VISTA LIGHTS 2013 - NEW WORK BY VISTA STUDIOS' ARTISTS - GRATITUDE

Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

Columbia, SC 29201

www.VistaStudios80808.com

803-252-6134

Gratitude: New Work from the Artists of Vista Studios

The resident artists of Vista Studios are pleased to present “Gratitude”, an exhibition of new work, from November 20th- December 3^rd. The opening reception will be Thursday, November 21^st, from 5-9pm, in conjunction with the Annual Vista Lights Celebration. Woven throughout the show is each artist’s unique response to the theme of “gratitude”.  This event provides a unique opportunity to visit with the artists in their studios as well as view their new collection of work. 

Vista Studios is excited to welcome Eileen Blyth, studio #11, in her first resident exhibition.  "I am particularly grateful these days for a new work space. Change in routine can shake things up. My work incorporates and expresses some of that gratitude."

For some, it is the feeling of thankfulness for gifts given and received, for the joy in creating, and communicating through art.  

Ethel Brody loves bold colors and strong designs and continues experimenting with both.  She will be showing new work unlike any of her other pieces.

Stephen Chesley has undertaken a nautical series to compliment his landscapes. “They are all interrelated and undervalued as ecosystems.” 

Pat Gilmartin will be showing the uniqueness of individuals and a variety of emotions in her series entitled "Echos of Shadows" featuring multiple small faces mounted on a background panel. The panels are lit from above, creating shadows that become part of the overall work. 

Robert Kennedy will be showing new charcoal drawings of figure models from the sketch group, About Face at the Columbia Museum of Art, in which he is a member.

Generally using needle and thread for self-expression, Susan Lenz works to articulate the accumulated memory inherent in discarded things. She seeks a partnership with her materials, their purposes, values, and familiar associations. Memory, universal mortality, and personal legacy are central themes. Vintage and recycled materials are combined with meticulous handwork. Susan is drawn to textiles for their tactile qualities and often makes work that is meant to touch and be touched.

Laurie McIntosh’s installation. “Dear people,” uses paper currency as a support and vehicle for sending a thought out into the world, each bill being a portable, roaming, wandering surface of graffiti and personal expression. All proceeds from this project will be donated to Children’s Garden, a childcare center for six weeks to five-year-old children of homeless and needy families in Columbia, SC. 

Michel McNinch is exploring gratitude by thinking of the all the gifts she has received and given. She recently returned from studying a new painting technique and palette with Karen Appleton of Chicago IL and is excited to share what she learned. Michel has enjoyed teaching others to paint and her lessons are taught with the principle that everyone can learn to communicate through painting.

Laura Spong explores the theme of gratitude in loss in her painting Don't Cry Because It's Over Be Grateful Because It Was. “Losing something or someone dear is sad, but only because they were a joy and, therefore, should be remembered with joy. It's why loss so often is bittersweet.”

Kirkland Smith continues her assemblage work with a commissioned portrait of the late Dr. Alan Roberts, in which she has memorialized him using his personal items. The items are like memories, reminders of the everyday moments that tell the story of who he was.

Also participating are Heidi Darr-Hope, Sharon Licata, and David Yaghjian.

The Show will run through Tuesday, Dec. 3^rd. Gallery hours are weekdays 11am-3pm and weekends 1-4pm, or by appointment. Please call Gallery 80808 at (803) 252-6134 to confirm hours. Their website is www.VistaStudios80808.com.

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

Eileen Blyth

David Yaghjian

David Yaghjian

Michel McNinch

Laurie McIntosh

Kirkland Smith

Sharon Licata

Pat Gilmartin

Laurie McIntosh

Stephen Chesley

Laura Spong

Susan Lenz

MARGE LOUDON MOODY - Made in America 1983-2013: Collage

Marge Loudon Moody

Made in America 1983 – 2013: Collage

Gallery 80808, Vista Studios, 808 Lady St, Columbia, SC, 29201

November 8, 9 and Nov 11, 12 noon to 5pm each day 

Reception November 7, 5 – 8pm

Press Release

In the final exhibition of several shows held this year celebrating her 30-Year retrospective, artist Marge Loudon Moody will be displaying some of her graphic work in an exhibition entitled Made in America; 1983 – 2013: Collage, at Gallery 80808, Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC, 29201. The opening reception is Thursday, Nov 7, 5 – 8pm, and the exhibition, which is free and open to the public, runs through November 11.  As in previous shows, 35% of sales will benefit the homeless – in Columbia, ’Transitions’ Homeless facility. 

Moody’s artist statement reads: ‘My work is inspired by the spirit of place. I make abstract acrylic paintings on canvas, collages and mixed-media pieces, which, through a rigorous process of working and reworking of composition and art elements, arrive at a harmonious expression of the essential nature of the subject.  

My collage work often employs ‘found’ materials and involves layering and precise juxtaposition of line, color, shape and texture.  Life experience may be similarly layered.  At times, subject matter serves as metaphor for intangible ideas. It examines boundaries, and addresses the fragility of existence, of presence, of absence, and of memory’. 

Selected small collages that span 30 years (1983 – 2013) on a variety of themes will be on view. Such themes include the City Scene series; Bird Series; Precious Threads series; the Square series and the Urban Instincts series.

‘Marge Moody: Collage’, an essay by David Houston, 2000

“By its very nature collage is an open text that, when successful, establishes an empathetic link between the artist, the image and the viewer.  The subtle nature of this communication, as does conversation, is renewed with each encounter and makes significant demands on both parties.  The artist must rely on a sure sense of composition to shape many different elements into a unified work, while the viewer is challenged to look beyond the convention of semblance and respond to a poetic language that often relies on ambiguity and abstraction.  Outliving its modernist heritage, the collage sensibility is now the very foundation for our understanding of the world:  as we read a magazine, shop, use the computer, or drive down the strip, we enter the realm of collage.

Within this context, the collage pieces of Scottish-born artist Marge Moody address a different realm than that of our cacophonous lives.  Cutting and pasting, mark-making and layering are all techniques which, in her hands, bring order rather than celebrate randomness.  Relying on subtle relationships and the carefully considered play of tension her work abjures absolutes and contrasts sharply with the media-conscious narratives of much contemporary art.  For the knowing viewer, references abound.  Partly conscious but mostly not, Moody’s use of the language of the twentieth century abstract art relies on intuitive borrowing rather than outright appropriation or ironic quotation.  For viewers unfamiliar with this tradition, these works invite an individual response and succeed in communicating the satisfaction of aesthetic engagement and delight.  Above all, the works by Marge Moody invite all of us to rediscover the almost forgotten experience of genuinely looking at art.”

David Houston was former head of Visual Art at the SC Arts Commission, Columbia, SC; former Director of Rudolph E. Lee Gallery, Clemson University, South Carolina; former Head Curator of the Ogden Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana; and former Director of Curatorial, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art,  Bentonville, AR

For additional information contact the artist at moodym@winthrop.edu , visit her website at www.margeloudonmoody.com or follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/margemoody

"GRATITUDE," Show by Vista Studio Resident Artists

Vista Studios will open its new show "Gratitude" during this year's Vista Lights