The Department of Fine Arts sponsors the Art Gallery Series in the Hyman Fine Arts Center’s Adele Kassab Art Gallery, hosting varied shows of two and three dimensional works showcasing local and regional artists. The Art Gallery Curator selects exhibitions that support and enhance the academic goals of the visual arts program at Francis Marion University, providing a non-profit institutional setting in the service of both students and the wider community. Information about previous exhibits may be found in Art Gallery Archive and additional exhibitions are displayed downtown at FMU’s University Place Gallery.
Scotty Peek: Altered Landscapes
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
September 29 – November 20, 2020
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
“I enjoy the visual study of an object or a scene. Sometimes the subject is chosen for its meaning or significance and sometimes simply because I find it visually interesting. Most, whenever possible, are painted from direct observation…from life.
“Concerning technique, I appreciate the marks within a work of art, including the initial mistakes and other struggles left visible even as the representational image becomes more clarified. I enjoy the challenge and the work of depicting life through line and paint, but never finishing it so realistically that the evidence of the process is lost. I often stop or return an artwork to the point that brushstrokes and lines start to convey reality, but are still easily recognizable as gestural marks.
“Recently, I’ve been interested in landscapes that include structures. Rather than paintings of buildings with nature as an inevitable aspect, I’m interested in landscapes with structures or other signs of human presence as inevitable aspects..”
Scotty Peek lives in Columbia, SC and teaches Art at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. Prior to joining the Heathwood faculty, Scotty was an Assistant Professor of Art at South Carolina State University, held positions from Preparator to Assistant Director at several South Carolina Museums and Galleries, and taught art courses part-time at the University of South Carolina and Midlands Technical College. He received his Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina in 2000 and his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Austin Peay State University (TN) in 1995. Scotty was included in the 2004 Triennial at the South Carolina State Museum and was one of four artists selected for 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s inaugural 2008 exhibit.
Symon Gibson: Memories – an Installation
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
September 29 – November 20, 2020
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Symon Gibson is an installation artist and painter, residing in Lake City, South Carolina. A graduate of Francis Marion University with a focus in ceramics, he earned his degree in 2012. With nature as his inspiration, he gravitates towards using natural or recycled materials in his work.
“As an artist, one of my techniques is to transform paper from a two dimensional flat object into three dimensional animals. The idea of birds symbolizing the connection between heaven and earth has been a long fascination of mine. While death is a universal struggle to all living beings, for me, personally, death leads to a swell of debilitating emotions. When I lose someone close to me, I struggle with trying to forget them to dull the pain, while being reminded of them in everything around me and only feeling the pain of their absence. After I lost both my maternal and paternal grandmothers I have continued to feel this constant pendulum.
“In this piece, I wanted to convey the tension brought on by this pendulum while also celebrating their talents. Both of my grandmothers were excellent cooks. The feathers of the birds are their own handwritten recipes. Hiding the birds in tree branches signifies my struggle of avoidance and hiding from my feelings. Daily, I struggle with the tension of never wanting to forget them, while also wanting to accept their absence and move on from the pain. By having the birds fade away, losing their feathers, is it symbolic of me truly forgetting or am I moving forward through the aching pain of their deaths by celebrating their lives?”
Carey Morton: Future Relic
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
December 15, 2020 – February 18, 2021
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
“I pursue the unification of opposing forces. Religious iconography, modern technology, ancient myth and the natural world coalesce in forged steel, wood, and found objects. These materials combine from the minimal to the theatrical. Seeking to expose the nuances that lie within the extremes of life the resulting works become complex symbolic structures in which we can consider past, present and future.”
A SC native, Carey grew up in the small town of Piedmont SC. As a youth Carey cultivated a deep relationship with nature and working with one’s hands. Pursuing new avenues of craft and expression Morton attained his BFA at Winthrop University, and his MFA at Clemson University. After teaching sculpture and creating a blacksmithing class at College of Charleston Carey now resides in the upstate creating functional ironwork and contemporary sculpture.
His work has been in exhibitions throughout the state in galleries throughout the state such as Redux Contemporary Art Center of Charleston, and 701 CCA Columbia. His most recent work explores mankind’s symbiotic relationship with nature. Using diverse materials from steel to found objects. The resulting work touches on themes from nature, pop-culture, environmental awareness, and his own experiences fused into sculptural installations.
Charles Clary: Memento Morididdle – Handcut Paper Art
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
February 23 – April 1, 2021
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
“My work stems from the loss of both my mother and father due to smoking related cancers in February of 2013. Their passing left a deep void in my life that led to my interest in Memento Mori, remembering that one day you will die, and a reinvestigation of my own childhood trauma, abuse, and mortality. Through these investigations I came to terms with the trauma of my childhood and the lack of memories I actually have.
