Posts from December 8-9, 2006 until January 30, 2007

Tapestry in Blue, a grouping of twenty-four mixed media portraits of early female Blues singers by Susan Lenz, will be on display at Mac’s on Main, a popular jazz club and restaurant in downtown Columbia. The artwork will hang throughout February in honor of Black History Month. Chef Fatback, pictured with the artwork, requested this exhibit during last November’s Vista Lights event. Artist Susan Lenz is happy to share the series with a new group of music fans. Mac’s on Main is located at 1710 North main Street. For more information: (803) 929-0037 or www.macsjazznblues.com

Oil on panel by Stephen Chesley

The annual WINTER EXHIBITION featuring Stephen Chesley, Mike, Williams, Edward Wimberly, and David Yaghjian is an art event often described as “not to be missed”.

The show open in Gallery 80808 at Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, on Friday, January 26 and runs through February 6. Weekend hours are 1 – 5 PM. Weekday hours are 10 AM to 5 PM. The opening reception will be on Friday, January 26 from 5 – 10 PM.

For additional information, call (803)252-6134 or (803)206-9600.

Oil on panel by Stephen Chesley

The following is the artists’ press release:
Friday, January 26, 2007, will mark the opening of the fifth annual Winter Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios featuring South Carolina artists Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, Edward Wimberly, and David Yaghjian. This annual exhibit has become a New Year’s tradition for these artists to present a unique and diverse mixture of outstanding new paintings and drawings for collectors and art lovers to enjoy or purchase. During the opening reception and throughout both weekends that the show will be open, the artists will be available to discuss the artwork.

David Yaghhjian’s “Back Flip”

David Yaghjian’s “Snake Handling”

Vista Studio artist Susan Lenz is participating in a two woman show with Orangeburg artist Janet Kozachek in I. Pinckney Simons Gallery, 1012 Gervais Street from January 5 through 31. The exhibit is called “Stones, Bones, Fibers: Excavating Civilizations of the Mind”. The gallery hours are Tues. thru Fri. from 11 AM until 5 PM and on Sat. from 11 AM until 3 PM. The artists reception is scheduled on Thursday, Jan. 18 from 5:30 until 8:30 PM.

This is a grouping of collaborative work done by the artists.

Susan Lenz created a unique installation called “The Archeology Project”. Viewers are encouraged to sort through the collection of imaginative “artifacts” and altered books.

Also part of Lenz’s “Archeology Project” are one hundred-twenty-five wrapped nuts and bolts and spools with decorative hand stitching and collaged images.

The artists team-wrote the following article to accompany their work:

“STONES, BONES, AND FIBERS: EXCAVATING CIVILIZATIONS OF THE MIND”

A two-person exhibition of mixed media works by Janet Kozachek and Susan Lenz opens January 5, 2007 at the Pinckney Simons Gallery, 1012 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia. The exhibition features individual and collaborative art through January 31. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 18 from 5:30 to 8:30 PM.

Collaborations can yield amazing and often serendipitous results. When artists dare to relinquish what two hundred years or so years of history has considered sacred, they step across traditional boundaries. By letting go of ego, identity, and property, Kozachek and Lenz have torn down old ways of working and traveled into each other’s creative space.

An article in the May 2005 issue of Carolina Arts brought the artists together. The article detailed Kozachek’s art and work processes for an exhibition of mosaics and companion oil paintings reminiscent of archaeological sites. The concepts resonated with fiber artist, Susan Lenz. Both artists are intrigued by cultural mystery, fragments of civilization, and their artistic identity within the scope of history. Both artists find a parallel between ancient ruins and the chaos of accumulation in their own studios.

The first collaborations resulted when Lenz’s small fiber fragments were positioned on Kozachek’s unfinished paintings. The blend of color and texture effectively completed the work. The two artists described their experience as “finding the missing puzzle piece in one another’s studio”. They had tapped into the Jungian “Collective Unconscious,” that morass of signs, symbols and archetypes that lie at the foundations of all civilizations. They also had to relinquish individual artistic control and develop a link to a greater creative unity.

The second collaborations tested their trust in one another’s unconscious choices. Kozachek and Lenz challenged each other to create artwork using artifacts salvaged from one another’s studios. The results are both startling and amusing. They were taking the Dada practice of “ready made” art even further by using found objects that were found for the artist rather than by the artist.

Ironically, even within the confines of these limitations, the identities of the assembling artists shine through. In addition to their collaborative artwork, Kozachek and Lenz are also displaying individual pieces that explore their joint interests in history, archeology, and cultural remains. The exhibit strives to create a narrative where there was once merely an amalgam of facts.

Upstairs Artspace opens GROUP 07 with a “Rock Around the Clock” New Year’s Eve Reception on Sunday, December 31, 2006 from 6 to 9 PM. The show will run through February 24, 2007, Tues. thur Sat. from 11 AM until 5 PM. Vista Studio artist LAURA SPONG is among the artist’s presented. Others include: Andrew Blanchard, Edward Evans, Celia Gray, Gay Groomes, Mana Hewitt, Hanna Jubran, Ralph Paquin, Kathryn Rileigh, Fern Samuels, Paula Smith, Dustin Spagnola, Ann Stoddard, Kathryn Temple, Scott Upton, and Paul Yanko. Upstairs Artspace is located at 49 South Trade Street in the heart of Tryon, NC. From Interstate 26, use Exit 67 (Columbus), turn west on Highway 108 to Tryon and go about 4 miles. From additional information: (828) 859-2828 and www.upstairsartspace.org.