Donovan, Pat Gilmartin, Robert Kennedy, Susan Lenz, Sharon Licata, Laurie McIntosh, Michel McNinch, Kirkland Smith, Laura Spong, and David H. Yaghjian.

For further info about Vista Studios or Gallery 80808 visit (http://www.vistastudios80808.com).

Tags: Columbia Development Corporation, Columbia SC,Congaree Vista, Molten/Lamar Architects, Nikolai Oskolkov,Patrick Parise, South Carolina Arts Commission, Susan Lenz, The Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties, Todd Oelze,Tyrone Geter, Vista Studios/Gallery 80808

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 6th, 2010 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Columbia SC Visual Arts, SC Visual Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Undefined Magazine

2010-11-09T18:28:00.001-05:00

The next undefined magazine release takes place Friday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. It's next door to Compass 5/Art + Cayce,1329 State Street, Cayce. At A + C there will be an opening reception for an exhibition of paintings by Joe Byrne going on at the same time.
The $10 admission gets you a copy of the magazine, food, drinks, and musical and movie entertainment.
The location is a few blocks south of Knox Abbot Drive (that's what Blossom St. turns into across the river.)
Questions?
jeffrey day
803-939-4735 (home/office)
803-777-1731 (Univ. of South Carolina office)

20 Years? O M A G A W D!

2010-11-05T10:55:00.002-04:00

20th Anniversary
Vista Studios/Gallery 80808
November 16-29
Reception - November 18 from 5-10 pm during Vista Lights

It was a hot, early fall afternoon in the late 1980s when a group of artists, arts administrators and city leaders stood in an overgrown lot next to the Confederate Printing Plant on Gervais and Huger in downtown Columbia. They were there to walk through the more than one hundred-year-old building to look at the possibility of turning it into a much needed facility - artists’ studios. Structural problems with the building and funding issues prevented plans for that space from maturing and the project languished. It would be 1990, almost two years later, before Vista Studios, a joint venture of Columbia Development Corporation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, would finally open at 808 Lady Street

The history of Vista Studios is closely tied to the redevelopment of the old warehouse district of Columbia, the Congaree Vista, and its rebirth as an arts district that began more than twenty-five years ago. Much has changed in the twenty years since the opening of Vista Studios and Gallery 80808. The Columbia art scene in the late 1980s and early 90s was very different. The Columbia Museum of Art was still on Senate Street in a space that severely limited its ability to feature significant contemporary art and there was no 701 Center for Contemporary Art. City Art was still Dutch Door and doing business in St. Andrews. The only commercial galleries downtown that regularly exhibited contemporary art were Carol Saunders, Lewis & Clark and Havens.

Like most urban areas across the United States, Main Street and the downtown area had been in a decline for at least ten years as many shoppers and merchants moved to the suburbs. Using the arts as an anchor for revitalization was a growing practice, and one that the late mayor, Kirkman Finlay, advocated in pushing for the designation of the Vista as an arts district. One of the keys to the growth of a thriving art community is affordable studio space. A vital step in the redevelopment of waning downtown areas has been the creation of publicly backed, multipurpose studio/exhibition spaces for artists. One of the most well known of these spaces developed across the country during the 1970s and early 80s is the Torpedo Factory outside of Washington, DC.

There were already a few artists working in renovated warehouse spaces in the Vista area – Clark Ellefson, Eleanor Byrne, and Rosie and Mike Craig – as well as arts organizations like the Columbia Music Festival Association. Despite this, visual artists were still virtually invisible in the city due to a lack of professional workspace, exhibition space and the visible presence of a concentrated, critical mass.

Several different options were discussed and later abandoned in addition to the Confederate Printing Plant before the warehouse behind Molten/Lamar Architects on Lady Street was selected for the studios. Several factors (and people) were key to moving the project forward at this point. Kirkman Finlay, who as mayor and later board chair of the Columbia Development Corporation (CDC), was a driving force behind the project. He had the vision to see the advantages of including the arts in his plans for the city’s revitalization. After going without a director for almost a year the CDC hired Robbie McClam to lead this initiative. He quickly identified the studios project as one that would provide focus for the Vista as an arts district, and worked closely with David Houston and Harriett Green of the South Carolina Arts Commission to bring the necessary constituencies together. Richard Molten and Dick Lamar of Molten/Lamar Architects, both with a strong interest in the arts community, were particularly appropriate as developers and future landlords for the space.

Almost twenty artists gathered with Molten and McClam for the walk-through of the raw warehouse space in the summer of 1989. Several months later, thirteen studios, a gallery and common area had been carved out of the area behind Molten/Lamar’s offices. The architectural firm took on most of the renovation costs – around $100,000 to install heat and air, plumbing, and dividing walls – with the CDC contributing $30,000. The state arts commission supported the project for several years with a renewable $10,000 grant. Eventually Vista Studios became self-sustaining with funding being covered by the rents for the studios and community rental of the gallery space. The CDC with its current director, Fred Delk, continues to support the art space. The Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties have also provided funding for specific projects throughout the years.

Fourteen artists/pioneers moved in initially: Heidi Darr-Hope, Robert Kennedy, Tom Brewer, Barbara Bydalek, Lyn Bell Rose, Mark Bourlakas, Mike Williams, Frances Perkins, Judy Nankin, Arline Murphy, Deborah Sherer, Yvonne Ruff, Margerie Ross and Anne Bjork. The artists were selected by a panel that included USC art history professor Brad Collins, artist Eleanor Byrne along with McClam and several others. A similar internal jurying process for new resident artists continues today. The artists’ first group exhibit in the 1990 spring Artista Vista event was the symbolic culmination of the project.

Since that first exhibit, Vista Studios has continued to play an important role in the ongoing development of the arts community in Columbia. A number of other cooperative artists’ spaces have since been created, scattered across the central part of the city from Rosewood and Five Points to the most recent one in the old Arcade Building on Main Street. A thriving, active visual art community has grown out of what was a relatively small public investment twenty years ago.

The Artists of Vista Studios
1990-2010
The Original 14

Anne Bjork
Mark Bourlakas
Thomas M. Brewer
Barbara Bydalek
Heidi Darr-Hope*
Robert Kennedy*
Arlene Murphy
Judy Nankin
Frances Perkins
Lyn Bell Rose
Deborah Sherer
Yvonne Ruff
Marjorie Ross
Mike Williams

The 28 In Between

Bob Allison
James C. Bassett
Carol Barks
Tyler Ann Blanton
Dana Shenkar
Paul Bright
Pat Callahan
Brent Davenport
Charles Dillingham
Reuben Gambrell
Cindy Giddings
Peggy Gordon
Jeannette Grassi
Tonya Gregg
Susan Hogue
Bill Jackson
Christina James
Robin Jones
Deanna Leamon
Rob Lowe
Brooks Meyers
John D. Monteith
Richard Morgan
Gene Speer
Chris Thee
Brent Wahl
Amey Warder
Don Zurlo

The Current 13

Ethel Brody
Stephen Chesley
Heidi Darr-Hope*
Jeff Donovan
Pat Gilmartin
Robert Kennedy*
Susan Lenz
Sharon Licata
Laurie McIntosh
Michel McNinch
Kirkland Smith
Laura Spong
David H. Yaghjian