“Picture frames are usually reserved for those most cherished of memories: a family outing, birthdays, weddings, or holiday get-togethers. They rarely encapsulate the most influential events: a death in the family, trauma, or abuse. My work seeks to investigate these moments as they force us to make decisions, decisions that lead to life changing events. We either rise to the occasion or sink into despair. Pulling from the ideation of mourning jewelry, hair wreaths, and Victorian sitting rooms, my work mimics and encapsulates trauma within the fragility of paper.”
Charles Clary was born in 1980 in Morristown, Tennessee. He received his BFA in painting with honors from Middle Tennessee State University and his MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has shown in exhibitions at Galerie EVOLUTION-Pierre Cardin in Paris, France, Pierogi Gallery and Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York, Spoke art in San Francisco, and museum shows at Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Gadsten Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art and Cornell Museum of Art. He has also completed a three week residency in Lacoste France, completed a painting assistantship with Joe Amrhein of Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn NYC, and had work acquired by fashion designer Pierre Cardin and gallery owner James Cohan. Clary has been featured in numerous print and Internet interviews including, WIRED magazine (US and UK), Hi Fructose, Beautifuldecay.com, Bluecanavs Magazine, and This Is Colossal as well as a recent feature in American Craft Magazine. He was also featured in the Art On Paper Art Fair with Kenise Barnes Fine Art in 2014 and with Paradigm Gallery in 2017 where his work was ranked as one of the top five artists under $1000 and #1 artist you should be collecting at Art on Paper. He has also been featured in publications including 500 Paper Objects, Paper Works, Paper Art, Papercraft 2, PUSH: Paper, and The New Twenties. Charles has exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally in numerous solo and group shows, is represented by: Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia PA, and RO2 Gallery in Houston TX. Clary currently lives and works in Conway SC.
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Kyla Allen, Bracey Bantum, Joshua Graham, Rayshawn Harrison, Chase Herron, Scoop Holloway, Hunter Lewter & Mary Cline McKnight
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
April 6-29, 2021
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Senior shows are required of all students majoring in Visual Arts. These shows give students hands-on experience in selection and installation of artworks, publicity of exhibition, and external review by the University community and the general public.
Works by Ceramics and 3-D Design Classes
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
April 6-29, 2021
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Students in ceramics classes learn processes and techniques in both wheel-throwing and hand building in the art and craft of pottery. Throwing leads progressively toward stoneware clay tooling, decorating, glazing and firing. As they advance through the curriculum, students add ceramic fabrications methods of slab-work, modeling from solid masses, and press molding. Multi-part forms and porcelain formula clay bodies are created as artistic discipline develops along with the individual’s philosophy, critical awareness and aesthetics.
Students taking Three-Dimensional Design classes investigate organization techniques, with special emphasis on the plastic controls of form and space. They learn to use a variety of tools and various sculptural media, including wood, plaster and clay.
Diana Bloomfield: Timeless Light
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
May 11 – August 12, 2021
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Thursday
“For me, photographs are all about the past. Even when I photograph to make a statement about the present, or to comment on the future, the image itself— the one I’ve just made simply by opening and closing a shutter— is cemented in the past. When I look at photographs, no matter whose photographs they are, or when they were made, they inevitably conjure all sorts of memories. When I look at old photographs of my family, or even of myself, I am staring at tangible memories, often barely recognizing those people in the pictures looking back at me. And late at night, when I replay events that occurred earlier in my day, those events or conversations appear in my mind as a series of visual narratives, not all that clear or well-defined, and very much like half-remembered dreams.
“To help me create images that echo those visual vignettes, I choose to print in 19th century hand-applied printing processes. These antique printing techniques offer me creative freedom and infinite possibilities. They mesh well with my images, which are nearly always interpretive. The repeated watercolor layerings and unintended misregistration of the gum bichromate process, in particular, remove all the hard and clearly defined edges, resulting in softness and ambiguity— much the way we see and remember.
“While the images in this exhibition originate from three different bodies of work, they are connected by a certain kind of timeless light.”
An exhibiting photographer for over thirty-five years, Diana Bloomfield has received numerous awards for her images, including a 1985 New Jersey State Visual Arts Fellowship, and five Regional Artist Grants from the United Arts Council of Raleigh, North Carolina. Most recently, she was awarded a 2019/20 Professional Development Grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh. She was named a Critical Mass Finalist in 2014, 2018, and 2019.
Specializing in 19th century printing techniques, Diana’s images have been included in a number of books, including Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique (2004), by Eric Renner; Robert Hirsch’s Exploring Color Photography Fifth & Sixth Editions: From Film to Pixels (2011; 2015); in Jill Enfield’s Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes : Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques (1st & 2nd Editions); in Christopher James’ The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (2015); and, most recently, in #NoFilter, by Natalia Price-Cabrera, published in May 2019.
