Vista Lights 2007

(Above: David Yaghjian’s Launched, acrylic on paper)

Fall Exhibition 2007 opens at Gallery 80808 as past of Vista Lights on Thursday, November 15, 2007, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The gallery is located within Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in Columbia’s Congaree Vista. For this night of arts celebration, a stop here is a “must.” View new works by the 13 artists of Vista Studios and tour their open studios. Step in the creative space of each artist and discover a journey underway.

(Above: Pat Gilmartin’s Hurricane Katrina)

(Above: Pat Gilmartin’s Chase)

Pat Gilmartin pursues two established directions in her ceramic work in Fall Exhibition. The bas relief disk Hurricane Katrina is carved with symbols of flood waters, broken levees, and refugee trailers. This topical work achieves archaeological weight. In contrast the delightful Chase is a suspended figure striding with elongated limbs. Laura Spong contributes evocative non-objective paintings to the exhibition. Each is an expressionist journey that, the artist hopes, prompts the viewer’s own introspective journey.

(Above: Don Zurlo’s Wedge North in Off Beam Mode, acrylic on canvas)

The literal and figurative journey factors into one of Don Zurlo’s new canvases. Zurlo translated a stream of consciousness sketch made while on a road trip to a family wedding into Wedge North in Off Beam Mode.

Susan Lenz continues her materials exploration with Strata Series, inspired by cross sections of the earth’s surface. Stitched to water-soluble fabric (which is later rinsed away) each Strata is a lace of horizontal fibers and free-motion embroidery. The surface evokes sedimentary earth, veins of metal, and faceted gemstones.

(Above: Susan Lenz’s Strata VII, fibers)

In the hands of Sharon Licata, stone is but a veil. Licata carves alabaster to daring thinness in Through the Veil to depict the thin veil between worlds. A second sculpture, Getting back on the Totem, is a limestone testament to power regained when a woman restores herself high in her own priorities.

(Above: Sharon Licata’s Through the Veil, carved alabaster.)

Jeff Donovan adds to Fall Exhibition a new grouping of figures on canvas. Each is both whimsical and serene. Painter Stephen Chesley contributes landscapes. Each canvas is a haunting play of shadowed and luminous forms, an uneasy pause at evening’s last light. Ethel Brody presents the light-hearted “fantasy” Big Rock Candy Mountain and the hard edged Color Wheel Series. The five paintings of the series are a fresh exploration of color fundamentals.

(Above: David Yaghjian’s Bull Lift, oil, 10″ x 8″.)

(Above: David Yaghjian’s Hoopsnake, monotype.)

The circus continues in the playful and deftly scribed paintings of David Yaghjian. His familiar old man in briefs heroically lifts a bull and launches from a high dive. Pat Callahan questions the forces at play in her juggling of competing passions and responsibilities in new shadow boxes titled scattershot, trying to hold center, and spin again. New mixed media works by Heidi Darr Hope, landscape and seascape paintings by Michel McNinch, and figurative works by Robert Kennedy complete the exhibition.

(Above: Michel McNinch’s Winter Surf)

(Above: Michel McNinch’s Fall Exhibition)

Fall Exhibition 2007 continues through November 27. Vista Studios will be open on Thursday, November 15 from 11 AM through the evening’s festivities; Friday, November 16 from 11 AM until 6 PM; Saturday, November 17 from 11 AM until 6 PM; and on Sunday, November 18 from 1 PM until 6 PM. Most weekdays, the gallery is open from 11 AM until 3 PM and again in the early evening…but call first to be sure! (803) 252-6134.