SuperUnnatural: The Photography of Todd Oelze

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios is pleased to announce the opening of
SuperUnnatural:
The Photography of Todd Oelze

February 19 - 24, 2009
Gallery 80808/Vista Studios
808 Lady Street
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 252-6134

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20th from 6 - 9 pm

Additional hours: Hours: Sat. Feb. 21 and Sun. Feb. 22 from 11 - 3
Mon. Feb. 23 and Tues. Feb. 24 from 10 - 5


(Click on any image to enlarge. All works are by Todd Oelze and are part of SuperUnnatural. Additional images can be found on Todd's website: http://toddophotos.com/

For detailed information, contact Todd at: (803)708.2839

Todd Oelze's biography:
Todd was born in Englewood, NJ, but lived the majority of his life in South Florida. He graduated from Florida State University with B.S in Communication, with a concentration on film and video production. Todd was also extensively involved in still photography during college, participating in a variety of shows. He also functioned as the staff photographer for the university publication “The Tomahawk”.

Late in 2006, Todd made a significant decision to change careers and left his job in the electric utility industry. He began a digital photography business, which focused primarily on event and portrait photography. In 2007, Todd and his family decided to leave South Florida and relocate to Blythewood, SC, just outside of Columbia.

After settling in, Todd shifted his interest to the world of digital fine art photography. “I came to the conclusion that in order to be successful in photography, one has to produce images that people haven’t seen before,” said Todd. “I’ve always been fascinated by the abstract and impressionist painters and decided that there was no reason why I couldn’t produce photographs in that style.” It should be noted that Todd’s images are actual photographs, not computer generated images. Todd added, “I take great pride in the fact that I apply very little post-production techniques to my photographs.”

To experience SuperUnnatural, please also visit Todd's Flickr! slideshow. It is here.

Sharon Licata is Artist-in-Residence at Pickens High School

Artist in Residence Comes to Pickens High School

(The following article documents the excitement at Pickens High School and was taken from the school's website. )

“Rock and Roll,” are the first words you hear at the beginning of each alabaster stone carving class taught by Pickens High Artist in Residence Mrs. Sharon Licata. Licata comes from Columbia, South Carolina, and is president of Vista Studios. She is a member of the South Carolina Arts Commissions Approved Artists. Mrs. Licata is here as part of an art grant awarded Dr. Hicks. She arrived February 2 and plans to depart February 13. Her goal for being at Pickens High School is to take her students from raw alabaster to a finished piece and share a great experience.

The tools required for this class are point chisels, forks, finishing forks, flat rondales, and rifflers also known as filers, and of course goggles for eye safety and smocks to keep clean. Sandbags are also used to support the stone while carving.

Usually, students at Pickens High School do not get the opportunity to experience sculpting with alabaster. Art teacher Josh Sargent said, “This has been a valuable opportunity to gain skills to better my students in the future.” To add to that, art teacher Dr. Hicks said, “Each Pickens High School student who is carving stone has not only learned about working with alabaster and using tools, but also how to think in 3 dimensions, and that’s really exciting.” She also added, “I personally have learned a great deal.”

Additional photos can be found here.

Laura Spong: Still Screaming and Leo Twiggs: Targeted Man

If Art Gallery presents two solo shows at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in Columbia's arts and cultural district, The Vista from Thursday, February 5 through Tuesday, February 17, 2009. The dual exhibitions includes Laura Spong: Still Screaming and Leo Twiggs: Targeted Man. The opening reception is Friday, February 6 from 5 - 9 PM.

(Above: Leo Twiggs' Targeted Man. Batik. Click on image to enlarge.)

The exhibition OPENING HOURS: Week days from 11 - 7; Saturdays from 11 - 5; and Sundays from 1 - 5. THE EXHIBITION RUNS FROM THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5 through TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009.


(Above: Laura Spong's Untitled. Oil on canvas. Click on image to enlarge.)

For its Feb 2009 exhibition, if ART presents Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., two solo exhibitions by some of South Carolina most prominent veteran artists, Columbia’s Laura Spong and Orangeburg’s Leo Twiggs.

Both artists will present new work. Spong will show her trademark abstract expressionist oil paintings. Twiggs will exhibit a new series of batik paintings around the theme of “targeted man,” featuring figures adorned with a bull’s eye or target.

(Above: Laura Spong's Murky Entrance. 2008. Oil on canvas. Click on image to enlarge.)

Laura Spong (b. 1926) is among South Carolina’s most prominent non-objective painters. In the past three years, Spong has further increased her reputation with several solo exhibitions, including a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. For her 2006 exhibition, Laura Spong at 80, Columbia’s if ART published a 32-page catalogue. In addition to the S.C. State Art Collection, Spong’s work was purchased recently by the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art and the S.C. State Museum. Three of her paintings also are in the Contemporary Carolina Collection, which was established in 2008 at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Ashley River Tower in Charleston. Spong maintains a studio at Vista Studios in Columbia.

(Above: Leo Twiggs' Targeted Man in White. 2008. Batik. Click on image to enlarge.)

Leo Twiggs (b. 1934) is a native of St. Stephen, S.C., who lives in Orangeburg, S.C., where he taught art at South Carolina State University from 1964 until 1998 and established a museum. Twiggs is widely seen as one of the most important South Carolina artists since the 1960s. His career retrospective, Myths and Metaphors: The Art Of Leo Twiggs, organized by the Georgia Museum of Art and accompanied by a catalogue, completed a two-year tour at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia in April 2006. Twiggs has had dozens of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in the Southeast and beyond, including the Studio Museum in Harlem. In 1964, he received a graduate degree in art from New York University and in 1970 was the first African American to receive an Ed.D. in art education from the University of Georgia. In 1981, he was the first to receive as an individual South Carolina’s highest art award, the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts.