Since early last week I’ve been posting on Facebook about what’s going on at the S.C. Arts Commission, but there’s much more to be said. It will surprise no one that I have something to say.

Here’s the background:

In June the nine-member commission, appointed by the governor, halted disbursement of nearly $4 million to arts organizations, schools and individual artists because commission members Jessica Rourke of Columbia and Russell Parks of Greenville objected granting the Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus $13,000 and the Proud Mary Theatre Company, a Spartanburg theater focused on LGBTQ stories, $4,000. In a meeting last week, the commission went into executive session to discuss “legal matters,” and when they came out voted to award all the grants except to those two organizations while they review them.

Here’s the real news:

The board also approved, with two dissents, a resolution that states in part, “The Commission may require grant recipients to certify, as a condition of grant funding from the Commission, that no grant funding received from the Commission shall be used to fund expression that promotes an ideology.”

(The Post and Courier has covered the story.)

Needless to say, this opens a can of worms. Many cans. It’s so vague it could mean anything. And to mix metaphors, it puts all arts funding on a slippery slope. (It’s also so vague that it is unlikely to withstand any legal challenge.)

For example:

- Is showing a Renaissance period painting of Madonna and the Christ child or a statue of the Buddha promoting a Christian or Buddhist ideology?

- Does a play exploring the horrors of the Holocaust promote Jewish ideology? Or anti-Nazi ideology?

- A musical review of patriotic American music such “Yankee Doodle Dandy and “God Bless American” could be interpreted as promoting American ideology.

- The Greenville Gay Men’s Choir has performed music about Jesus’ birth, including “The First Noel,” which seems to promote Christian ideology.

We could go on and on to the level of ridiculousness; which is what this resolution is _— ridiculous.

What the commission, or some of its members actually mean, is that they don’t want to fund anything whose “ideology” they do not personally support. Fine, then vote against it and get out of the way. To give other commission members a break (not easy to stomach), it’s likely that they approved this ridiculous rushed resolution in order to free the money many other groups were awaiting.

If commission members who find LGBTQ-affiliated groups objectionable why didn’t they go after the Peace Center for the Performing Arts (funded at around $42,000) where the chorus has performed, as has the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. No, they decided to single out two small groups.

When will they start looking at large organizations and find what they present objectionable? There’s probably plenty they wouldn’t like. I almost wish they would, because the boards that oversee these organizations have many friends in high places, just as the objecting commission members have friends in the legislature and the governor’s office. So far, aside from the S.C. Arts Alliance, I’ve seen no arts organizations weighing in, which is disappointing.

For a long time, going back to the early ‘90s, several governors proposed cutting all funding for the Arts Commission. Legislators always overrode that because, as they said, their constituents support the funding. Many of those constituents are business leaders and owners, elected officials and, in general, the wealthy, who find the arts are good for their communities and lives (even if they are generally conservative.) And many of these business owners, lawyers, doctors and plain old rich folks serve on arts group boards. There has also been support among the middle and working class, especially families with kids, who see how state arts funding benefits their communities and especially their schools.

In this new political environment, those days may be over. It’s not too far-fetched to say this is part of a larger, inside job to eliminate the commission.

I hope the media digs deeper into this, especially asking the leaders of the big arts organizations about it, as well as talking to each commissioner.

(Sorry, I’m not going to do this, but I am trying to do my part.)

• Look at my FB posts and comments on them by others starting Aug. 20. (You’ll have to scroll past my posts on moving, going to the pool, and the newest art show at the Columbia Museum of Art.)

• Here are letters from commissioners Jessica Rourke of Columbia and Russell Parks of Greenville objecting to funding the two groups.
  

• Read what the S.C. Arts Alliance had to say. As far as I know, it is the only art organization (other than the chorus) to speak out.

• Statement from the Gay Men’s Chorus about grant denial and asking for financial support. It states in part: “We want to be candid: we are not expecting that funding to be approved in October… that means a $13,000 shortfall for our operating budget each year for the next 3 years…This treatment is not only unfair and discriminatory, it is illegal. Public arts funding should be based on the quality and impact of an organization’s work—not on whether it serves or is created by the LGBTQ+ community.”

• Look at my Aug. 13 and 20 posts for my comments and those of others.

• Insightful FB post on Aug. 21 from Mark Rapp, head of Cola Jazz, on his FB page.

• From the ACLU, which is the first group to object and also publish letters from the two commissioners who said they’d vote against funding the two groups.

On to some happier news

It’s almost fall (yeah, I know it’s hot), so that means many places are cranking up.

That means new exhibitions, but more in the way of performances. I’ll get around to writing more about some of the new exhibitions soon, but in the meantime here are a few things that sound good to me and maybe do to you as well. I know this is just a glorified calendar of events, but it’s MY calendar of events.

Since the visual arts usual dominate what I write, let’s go with music for starters.

This sounds like an interesting mix of instruments: a concert by double bass and banjo. Bassist Craig Butterfield, a professor at the USC School of Music, and banjo player Max Allard (also a multi-instrumentalist) will play music by Bill Jones, Edgar Meyer and Béla Fleck, and their own compositions, for a concert that blends bluegrass, classical, jazz and American roots. Both are members of the group Ezra which performs a similar blend of music and whose fourth recording came out a few months ago.

It’s in the music school recital hall Thursday, Aug. 27 and is free.

Next week, I’ll post more about music school offerings for September.

Ensemble Electica brings together music of all sorts, dance, visual arts and theatre for its 10^th anniversary Aug. 29. Led by conductor Suzanna Pavlovsky the event showcases well-known local and regional artists from many parts of the arts community. Among them are guitarist and singer Marv Ward, visual artist Flavia Lovatelli, Tracy Steele and Stann Gwynn from the musical theatre world, poet Ed Madden, along with an orchestra, and dancers from several ballet companies. There will be music by the Rolling Stones, Dimitri Shostakovich and RoDgers and Hammerstein, so regardless of your taste there’s probably something you’ll be into.

It takes place at Harbison Theatre. Doors open at 6:30 with a bluegrass band performing while you look at art, with the main performance at 7:30.

At the Lancaster Arts Center a three-day mini music fest is happening. Organized by Charlotte’s Chamber Music for All (CM4A), and led by Charlotte Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Calin Lupanu, the concerts are Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

I posted about it a couple of weeks ago and here is some of that:

Thursday at 6:30: piano trios by Max Bruch and P.I. Tchaikovsky with CM4A along with pianist Phillip Bush, professor at the USC School of Music, and cellist Bjorn Ranheim of the St. Louis Symphony.

Saturday at 6:30: pianist Ethan Uslan will focus on jazz and tango influenced music featuring.

Sunday at 3: Musicians will play Dmitri Shostakovich’s 1931 Two Pieces for String Octet Op. 11 and George Enescu’s Octet in C Major, Op. 7 from 1900.

It’s worth noting that tickets are only $21 in advance.

Some Strings Attached, a chamber group in residence at the Richland Library, will give a free concert blending classical, folk and contemporary music Sunday.

A little dance intermission here

The Unbound Dance Company gives a full evening performance titled “Afterlight’ using company created movement and storytelling “exploring what it means to keep living after life changes us.” Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at Lexington 2 Performing Arts Center.

And no lack of visual art

Before it closes Aug. 30, see the small, but excellent exhibition by South Carolina native Jasper Johns at the Columbia Museum of Art. Take a tour of it, free with museum admission which is also free through Labor Day to SC residents, Aug. 27 at 2. It will be led by Joseph Bruce, who also serves on the museum board.

“Summer Stories,” a short, solo exhibition by Amy Chalmers, can be seen at Stormwater Studios through Aug. 30. Chalmers was the 2026 USC School of Visual Art and Design post-MFA resident artist at the studios. Through drawing and writing, Chalmers documents her daily experiences of life and motherhood.

“The How and Why Library” by Dylan Beckman and “The Architecture of Memory” by Ellen Moore Osborne open Monday, Aug. 31 at the Goodall Gallery at Columbia College.

Beckman’s sculptural objects, photographs and installations explore education instructional methods and is “inspired in part by unreliable memories and contemporary debates surrounding education, history, and culture,” according to the artist who lives in Houston.

Osborne, who lives in Charlottesville, examines “memory’s shifting terrain in relation to dreams and the passing of time” using family archives and personal photographs, with photography, printmaking and paint to create multilayered collages.

Both run through Sept. 28. A reception takes place Sept. 3 from 5 to 7.

Brittany Watkins, director of Goodall Gallery, has a solo show at Winthrop University galleries titled “Accumulation” inspired by and examining American consumerism. It runs Aug. 31 – Oct. 10.

Paul Matheny, curator of collections at the S.C. State Museum, will have the first show in the remodeled Hampton III Gallery in Greenville, Sept. 3 – Oct. 17. A grand reopening of the oldest, and IMHO one of the best, galleries in the state takes place Sept. 3 from 6 to 8.

The Gemini Collaborative has a couple of artists talks. Alex Thierry and Tristen McLawler, who both make ceramics, will speak Aug. 28 at 6:30 and Tabitha Ott, who creates jewelry, will speak Sept. 1 at 7.

And a little news

After almost, but only, five years Michael Neumeister is leaving his job as senior curator at the Columbia Museum of Art. I’ve had a bit of interaction with him over the years and he’s always insightful and helpful, and the proof of how good he is can be seen at the museum. It’s definitely a loss, but looks like a good move for him as deputy director of curatorial affairs and academic engagement and curator of American art at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens. Like the Columbia Museum, the museum has a large collection ranging from ancient to contemporary.

We wish him well.

I’m not going to rehash everything the Post and Courier has done a pretty good job of covering. You can read it here, but it may be behind a paywall.

You could could write to the Arts Commission or you could write a letter to the editor at the Post and Courier.

Want to weigh in; post a response here.

Across the nation, arts and cultural organizations are taking part in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 with about 250 exhibitions and events. Close by you can find several soon, starting at the Columbia Museum of Art on Saturday with “Body Matters.”

Drawn largely from the museum’s collection, this exhibition of 70 works examines how craft is a product of the body and in this case how craft explores the body. As the museum nicely states it, craft is “rooted in physical labor, tactile knowledge, and material intimacy…”

The exhibition will have works of clay, wood, textiles, metal and more of all sorts. The oldest is a headrest from ancient Egypt, the newest a fabric piece the museum commissioned for the show by Columbia-based artist Jordan Sheridan. Plenty in between.

You’ll most likely get into an argument, at least with yourself, about what is craft and what is art while viewing this exhibition.

The show opens Saturday starting with museum members hours from 9 to 11; the museum’s new director Laura Mueller will attend. (This is one of many good reasons to purchase a membership.) At 1 there’s a talk with Curator Sadé Ayorinde and artist Judy Moonelis, whose work is in the exhibition.

At the Sumter Gallery of Art, the exhibitions “The September Issue” and “Twists and Turns Along the Way” open Aug. 27.

Quite a variety:

- A fiber art installation/intervention by Gardner Cole Miller, a former Sumter resident now in Florida

- micro and 3D mosaics by Vicki Hagner of Sumter

- recycled and upcycled jewelry by Tabitha Ott of Columbia

- historic garment and paper patterns by Mackenzie Sholtz of Sumter

- “Twists and Turns” is made up of basketry by Nolan Wright

ArtFields in Lake City has mounted First Peoples of the Southeast, which consists of two exhibitions: “9|9: Art of the Native South” and “Bounded Space: Belonging to the Native South” opening Sept. 9. The project celebrates the art, history, and living traditions of Native American tribes across the Southeast.

“9|9” is an annual juried exhibition organized by the Museum of the Southeast American Indian in North Carolina. This exhibition draws primarily from the museum’s collection of works acquired through that exhibition which started in 2022.

“Bounded Space” is centered around Southeastern Indigenous voices and material traditions and the concept of “bounded space.”

The exhibitions are at TRAX Visual Arts Center and Jones Carter Gallery, with public openings Sept. 11, 6 – 8. Lake City will host an Indigenous people’s day Oct. 3 with dance, drumming, storytelling, foodways and an art market.

At the S.C. State Museum “In the Making: Contemporary Craft from South Carolina” opens Oct. 8. It will showcase the work of 12 artists from all parts of the state working in clay, textiles, metal, and, it looks like a lot of paper.

Handwork is a project of Craft in America. Harriet Green of Columbia, long-time visual arts coordinator at the S.C. Arts Commission who now oversees much of ArtFields, is on the national planning committee for Handwork.

You can learn much more about the entire project at the Handwork site (but go to the individual places for the most up-to-date and complete information.)

I’ll be writing more about these exhibitions as they come along.

Midlands colleges team up to showcase educators

The series Common Grounds: Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Practice in the Midlands was created to showcase Columbia area artists, educator and curators connected to higher education and is a collaboration among USC, Benedict College, Columbia College, Columbia International University and Midlands Tech.

The first installation, “Common Ground: Human” is at the USC School of Visual Art and Design gallery through Aug. 25 with an open house Aug. 20 from 5:30 to 7:30. Artists in the exhibition are Thomas Bosse, the duo Chaz Evans and Maureen Ryan, Mackenzie Howell, Joseph Kendrick, Laura Kissel, Katy McCormack, Kelley Pettibone, Adrian Rhodes, Ellie Rose, Alexandra Stasko and Grace Yan. (Neither the promotional materials nor the exhibition identify what school each artist is with, but most appear to be at USC with one from Benedict.)

“The principal idea behind this series of exhibitions is to bring faculty and staff from different institutions together as a broader creative community—one that can support one another, build meaningful connections, and collectively strengthen the visibility of artists and educators working within our region,” said Giordano Angeletti, the USC gallery director.

Two more exhibitions will take place starting in January and next June.

This is a small, but stellar show with solid, beautiful, thought-provoking, and sometimes amusing, works. There’s a sculpture made in part from a Busch beer can (Bosse); striking, realistic ceramic figurative sculptures (Stasko); an over-the-top colorful circus/madness inspired painting (Rose); and small drawings on mostly empty paper of a gutted rabbit and butchered deer (Adrian Rhodes.) And who would have thought watching people quilting cotton with a rudimentary machine could be so mesmerizing? (Laura Kissel) You can chill to all 15 minutes of the cotton video in the comfort of your own home here.

Not sure about the rest of you, but I am thrilled with an opportunity to see the work of these artist/educators, although several have shown regularly in the region. It’s also worth noting that nearly all of the artists in this exhibition are not tenured faculty members; they’re adjunct instructors who carry a large portion of the teaching load at many schools, with little recognition and often not much pay.

Arts Commission meetings this week

As you might know the S.C. Arts Commission has halted all grants as it decides if it should fund organizations and events with LBGTQ-oriented work. The issue came up when commission members Jessica Rourke of Columbia and Russell Parks of Greenville said they would not vote to fund to LBGTQ oriented organizations. The Post and Courier did a thorough story about it this summer and will continue to cover the issue.

The ACLU also wrote a letter to the commission objecting to the grants stoppage as an infringement of the first amendment where you can also find links to letters from the two commission members.

The S.C. Arts Commission meets tomorrow at 2 p.m. then plans to go into executive session to discuss things that can be discussed in executive session – mainly personnel and contracts. It will start at the commission offices, then will split up to meet other places from 2 - 6. The commission holds its regular meeting Thursday from 10 to 2 p.m. Attend if you have concerns about what’s going on.

For more info on both go here.

If you are keeping up or want to keep up or want to provide input into what’s going on at the SC Arts Commission. See story The Post and Courier from June https://www.postandcourier.com/.../article_a103fd47-b356...

SC Art Commission meeting, Aug. 20 10 - noon. At the SCAC offices. Warning: they say you are REQUIRED to register in advance to attend the meetings. (I spent a good deal of my journalism career going to governmental meetings; this is the first time I’ve ever seen a requirement to register in advance to attend the meeting of a governmental body.)

Here are some details about the meetings from the commission. https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/about-the-scac/board/

Also

Wednesday, August 19, 2026 | 2-8 p.m.

Board Retreat in Columbia (multiple locations in executive session)

Looking into what business they will be discussing. Required by law to say what issues they are discussing (hiring, certain negotiations) and also must vote to go into exec session.

Here’s the meat of it (assisted by AI)

- Postponed Operating Support Grants: During its June 18, 2026 meeting, the SCAC Board of Commissioners put off a vote to approve $3.7 million in FY27 Operating Support Grants. This funding was intended to support the general operating costs of roughly 180 museums, theaters, orchestras, and local arts organizations statewide.

- Gender Identity and Federal Compliance Pauses: The decision to postpone the operating grants came after certain board members raised concerns that the funding could violate a federal executive order concerning gender identity. Specifically, objections were flagged by board members regarding funding for LGBTQ-focused affinity groups, drag performances, and related organizations.

- Temporary Pauses on Rolling Grants: To ensure full compliance with evolving state and federal regulations, the SCAC has temporarily paused all rolling grant programs. Affected categories include Arts Project Support, School Arts Support, Accessibility, Emerging Artists, and The Art of Community: Rural SC.What to Expect NextCritical - August Meeting: The Board of Commissioners is scheduled to reconvene on August 20, 2026. The South Carolina Arts Alliance and constituents anticipate that the board will address the paused operating grants and take action to officially reopen the suspended rolling grant categories.

- First Amendment Pressures: In tandem with these pauses, the ACLU of South Carolina issued a formal letter urging the Commission to honor the First Amendment and evaluate all LGBTQ-focused arts groups using the exact same artistic-merit criteria applied to any other applicant.

- Public Comments: Citizens can track updates or review future agendas directly via the SCAC Board of Commissioners Hub. Formal comments on these pending decisions can be submitted by South Carolina residents using the agency’s official public comment portal up to the deadlines specified for packet inclusion.

I’ve been on the road and the trails and the lakes and the rivers recently, now back and looking forward to some art. Maybe you are too. Or maybe you didn’t know about most of this. Now you do.

(If you find what I do useful, please use the subscribe free option, and share the link and what I post on social media.)

Solo show by Linda McCune opens tonight

Linda Williams McCune has long been a presence in the South Carolina arts community, but I have the feeling many have not seen her work, especially in recent years (that includes me.) Now’s your chance as a major solo exhibition, “Vestiges,” opens tonight at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art. The artist has long lived in Greer where she creates her elaborate artworks, often sculptures made of many found objects that she enriches through addition and decoration and filled with stories. SAlong with her sculptures, the show also includes her intricate drawing.

The exhibition will be up through Sept. 27.

Also, go read her long, deep and lovely artist’s statement on her website.

Art back at Tapp’s (in a smaller but welcome way)

If you make it to First Thursday on Main tonight, check out the fairly recent visual art addition at Tapp’s. The small gallery in what was once, albeit briefly, a major art spot on Main is a Jasper Project project. The show. “Three Shades of Blues,” is made up of works by F. Michael LaRosa, Janet Kozachek and Bonita Strickland.

And a few other things that seem connected

The Jasper Project just launched a call for essays, poetry and creative non-fiction for its Degenerate Art Project that has so far been made up of two art shows that also included some performance, including poetry.

If you’re not sure your poems are ready to submit, there’s a free poetry workshop Saturday at 2 at the Richland Library. Turning Personal Experience into Sharable Poetry will be led by Loli Molina Muñoz, a writer, poet and educator whose work often explores themes of migration, identity, and gender. It’s a joint project with the Soda City Poetry Festival.

If you’d rather make music than write, the library is there for you too. Saturday afternoon the library is offering free singing, cello and viola lessons, 15 minutes each, through the library’s artists in residence, the group Some Strings Attached

While you’re at the library check out the recently installed mural celebrating the vibrant history and culture of African American neighborhoods that were displaced by USC development. Another mural that came out of the project is at the Edgewood branch library.

Also at the library is the solo painting show “Patton Blackwell: Now and Then.”

In other literary news, All Good Books in Five Points has many readings, talks and book signings coming up. I’m looking forward to hearing George Singleton again; he’ll give a talk and signing for his new story collection Wounded Boarders on Aug. 23.

The Fall Literary Festival at USC starts in September with Julia Elliot, a USC professor, reading from and talking about her award-winning short story collection Hellions. More about all of it closer to the time.

Artists with deep Midlands roots showing Charleston

Two artists with deep roots in the Midlands are part of a three-person exhibition, Testaments & Revelations: Second Verse at the city Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston. A recent artist-in-residence at 701 CCA, Katelyn Chapman grew in the rural area outside Irmo and her paintings tap into that background, with many images of tomatoes, trucks, fish with quite a bit of trompe l’oeil. Ashleigh Coleman spent most of the first 30 years of her life in Columbia and many might recall her from her time working at if Art. She’s a photographer now based in rural Mississippi exploring that land and its people. The third artist is Patrick Owns, of Taylors, who creates assemblages often of found objects and is also a photographer.

There’s an opening Aug. 14 and artists’ talk Aug. 15.

Check out this chamber music festival up the road

If you want to hear top-flight classical musicians in an intimate setting for a great price, look to the Lancaster Cultural Arts Center. At the end of the month the center is holding a three-day festival organized by Charlotte’s Chamber Music for All (CM4A) under the direction of Charlotte Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Calin Lupanu.

It starts with piano trios by Max Bruch (op. 5 in C Minor) and P.I. Tchaikovsky (A Minor op. 50) with CM4A along with pianist Phillip Bush, professor at the USC School of Music and a whole lot more, and cellist Bjorn Ranheim of the St. Louis Symphony. Another concert will focus on jazz and tango influenced music featuring pianist Ethan Uslan. The final concert offers two major octets: Dmitri Shostakovich’s 1931 Two Pieces for String Octet Op. 11 and George Enescu’s Octet in C Major, Op. 7 from 1900.

The center and CM4A offer concerts throughout the year.

Tickets are only $21 in advance each. Lancaster is only an hour from Columbia and a nice drive through the countryside. Just don’t speed going through Great Falls.

As regular readers know, this site primarily focuses on visual arts with some stories on music, mostly classical and connected off-shoots, mainly from the last 100 years. Much of what’s here are art exhibition reviews, but I don’t feel qualified to review the many concerts I attend. I’m going to try to write more about the overall experience of some of these concerts, as well as other art forms; I think they are worth sharing.

My music experiences last week are something I’d like to share.

That was two amazing concerts at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art put on by a group of new music supporters who have been mounting concerts in Columbia for decades.

The shows brought in musicians from around the country, with a core coming from the rich Chicago scene of avant-jazz, experimentation and improvisation music with the whole shebang curated by Chicago-based percussionist Tim Daisy. Daisy has been coming to Columbia for 25 years and celebrated his 50^th birthday during the first concert. Think about that; he’s been playing here for half his life. Long-time local concert organizers Ross Taylor and Woody Jones took the local lead, with help from quite a few others.

The 15 performers came armed with saxophones and clarinets, cellos, bassoon, guitar, piano and a sampler snatching voices and other sounds out of the ether. All are widely respected in many music circles (from pure jazz to classical and many less definable forms) and most had been here before, and they like coming back. It’s unlikely any of them left any richer, but the warm response from the audience may have made up for that. They, like the audience, seemed to be having a great time.

There was a good crowd both nights; around 55 the first and closer to 70 the second and most stayed until the very end and seemed ready for more. Those attending paid $25 each night which also says something about the support.

I’ve been to many of these concerts over the years; some I’m really into, others are a bit too straight jazz oriented or noisy for my taste, but these are accomplished musicians who know exactly what they are doing, and I always learn something.

I’ve don’t recall many of these concerts with cellists or pianists and found those additional sounds refreshing on two of the works from night one. The two concerts wrapped up with a septet (percussion, coronet, cello, two reeds, bassoon, guitar) in a 30 minute or so work that went from a scream and roar to a whisper and back again. It was a rousing, emotional finish.

The last work was dedicated to Columbia and to the late Columbia artist Laura Spong, whose work Daisy was introduced to by the late Wim Roefs, a founder of the Center for Contemporary Art, owner of if Art gallery, and a supporter of this music.

You can watch the concert, and many of the others put on by the organizers, here. These were shot by Stephen Hait, who you will see up front with his camera at every show.

To learn more about concerts organized by this loose confederation go here. The next one is Tuesday night.

Moving film about late artist screened

Friday evening also brought together another talented group with equally invested supporters. In this case, it was for the screening of a film about the late artist Peter Lenzo by Wade Sellers, owner of Coal Powered Filmworks. The movie, “In Memory of His Memory,” was shown at the S.C. State Museum in conjunction with the exhibition “From the Vault.”

The movie explores Lenzo’s art and how it was connected to his ongoing struggle with a seizure disorder.

Lenzo is best known for the face jugs he made during the last two decades of his life. Many of Lenzo’s pieces have grossly distorted faces, some with double heads, often covered with small ceramic figures and other objects jammed into the wet clay or attached with wires. On the back of many he inscribed what was going on in his malfunctioning brain and body at the time. Lenzo’s jugs, inspired by face jugs made throughout the South starting in the mid-19^th century, received widespread attention and are in several major museums.

State Museum chief curator Paul Matheny describes Lenzo’s work as an important contribution to the art form and one that bridges the centuries and styles between the face jug tradition and contemporary art.

The story is told through footage of Lenzo, who lived in Columbia from 1992 until 2019, his former students, his daughter Roxy Lenzo and other family members, and those who collected his art. They provide deep and eloquent insights into the artist and his work.

I went in expecting a short, rough-cut film; instead, I saw a finely edited, beautiful, thoughtful, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking movie that feels nearly complete (although Sellers says he plans to expand it.

The film, as well as a recent exhibition of Lenzo’s art and publication of a book, were created by The Jasper Project. Both Sellers and Roxy Lenzo are on the Jasper Project board.

Lenzo left Columbia in 2019 to live with family near Chicago. He died in October 2024.

Columbia Museum of Art welcomes new director

And the Columbia Museum of Art has hired a new director: Laura J. Mueller. It was surprisingly quick, about six months, and the resulting hire bodes well.

Mueller holds a doctorate in art history, specializing in Japanese art. I believe she is the first director of the museum to hold a PhD in art history. She also earned an MBA, and an undergraduate degree in international economics.

She was most recently interim executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Art and Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe and is former deputy director of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. She owned a New York-based non-profit curatorial consulting business and directed a New York gallery specializing in Japanese art. For six years, she lived and did research in Japan. She has numerous publications and exhibitions to her credit.

She curated “Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine” at the International Folk Art Museum in 2024 – 2025 and was a contributing curator for “Reclaiming the Future: The Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration” opening at the New Mexico Museum of Art in September.

Mueller starts in August.

Those who know, know that Columbia has a very solid new/contemporary music scene with a loyal audience. I wrote dozens of stories about it over the years (mainly when I was at The State newspaper) and did long piece tying all the pieces together at some point. (You can probably look it up on NewsBank.)

One important component has been concerts staged regularly in their irregularity by a loose knit group of individuals with electric, eccentric and excellent ears. (Free Times ran a big story about some of them in March.)

Tomorrow and Thursday they’re staging two nights of jazz/new/experimental/improvisations titled To Begin, Again in conjunction with and at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art.

About 15 musicians are arriving from around the country and beyond to take part. Most have been here before thanks to this group of hard-working new music lovers/promoters. And also, thanks to them, and the supportive Columbia audience, the musicians like coming here.

The concerts are curated by Tim Daisy, a Chicago-based percussionist who has been a sort of ambassador for the Columbia music scene. You will not find many musicians like him who can make rattling a chain so mesmerizing.

Some other returning Chicagoans are Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis, Josh Berman and Jeb Bishop and first timers from Chi-town

Ishmael Ali, a cellist, Allen Moore, a visual and sound artist, and pianist Mabel Kwan, a founding member of Ensemble Dal Niente. (I heard Dal Niente perform a couple of times at the University of California, Davis, my previous employer, where there was NOT a supportive audience for new music) Bassoonist Katherine Young of Atlanta, who has performed here twice in the last year, will be coming as well.

The concerts start at 7 and run for a few hours, but how long isn’t certain. Hey, it’s improv, not a three-minute pop song.

Tickets are $25 or $20 if you are a member of CCA. Membership is $25 a year. You can use that $10 toward a membership to be better connected to the center and all it does. It could also use your support and you might need what it provides.

Rivers in the Storm(water)

Just a few more days to see an art show about our rivers at Stormwater Studios. The artworks are inspired by the Saluda, Broad and Congaree rivers, more generally by rivers and nature, sometimes directly, sometimes abstractly. It is part of a series of shows called Building Bridges Through Art for which the studio/gallery complex partners with local organizations; in this case the Congaree Riverkeeper.

This is a huge show with about 70 works by as many artists. Like most of the shows in this series, its strength is in its broadness and diversity. And in this case, it works better, probably because the theme is less nebulous than some of the others.

In this case, this broadness and diversity shows up more in medium than content. There are paintings, drawings, photos as you might expect. But you’ll also see a painting with a tree trunk attached cradling a ceramic heart-shaped jar, with dangling bird figures (Fred Townsend); soft prints that use turmeric (Sofia St. Marie); another piece of tree, in this case painted to become a magical fox (Ivan Segura); a wave made of tightly rolled paper (Flavia Lovatelli); a delicate thread, bead and wire sculpture (Leila Heidari); and last, not least, but most unique, a video of the artist tattooing a shoal spider lily and sphinx moth onto a leg (Shannon Purvis Barron).

A few pieces take a more direct stance about the importance of waterways and their protection, but most are a celebration of the water, rocks, trees, water plants, fish and frogs.

This exhibition would benefit from having fewer works. Too many pieces are simply not as accomplished as the majority and having so many works crowds the entire installation. The show would benefit from an actual, evocative title rather than “Building Bridges Through Art Exhibition with Congaree Riverkeeper;” a short text on the wall, rather than a long text on 8 ½ by 11 paper on a desk by the entrance; and a map of the rivers.

There’s a reception Thursday from 5:30 – 7:30.

Up next at Stormwater is “The Mane Issue,” a solo exhibition by Lenayah Rayford, as the culmination of her year-long residency at the studios. The work confront the social and cultural narratives surrounding Black hair and indeed some include hair. Rayford recently completed her degree at Columbia College. It opens July 22, there’s a reception July 25 and the show is up for a month.

Some other things

As my last post was made July 2, I’m going to repeat some info that was included there. I was going away and wanted to go ahead and get the word out.

Also this Thursday eve is a reception for a show of abstract paintings by Sonya Dimmler at the Nook gallery at the Koger Center. Make sure you duck into the room around the corner to see the center’s Project. Review here.

In conjunction with the exhibition “From the Vault” at the S.C. State Museum, there will be a talk and film screening about Peter Lenzo and his art on Friday. Lenzo began making face jugs as a demonstration for his middle school students and later embraced the form to explore a brain injury he suffered and its debilitating effects. At noon will be a conversation between his daughter Roxy Lenzo and Paul Matheny, the museum’s chief curator and director of curatorial affairs. That evening at 6:30, a film about Lenzo by Wade Sellers of Columbia will be shown and there will be another conversation with Roxy Lenzo about her father and his work.

That night will be the closing of Janet Orselli’s “Curios” at Gemini Studios, which will include an Ekphrastic poetry reading by poets who have written pieces inspired by the art (that’s what Ekphrastic poetry is.)

One Columbia for Arts and Culture will hold two events for its Cultural Layers project that helped create artworks honoring the history and people who lived in several largely African American neighborhoods wiped away by “progress.” The first is Saturday (July 18) at the 2 at the Richland Library Edgewood Branch and Sunday at 3 (July 19) at the main library

Vitus Shell, a mixed-media collage painter from Monroe, Louisiana, is the newest artist in residence at the CCA. You can stop by and see what he’s up to every Tuesday and Thursday from 1 – 5 through July 28 and he’ll give a talk July 22 at 7.

And, if you’ve made it this far, don’t miss artist Winston Wingo’s talk at the Columbia Museum of Art July 23. He’ll talk about his sculptures in a year-long exhibition there. You can read my review here.

Summer time and the living is …. well, actually quite busy.

I was going to suggest these as an alternative to celebrating the birth of the nation since there are so many reasons to not celebrate this year. Apparently many U.S.A. anniversaries have taken place during bad times, according to the new book America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries. But most of these places won’t reopen until next week, so you’ll just have to bear the fireworks and the ongoing dismantling of democracy before an art respite.

Last year was the first time I saw the Koger Center Project Winners’ Exhibition and it was an impressive show. This year is the same.

The art by Anna Schumann Byars, Colleen Cannon-Karlos, Max Hardy, Lori Isom, Wilma King and Kate Timbes is widely varied, but still looks good together. The second-floor multipurpose room the Koger has turned into a gallery isn’t ideal, but if the art is good that’s all that matters. All the artists have at least a few pieces in the show which gives one a better sense of what they do than most group shows.

Timbes won the first-place award (a small cash prize) for her mostly large paper sculptures. Several are actually clothing items that were in recycled material fashion shows by the Columbia Design League and Art Fields, where she won the top award. These delightful pieces are well-conceived and constructed. There are also photos providing a poetic, rather than documentary look at how the sculptures come together. There’s also a photo collage of a performance titled “I Cut Off My Arms So That I Could Fly” with the performer wearing a woven rope and paper cape which is shown adjacent. Unfortunately, the exhibition doesn’t explain how they are connected.

I’d seen some of Cannon-Karlos’ recycled cardboard-and-paper relief sculptures previously; these are more accomplished and have been augmented by cast-off plastic pieces. She has also created an installation that rises from piles of materials on the floor to completed work on the wall.

Hardy fools the eye and mind with a work that brings together modern and ancient forms. He has mounted a video screen in a carved wood cabinet that is topped with half melted ice cream bars, Kit-Kat bars and cassette tapes, all also carved of wood.

Ison and King both create what feel like very personal paintings all with a strong figurative element. While Ison focuses exclusively on the figure, King places her figures in whimsical settings. Both approaches allow a great deal of interpretation by the viewer.

Byers had a big show at Columbia college earlier this year where a couple of the works felt a bit out of place. Two of those pieces, or some very similar, are better companions to one another in this show.

It’s up through Aug. 9.

In the Jasper Project’s small gallery at the center, Ginny Merrit has an exhibition of college works all focused on women, from groups looking out from the past to some looking part robot. She seems to have created these in a variety of ways, but they all hang together well individually and as a group. Though July 12.

The shows can be seen weekdays from 9 to 5 when the center and before and during evening and weekend performances at the center. You don’t to be attending the performance visit the gallery.

Artists dive into the rivers

Coming up at Stormwater is the next installment of Building Bridges Through Art for which the studio/gallery complex partners with local organizations to create shows around that organization’s focus. This one, opening July 8, connects artists with the Congaree Riverkeeper, an organization that keeps an eye on the Broad, Saluda and Congaree rivers in many ways, from monitoring pollution to promoting recreation.

The show includes 73 (!) artists. The only artists on this long list who I know who deal with rivers in their work are Mike Williams and Stephen Chesley, and I don’t even recognize the names of 50 of the artists. Looking forward to seeing work by artists I don’t know and how all the artists make art that speaks to the three rivers.

As a big outdoor person and kayaker (I paddled the Saluda just a few days ago), it’s a group that is personally important to me as I’m sure the art will be.

If you want to see the show, do not tarry; it’s only open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 – 3 until July 18, There’s an opening event at 5:30 July 16.

Through Aug. 29.

A two-day music festival (you won’t find at Finlay Park)

Coming to the 701 Center for Contemporary Art is To Begin Again, a two-night mini festival July 15 and 16 of experimental jazz and improvisation brought to you by loosely affiliated group of folks who have been bringing edgy sounds to Columbia for decades. (Free Times ran a big story about some of them in March.)

There will be 10 to 15 musicians taking part each night, both from here and other parts. One of the main attractions will be percussionist Tim Daisy, who has been coming to the city from Chicago for decades.

Art talks in Columbia

In conjunction with the exhibition “From the Vault” at the S.C. State Museum, there will be a talk and film screening about Peter Lenzo and his art. Lenzo came to Columbia in the early 1990s to teach at USC and later taught in public schools. He began making face jugs as a demonstration for his students and later embraced the form to explore a brain injury he suffered and its debilitating effects. The sculptures received national attention and are in the collections of major museums. Lenzo died in October 2024.

On July 17 at noon there will be a conversation between his daughter Roxy Lenzo and Paul Matheny, the museum’s chief curator and director of curatorial affairs. That evening at 6:30, a film about Lenzo by Wade Sellers of Columbia will be shown and there will be another conversation with Roxy Lenzo about her father and his work.

Vitus Shell, a mixed-media collage painter from Monroe, Louisiana, is the newest artist in residence at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art. You can stop by and see what he’s up to every Tuesday and Thursday from 1 – 5 through July 28 and he’ll give a talk July 22 at 7.

Shows around the state

If you made the mistake of missing “Revelations: The Art of Leo Twiggs” at the Gibbes Museum of Art, it is now at the Florence Museum though Oct. 11. The exhibition covers the entire career of Twiggs, a St. Stephens native, retired SC State professor and museum director. Read more about Twiggs here.

Also, Art Fields in Lake City is a lot more than the giant spring festival and competition.

This summer here’s what you can see there:

· “Awarded” is made up of 2026 ArtFields Festival winners in the main competition and Art Fields Jr. Through July 25.

· “Burn Bright” traces Dennis McNett’s evolution of his printmaking across traditional and nontraditional forms. Though Aug. 29.

· In “Intrinsic Duality,” Lauren Alyssa Howard explores the tension between our innate sense of morality and the physical impulses that challenge its boundaries. Through Aug. 29.

Material makes the message at Center for Contemporary Art resident

As part of a residency at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, Tra Bouscaren has been busy making work and filling the center’s gallery with it. Not all the resident artists have exhibitions, but we’re lucky he does. Titled “Lampenflora” it’s a powerful show, complex and engaging in appearance, content and craft. This is the rare works that balances the message and the medium perfectly.

Bouscaren, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, created some of this work in conjunction with Jeremy Ripley, also at Arizona State.

The artist is in the business of recycling and recontextualizing, taking leftovers from businesses, notably injury attorneys and payday loan companies, to critique what they’re selling and how they sell it. For these pieces, he’s mainly using scraps of the personal injury attorney billboards that clutter roadways from sea to shining sea. He’s chopped up the mercenary messages, collaged and sewed them together, and transformed them into large hanging artwork that speak to personal tragedies and how these law firms take advantage of those in distress. The tough and often friendly looking attorneys who stare down on the freeways literally lose face in his art, becoming the anonymous attorney army who will actually handle the cases.

Some pieces are interwoven with colorful neon tubes (cast offs from sign shops) and there are works laid flat on the floor that have a grim message.

While it’s not hard to identify the source of the materials it’s not necessary for appreciating the work, and they are open to interpretation. As big and brash as all the work is and the trash it’s made from, the composition and construction are meticulous; they are even visually interesting from the back.

The exhibition is a bit of a work in progress as Bouoscaren is creating art during the residency. When I visited it was made up entirely of the billboard and neon works, but he was considering adding complex and beautiful digital photo collages closely related to the sculptures.

Bouscaren’s work was recently in the Malta Biennial and Ammerman Triennial on Arts and Technology, and he has exhibited at the Orlando Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. He is also founder of the Expanded Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research center that explores technology, art, design and science, and a researcher, writer and scholar.

He will give a talk at the center June 23 at 7 p.m. There are limited opportunities to see this show: 1 to 5 this Thursday through Sunday and June 25.

Pieces come together to make magic

Another artist currently showing in Columbia, Janet Orselli, also knows how to give new life to discarded items. That can be seen in her sprawling and spectacular exhibition “Curios” at Gemini Arts Collective. Orselli, who lives in western North Carolina, called Columbia home for many years.

Over the years, Orselli has gathered cast off shoe trees, animal bones, chairs, wasp nests, tricycles, crutches, roller skates and many more objects which she combines to create artworks that sometimes stand alone, but are often part of larger groupings and installations. “Curios” is all of that and more. She has a way of making curious and captivating art from these disparate and discarded elements, then placing them in conversations with one another in various rooms or communities.

This resulting exhibition is part of the art, as it was created during a week-long installation process. The artist has the unique eyes and mind to create her art and exhibitions, but one can imagine placing a bunch of these objects in a room where they magically assemble. It’s not too far from the truth, because isn’t there always something indefinable — maybe magical — to good art?

Orselli will give a talk at Gemini on Friday, June 19 at 6:30. The show is up through July 17. The gallery is only open on Friday nights and by appointment.

Final call for “Son of the Soil”

These shows remind me to remind you of another great exhibition in town that also uses materials with a past. That’s “Rodney McMillian: Son of the Soil,” at the Columbia Museum of Art but only until June 28. There’s a tour Friday, June 19 and admission to the museum is free for SC residents.

The exhibition spans 30 years and the first gallery is filled with his early paintings on old quilts, blankets and coverlets, and there’s even an old, chopped in half, couch there too. And it happens that some of his larger, later works remind one of billboards, including in their material. This exhibition was created by the museum and seems to be the most extensive exhibition of his work; it’s also one of the best and most ambitious exhibitions the museum has mounted.

McMillian, a native of Irmo, is a professor at UCLA who has had solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, ICA Philadelphia, MoMA PS 1, and the Marta Herford Museum in Germany. (Read my review here.)

Life beyond the landfill

A side note: Fortuitously, as I was driving home from CCA, I heard a story on the radio by Edgar Hudson, a Tanzanian audio producer, about the ongoing lives of discarded objects. It ended with the statement “Not everything that is thrown away is ready to be forgotten.” (Listen here.)

These artists certainly prove that.

Many more exhibitions, talks and whatnot

(Unless noted otherwise, these are free)

The Koger Center for the Arts recently unveiled its Project Winners Exhibition and will have an event for it, a show of Ginny Merritt’s collage works (more recycling!) and the late Laura Spong’s paintings that are coming down soon. It is Thursday (June 18) from 5:30 to 7:30. Artists in the show are Kate Timbes, Lori Isom, Anna Schumann Byars, Colleen Cannon-Karlos, Max Hardy, and Wilma King. It will be up through Aug. 9.

Around the same time on Thursday, 6 p.m., head to the Columbia Museum of Art for the panel discussion “Truth in Abstraction” that will explore how abstract art (like that by McMillian) can be political, with museum curator Michael Neumeister, art historian Frank Martin and artist and gallerist Michaela Pilar Brown.

There’s a panel discussion Friday on Cultural Layers: Conversations on Public Art and Community, a public art initiative to preserve and celebrate Columbia’s African American communities through visual storytelling and focused on Ward One, a once- vibrant African American neighborhood near downtown. Taking part will be muralist Daniel Esquivia-Zapata, videographer Malcolm Vanhannegeyn, and Margaret C. Dunlap Walker, manager of the Local and Family History Center at the Richland Library. Cultural Layers is a project of One Columbia. The discussion is at the Columbia Museum of Art at 11 a.m. The first works of the project are being installed now.

A few hours later at the S.C. State Museum, illustrator and comic artist Sanford Greene will discuss his work with Ramon Jackson, the museum’s cultural history curator, focusing on works Greene recently donated to the museum. The talk is at noon and is included in museum admission. The talk is part of a series with artists who have work in From the Vault: Art from the Museum’s Collection on display at the museum.

“Building Bridges Through Art 2026 with Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network Exhibition” is a mouthful of a title and part of the Stormwater Studios series that partners with community organizations to create exhibitions highlighting issues those organizations are involved with. In this case it’s the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network that “advances gender justice in South Carolina through advocacy, education, research, and community building, with a focus on reproductive freedom and economic justice.”

It’s a lot to ask of art. The work by 23 artists is rarely specific to the issues, which is both a strength and weakness. There some solid work which broadly addresses women’s issues without getting pedantic, but which also are so general that it’s hard to see how the work is about the theme. That’s been the case with the other exhibitions in this series. It’s a fine line to walk for curators and artists, but there must be a better middle way for these shows which all seem to be pointedly unpointed.

The exhibition is up through June 27.

A big solo show by long-time Columbia artist Jeff Donovan is at Mike Brown Contemporary. There’s a wide range of art from his better known distorted figures to minimalist black on white semi-abstract drawings to several ceramics architectural pieces. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show by Donovan, but this is the biggest and best I can recall.

The final time to see The Black Perspective: The Vision & Voice at PhotoSC is Friday from 6 – 9 that celebrates the photos and Juneteenth.

Along with training pre-college students, the week-long Southeastern Piano Festival at the University of South Carolina School of Music mounts a concert series by world-class pianists. It offers a magical mix of music by giants Fredric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy and others; a solid sampling of 20^th century and 21^st century music by, among others, Frederic Rzewski and Gabriella Smith; and forays into the songs of Brian Wilson and John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Even Frank Zappa is in the mix.

The festival starts June 7 with a concert by music school and festival faculty Phillip Bush, festival artistic director; Nicholas Susi, associate artistic director; Scott Price; and Annie Jeng, a University of North Carolina professor, performing works by W.A. Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Amy Beach, George Crumb and several more. The concert ends with Bush performing Zappa’s Echidna’s Arf (Of You), a 1973 work for multi-piece band that Bush arranged for solo piano. Susi, who will become the director of the festival next year, will perform a solo recital the next day.

Guest artists Soyeon Kate Lee, Blair McMillen, Pedja Mužijević and Ināra Zandmane will perform throughout the week, playing music that reaches across the centuries from 1765 to 2021. (You can learn about their stellar careers on the fest website).

A couple that sound particularly compelling:

Mužijević, who many here will know from the Spoleto Festival chamber series, is presenting a concert titled “Homage to Mixtapes,” made up of three “tracks” with pieces by György Ligeti, Franz Joseph Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Phillip Glass and more.

McMillen’s concert is entirely by 20^th and 21^st century music by Margaret Bonds, Rzewski, Smith and others, and two rock groups whose names start with the letter “B”.

Tickets are $25.

Mužijević will also give a lecture/presentation, “Concert in the 21st Century,” where he’ll discuss with students stage presentation, talking to audiences about music, and other elements that help make classical music more accessible and relevant to today’s audiences. It is a program he has presented at several major music festivals.

Students attending the festival’s USC Piano Institute and taking part in the festival competition will give two lunchtime concert. The competition is an all-day affair with a concert by the winners the next day.

“Since the core mission of the festival is to be an intensive week of learning for pre-college pianists, inspiring them to expand their thinking about what is possible in programming and presentation is a key element for us,” Bush says “It also dovetails with many of the initiatives started at the USC School of Music. It sends a clear message to the young students that this kind of creativity and imagination is not just encouraged at USC but nurtured.”

I’d add that it does the same for listeners and potential concert attendees.

One thing I like about the festival is that it offers such a wide range of music, even if the main focus is music by masters from the past. Concerts that mix the old and the new are my favorites. They provide a fantastic contrast and allow us to explore how the two intersect (or don’t). As you can see, I often focus on the newer works in my writing. I do this, in part, with the hope that those who are not classical fans can see that these concerts offer many newer sounds that they might like, and can open the door to the larger world of classical music. That’s how I entered.

Columbia-based international festival offers a varied musical lineup

Muzika! Festival is a month-long music festival taking place around the state, but mostly in Columbia, mounted by Varna International. Varna has been around for a quarter of a century and this is the festival’s fifth year.

The festival has a lineup of many different experiences: George Bizet’s opera Carmen; two concerts celebrating different strands of Jewish culture and music, one with mezzo-soprano Lori Şen, a Sephardic art song expert; a musical version of Little Women; two concerts of songs from musicals and movies; a night of New Orleans jazz; and two concerts of Bulgarian music featuring the Detska Kitka, a young women’s choir from Bulgaria. There will be about 22 concerts, with 16 in Columbia, so there are plenty of opportunities to see and hear them

.Concerts are held at the Koger Center for the Arts, Columbia International University and the Nickelodeon, the Lexington 2 Performing Arts Center in West Columbia, and Icehouse Amphitheater in Lexington. There are also performances in Sumter, Greenville and Myrtle Beach.

Ticket are $20 to $80.

Varna also has an academy where young musicians are taught by artist-teachers from orchestras, music organizations and colleges and universities around the U.S. and beyond. The students will give free concerts June 14 and 15.

A few other things

Spoleto Festival and Piccolo Spoleto are happening until June 7. Hate to miss it, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Read a review of the two festival operas in Charleston City Paper.

Whatever you do, do not miss Rodney McMillian: A Son of the Soil, a sprawling, ambitions exhibition by a Columbia native the Columbia Museum of Art, only up until June 28. Read my review from last month. And don’t forget, museum admission is FREE all summer for South Carolina residents.

“Building Bridges Through Art,” presented with Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network is coming up at Stormwater Studios in June with work by 24 artists some of whom will take part in a talk.

Jeff Donovan, a well-know Columbia artist, has a show, “Phases,” opening at Mike Brown Contemporary soon.

The exhibition Rooted at the Richland Library is up for a few more days and has some interesting works.

There are still several shows at the Koger Center for the Arts including a solo show by Colin Dodd, “Hip Hop and Comics,” and a sampling of large paintings by the late Laura Spong.

And make sure to catch Janet Orselli’s extensive and intriguing show at Gemini Arts.

I’m writing a little here (for me, it’s a little) about shows I saw Saturday in Charleston. Since I mentioned them in a recent post, this may sound repetitive, but now I’ve seen them, can say more, and also say I didn’t steer myself or you wrong.

But first just learned about a big photo show in Columbia opening this week.

The many colors of Black

“The Black Perspective,” a photo exhibition that brings together work by 15 photographers from across the country, opens at PhotoSC this week.

A statement from the organizers: “The Black Perspective is not a single story, but thousands — overlapping, contrasting, and converging. Each visual offering represents a thread in a larger tapestry fortified by a culture shaped through resilience in the face of struggle and marginalization. A cacophony of voices, visions, and vantage points — not limited to pain, but radiant with strength, humor, faith, love, pride, creativity, survival, and enduring continuity.”

The work was selected by Arnika Dawkins, photographer, collector and owner of an Atlanta gallery, and the exhibition organized by PhotoSC board member Kim Kim Foster, who was a long-time photographer for The State newspaper (full disclosure, a colleague of mine there) and S.C. House of Representatives photographer.

There are limited times to see the show, as the space is a working studio.

It will be open 6 – 9 p.m. May 28, June 4 and 5, and June 19 for a Juneteenth closing reception. It is at 918 Lady St. and admission is free.

So much to see in Charleston

For those of you hitting Spoleto Festival and Piccolo Spoleto events who want to add a little visual art, there are several solid shows around Charleston. Most are up for a while, but one is only running through the festival, ending June 7, and it’s one to not miss.

That is “Ancestral Remix,” an exhibition of ceramics by Donté K. Hayes at Peter Anthony Fine Art. Hayes’ small ceramic works, either black or white, brings together influences from many places. They look both natural and man-made, their surfaces covered with hundreds of tiny incisions creating an active surface that emphasizes the power monochrome can have. Hayes, who has studios in New Jersy and Atlanta, created specifically for this show pieces inspired by various architectural forms and pathways of Charleston. This exhibit is a part of Hayes’ ongoing work that taps into the history of ceramics and its major role in the archaeological record as well as to create the heirlooms representing what was lost in the African Diaspora.

(Note, the gallery still lists the original closing date, but do not fear, it is open.)

A few blocks away at George Gallery (same owners as Peter Anthony) are rarely shown wall sculptures by the late William Halsey, a giant of Charleston and South Carolina art. These are constructed of broken furniture bits, driftwood and wooden molds used in casting, among other things, pieced together and usually painted in a manner similar to his paintings. There are about a dozen works in the show created between 1963 and 1989.

It is up through June 10.

Creative collaborations on Cannon

Another exhibition with a short run, can be found at the cool modernist church that’s now the Cannon Street Art Center. Ten artists, most from Charleston, have put together collaborative works for a delightful and thought providing show titled “10+4+1.”

The show pairs Linda Fantuzzo with Joe Walters, Lese Corrigan with Hirona Matsuda, Kristi Ryba with Jeff Kopish, Herb Parker with Yvette Dede, and David Higginbotham and Mary Walker who are some of the longest and hardest working artists in the state. They’ve come up with a batch of intriguing works well-presented in the space, with a mix of individual, but multiple part works and more installation like set ups.

It runs through May 29. (I’ve had a hard time getting the hours, but the center seems to be open starting at 10 and into the evening most days, as it is home to a theatre company as well.) The center, part of the Charleston cultural affairs office, is at 134 Cannon St.

A dreaded juried show that works (mostly)

The annual Piccolo Spoleto juried art exhibition, like most juried exhibitions, has always been uneven to terrible, as are most such shows. There may be great jurors, but they can only pick from what’s been submitted, and they need to select enough art to fill the gallery. I was particularly disappointed in last year’s exhibition, but am glad I didn’t miss this year’s which is much better. The juror was Michael Dickens, the new director of the Halsey Institute of Art at the College of Charleston, and maybe more and better artists wanted to get their work in front of him, or maybe he just selected better than other jurors, and maybe it was just luck. Probably a mix of all.

There are solid works in nearly every medium and style and the show is especially well designed. Yes, plenty of so-so pieces too, especially the more traditional paintings and photos, but they don’t weigh down the good ones.

One thing that stands out is the many pieces that embrace the idea of horror vacui, where every space is filled. This can be found in paintings as well as a sculpture made of plastic bags, another of various fabric do-dads, and an intricate and large paper cut work.

The show has about 90 artists from across the state, each showing only one work, another issue with these kind of shows. It is up through June 7 at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park, open and free Wednesdays through Sundays noon to 5.

What’s missing, more to come

All the Charleston shows I’ve mentioned so far present artists of the level too often missing from the visual art environment in Columbia; experienced, established artists who may have a few pieces in museums. I’ve been having this conversation with people in several South Carolina cities just during the past few days and hope to return with a deeper look at it before long.

Sleeping and waking and making art

Ok I’m about out of breath here so I’ll not say too much about the Halsey Institute exhibitions right now since they are up into July. Wrote a little about them a few days ago (see the May 20 post.) As usual, very good, and I especially liked Maria Britton’s “Second Sleep” show of wall-hanging sculptures made of painted and layered bedsheets. This is one of several fantastic textile-based exhibitions that have crossed my path recently. Britton is a native of Florence, earned her undergraduate degree at Winthrop University, her MFA from the University of North Carolina and lives in North Carolina.

Short show soon by CCA resident

And also, finally, in addition to and so on … coming up is another short exhibition, June 12 – 25, by the current artist-in-residence Tra Bouscaren at 701 Center for Contemporary Art. Bouscaren is multi-disciplinary artist examining waste culture and the surveillance state. He has shown around the globe from Berlin to Barcelona, the Orlando Museum and Lincoln Center.

For many years in late May I was gearing up for the Spoleto Festival USA. After a decade away, I returned last year and wrote about most of it. (If you’re interested you can find what I wrote in the late May and early June of my old site, where you can also find my pre-2026 posts). This year not sure I’ll make any due to being busy around here and traveling. If you are interested, and there is much to be interested in, check out the festival schedule. The festival starts Friday and goes for 17 days.

Visual art has rarely had much of a role at the festival, but there are some interesting sounding art exhibition happening there and in Columbia.

Janet Orselli’s odd object art and installations at Gemini

Janet Orselli, who lived in Columbia for many years, has big new show at Gemini Arts Collective. Orselli, who lives in North Carolina, creates multi-piece works often constructed of cast-off material repurposed to “to create a language, tell a story and build a world.”

The show, “Curios,” opens Friday, May 22 with an opening event that evening.

Orselli writes, “Through my work I want to acknowledge the significance of an object’s past while at the same time create a new purpose for it. In my assemblage work I focus viewer attention on the objects themselves, along with the poetic connections I make between objects.”

The exhibition came together this week with the installation as process and product.

“Movable walls, doors and windows and other larger components will break up the larger gallery space into smaller intimate spaces,” she said. “Some of the spaces will be more installation like, others will have Individual works that relate to each other in concept, form, color, texture and/or age.”

Orselli has had solo exhibitions at the Tryon Arts and Crafts School, Crutchfield Gallery, Spartanburg, and 701Center for Contemporary Art.

It runs through July 17, so lots of time to see it. Gemini is open every Friday eve and by appointment.

Charleston collaborations

Some of Charleston’s most important and established artists join forces for a collaborative arts exhibition at the Cannon Street Art Center. “10 + 4 +1: A Collaborative Art Show,” curated by artist Mary Walker, pairs artists to create new works for the show: Linda Fantuzzo with Joe Walters, Lese Corrigan with Hirona Matsuda, Kristi Ryba with Jeff Kopish, Herb Parker with Yvette Dede, and David Higginbotham and Walker. It opens with a “family day” at 5 on Friday, May 22 with an opening event with the artists at 6:30. It runs through May 29 and is free.

The collaborations extend to performances by Annex Dance Company, Unbound Ballet Project, Collective SC and Georgia Schrubbe on May 23 at 3 and 6 and a play reading May 24 at 2. (Admission charged.)

The center, run by the Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, is at 134 Cannon St.

Speaking of Charleston cultural affairs, they also coordinate the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the local companion to the Spoleto Festival USA, although it’s the local arts organizations and artists who put on most events.

William Halsey wall works

Also in Charleston, the George Gallery just opened an exhibition titled “Eye Level” made up of wall sculptures by William Halsey. Halsey was one of the early modernists in the state, spending most of his life in his hometown of Charleston. After some years of working in representational style (often of places around Charlston) his work shifted to abstraction that was inspired by the textures of the city and Mexico. Along with paintings he also did a number of free-standing sculptures, but this is a rare showing of wall works. It’s a short show, only up through June 10.

Never miss the Halsey Institute

While on the topic of Charleston and William Halsey, the one place you should always visit there is the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. The gallery there has museum quality exhibitions that often include work created specifically for the gallery from artists around the globe.

At the gallery into the summer are two shows.

The art in “Make Room” by Kyoung Chun examines and reflects on the shifting sense of home with paintings and sculptures that blur boundaries between interior and exterior, personal and public. A native of South Korea, the artist lives in Atlanta.

In “Second Sleep” Maria Britton’s textile-based works transform patterned bedsheets into layered, pleated, and playful abstract paintings. She is a native of Florence, SC, and lives in North Carolina.

Learn how a giant basket was created

If you haven’t gone to “Out of the Vault: Art From the Museum’s Collection” at the S.C. State Museum, you can combine that with hearing a talk by the creators of one of the works recently added to the exhibition. Corey Alston, who created the nearly 5-foot-tall sweetgrass basket titled “Big Percy,” will give a talk Saturday at 11. Alston is fifth-generation maker whose work continues the centuries-old tradition of sweetgrass basket weaving. He’ll be joined by his daughter Corren who is the next generation of basket makers.

(This story appears in the just published spring issue of Jasper magazine. You can find it around town.)

One of my main points was that the city had decided on this without consulting with art organizations or individuals with public art expertise. I based this statement on a response I’d receive in early February from the Cayce city manager. The response was “No outside organizations were part of the discussion or decision making process.”

A city spokesperson now says “Mayor Partin conferred with Lee Snelgrove about the project as well as the President of the Cayce Arts Guild. She also spoke to other cities who’ve added the art installations.”

(Snelgrove is former director of One Columbia and art and cultural program director at the Richland Library who wrote a column in Free Times supporting the troll that I was in part responding to.)

I think that this was an honest miscommunication on the part of the city in that my use of the term “consult” may have been interpreted as someone being paid. (I asked about the paid part too and the answer was “No.”) On the other hand, I had quoted the city’s response months ago on my site and on Facebook; no one with the city took issue with it.

All that said, I stand by what I wrote. I’m happy to learn that the city spoke to someone other than themselves.

I’m also happy with all the responses to the column, including the many disagreeing with me. People wrote long, thoughtful responses, something to rare today. And they responded to what I said, not what they think I said (I’ll take some credit for writing clearly.) These are some of the best responses I’ve gotten in 30-some years of writing about the arts.

This is the kind of discussion we could use more of.

Also, we could use more funding for more public art projects that respond to this place (in any number of ways), that put money into artists’ pockets and items on their resumes, and that aren’t murals.

The City of Cayce plans to spend nearly half a million dollars to bring one of Thomas Dambo’s popular giant troll figures to its riverwalk. The cute creature could well be embraced by the community and bring folks from far and wide, but this project reveals a lack of understanding of the role of public art specifically and art in general.

Public art is at its best when the work is deeply connected to the place it is located, providing understanding and insights possible only through art. It bolsters an area’s art ecosystem and, when appropriate, directly supports local artists.

For this kind of investment, it would be possible to commission artists from all over to create numerous works that dig deep into many topics that are relevant to Cayce and greater Columbia. This could include subjects such as the changing and current role of the river, the history of the area, the people past, present and future and their stories, the plants and animals that thrive in the forest the walkway runs through. The list could go on.

This amount of money could have a significant impact on artists and the overall art scene. It’s certainly needed as the Columbia community does not have a strong art-buying market, funding for individual artists, or commissions for artists to create anything other than murals.

This is about more than money. Significant financial support gives artists the time and encouragement they need to take on work that expands their artistic vision and skills. In turn, a project with artists creating adventuresome, engaging and meaningful work develops a more informed and adventuresome art audience. This amount of money would also make it possible to invite artists from all over which benefits the arts and larger community by bringing in fresh visions and voices.

The city has moved forward with this in an under-researched and unprofessional manner. The city has not asked for input from any arts organizations, arts administrators, curators or others experienced in public art or for that matter, any art. (The city has stated this is a response to an inquiry from this writer.)

If this was a streetlighting or parking project would the city have consulted experts? Of course it would have. The city’s approach shows a profound misunderstanding of the creation and role of public art, and an overall disrespect for art and artists. And a not very thoughtful or wise use of public resources.

All that said, none of these arguments may even be relevant. Without discussing whether Dambo’s trolls are art or good art, this isn’t really an art project. It’s about getting more visitors to Cayce to eat and shop. An unsolicited email from the city makes a number of claims about the project’s visitation and economic impact, but says nothing about the art impact. That’s a narrow view of the role of art that Cayce unfortunately shares with many other cities as well as some arts organizations and arts administrators.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a fun and possibly engaging attraction like a giant troll, but it does nothing to make greater Columbia a better place for art and artists.

Some context and a few more comments that didn’t appear in Free Times.

I’ve posted a bit about the troll project in the past, especially the city’s vagueness, but didn’t get much of a reaction. But I was motivated to write this by a column in last week’s Free Times last week by Lee Snelgrove, the first director of One Columbia who served for eight years and former arts and culture manager at the Richland Library. I’m not going to go point by point through what he wrote, but it could have been written by a public relations person hired by the city of Cayce and it rolled out all the usual superficial generalities about the public art and art.

The arts community has been remarkably quiet on this as it is been on so many issues. While I don’t expect some of the larger agencies to get bogged down in more local issues where are the voice of the S.C. Arts Commission, the S.C. State Museum, the Columbia Museum of Art, local art gallery owners, USC faculty, and especially local artists. And when the news media is reporting on something like public art, how about talking to some of these people or those in cities with public art programs?

May 7/2026

The Columbia Museum of Art’s second floor reinstallation of artwork, most from the museum collection, and new lighting system was unveiled back in January. Combining chronology, subject matter and theme, it’s a refreshing update with some big and some small surprises.

For me, the biggest surprise and one that excited me most, is an exhibition of bronze heads by Winston Wingo of Spartanburg. Wingo, who earned degrees from Claflin University and Clemson University, has had a long presence in the South Carolina art scene. While I’ve seen his art many times, I’d never seen so many of these heads at once and certainly not in so regal a setting. The exhibition is designed to best show the work and also engage with other galleries and other art in several ways.

“Who Would We Be/Who Could We Be?” is made up of 12 sculptures created between 1978 and 2025. It will be up through early March 2027.

Wingo’s heads are connected to a historically important art form that includes works from ancient Greece, the Benin bronzes of 16^th century West Africa, the Renaissance period, and 20th century artists such as Auguste Rodin, Constantin Brâncuși and Alberto Giacometti. He is also fully engaged with the forms and concerns of art in the 21st century. The heads show man transforming to machine, exploring how we are tethered to technology. Considering some of this work was created decades ago, Wingo was certainly prescient. Not that he was alone, since his art also draws on concepts of Afro-Futurism and Italian futurism.

These are beautifully crafted works, with highly polished, reflective surfaces along with dark craggy passages. The earliest heads are encased in mechanical helmets, others have fully human features but are transforming, and at least one has become a new form of life. They are all a bit disquieting, like the human/mechanical hybrids that are often malevolent forces in literature and film.

The dozen sculptures, all on loan from the artist, are magnificently displayed in an octagonal gallery between the museum’s galleries of older artworks and the contemporary galleries. Since Wingo’s art stakes a claim in the past, present and future, and is about transformation, it provides the perfect portal between these worlds. The space has four entrances, literally and immediately connecting to art from other times. One doorway offers a direct sightline to the museum’s Claude Monet painting, while another opens to the large central gallery of Renaissance and Baroque period art, with a view right to the museum’s Sandro Botticelli fresco. It is a brilliant installation in every way.

This unexpected exhibition came about through the insightful eyes and minds of curators Michael Neumeister and Sadé Ayorinde, with Ayorinde curating the exhibition. While assessing the museum collection in preparation for the reinstallation, they came across a work by Wingo. Both curators are fairly new to the museum and the area, so knew little about Wingo. They were intrigued enough to make a studio visit and were quite taken with what they saw. With their fresh eyes, they recognized the value of an artist and work that some of us probably took for granted and undervalued.

This exhibition is great for Wingo, the museum, for those new to Wingo’s art, and those who think they know it, because they’ve never seen it like this.

More on the museum’s new look

I’ve been meaning to write about the reinstallation, but for one reason or another have not been able to. One reason is that I was writing a story about it that will be published in the next issue of Jasper magazine being released in a couple of weeks.

Even without the recent reinstall, a lot of the upstairs felt quite new to me. Since the last reinstall and addition of several contemporary galleries that took place in 2018 I’d only been in the galleries a couple of times and that was right at the end of 2024. (I was living elsewhere and didn’t go to the museum between 2014 and 2024.) While I was familiar with many of the artworks from looking at them regularly for 25 years, there were many that were new to me. With the added galleries, at times it felt like a different building

.So the new installation maybe doesn’t hit as hard because I didn’t know the last one well. Do I notice the new lighting? Maybe. Probably. I’m happy to see the old works, the ones that came in over the years, and the brand new ones being shown for the first time. I’m not crazy about all the install decisions, but I’m particularly crazy about the contemporary galleries (not all of the specific art then the overall experience.)

The new installation has sometimes been referred to as the reinstallation of the permanent collection (maybe by me), but not all the art on display belongs to the museum. This is especially true in the contemporary galleries where quite a few larger paintings are loans from other institutions. They add much to those spaces, complementing art in the collection. The museum finally has a significant art acquisition budget so will likely be buying some of its own before long.

The gallery with the Wingo sculptures is one of several that will be used for temporary exhibitions. This will allow for more variety, provides opportunities for the museum to draw from its collection of works on paper, and may get people back upstairs after they think they’ve seen it all before.

In one of those galleries you’ll find “Jasper Johns: All Familiar Things” made up of prints including target and crosshatch pieces, both from the 1970s, and his “Seasons” series from 1987. Up through Aug. 30.

Artist Rodney McMillian, who has long lived in California, has shown at museums across and beyond the U.S., but he’s from Columbia and always makes that known. His home city gives him a fitting welcome home with “Rodney: McMillian: A Son of the Soil,” at the Columbia Museum of Art. It is a major exhibition for McMillian and the museum. The expansive exhibition encompasses a wide range of works spanning 20 years, is imaginatively and attractively designed and installed, and is accompanied by a book of insightful, scholarly essays. It runs through June 28.

Although made up of only 30 works, it gives the impression of being much larger. There are paintings that verge on being sculptures, sculptures that are rather physically flat, sculptures that are definitely sculptures, most quite large, and four videos. McMillian, a professor at UCLA, has had a half dozen museum exhibitions, from the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2016 to a current one at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. The Columbia Museum exhibition, his first in the Southeast, appears to be the most extensive in all ways.

This is an ambitious show of ambitious and accomplished art that is often unsettling and upsetting. The work mines a wide range of art history, race, the body, domestic life, class, and even medicine, and sometimes draws directly from written narratives.

The work is presented in a somewhat chronological order in a well-conceived exhibition design that shows the art to its best advantage. Each gallery is dominated by one particular kind of work, but there’s overlap that keeps the show lively and flowing.

Much of the first gallery is filled with blankets and other fabrics onto which paint has been poured and then puddles. Others wall works are made of vinyl of various dark colors, pieced together to form a sort of quilt that refers back to the blanket paintings. Sculptures, taking the forms of a heart, lungs, a pregnant belly, a penis, made of chicken wire and fabric and painted black stand in stark contrast to the built-up colors of the paintings. One large space has been transformed into a video gallery with the walls draped in black fabric. All the videos tap into his background in South Carolina with parts filmed here. In one a kind of time traveler makes a journey from the rural South to the New York subway; in another, the artist scrubs grime off gravestones.

The series “An Abbreviated History of Abstraction” has pretty flowing colors, but each piece contains words speaking to the abuse of African Americans such as forced sterilization. The text is often obscured, reflecting how these horrors were long hidden. Such stories have finally emerged over recent decades, although it will be more difficult for them to be told in South Carolina due to the S.C. Legislature’s “heritage act.”

The exhibition also contains several monumental works such as The Supreme Court Painting, a work showing the court building collapsing. McMillian created Supreme Court 20 years ago, long before the current, nearly completely compromised and incompetent court existed.

The largest, newest and one of the most powerful works, The White House Painting III, closes the exhibition. Created over a 10-year period, it shows the building covered buried in built-up layers of paper, tape, marker, acrylic, ink, graphite and latex on paper mounted on canvas.

While many of his works make direct references to the nation’s history and especially the history of African-Americans, just as many do not, but it is still there. Either way, McMillian’s art addresses the issues eloquently and often quietly, which makes them all the more affecting, and at times, devastating.

It’s unlikely that many people in the region know that such a giant talent emerged from Columbia’s suburbs. Now they do, thanks to the museum’s comprehensive, thoughtful and impressive exhibit.

(A reminder: if you are looking for my writing that appeared prior to January 2026, visit https://jeffreyaday.com/)

The event was at Allen University through the university’s poetry center and Boeing Institute of Civility, and largely organized by Charlene Spearen, an Allen professor.

I’m not sure how closely the panel, moderated by Columbia poet laureate Jennifer Bartell Boykin, adhered to the event’s title. But they certainly had a great deal to say, all of it engaging and insightful, often moving and sometimes funny. They did so in a poetic and often expansive manner, speaking about poets’ need to write from the heart and their experience, using their words to engage in the reality of the world around them. They also, in part responding to student questions, talked in depth about finding one’s voice and how the process of writing works. I’m not going to say more because I wasn’t taking notes and I couldn’t do it justice even if I had. You should have been there. And best of all, it’s already up on YouTube.

And tonight at 6:30, Dawes is leading a writing master class at the center, 1329 Pine St. It’s free and open to all.

While I got a lot out of the formal event, for me it was also an opportunity to reconnect with Dawes and Spearen, who I worked with at the USC Arts Institute during its final year. There they gave me the opportunity and freedom to promote the institute and the arts at USC in new ways and slightly out of the USC communications channels. That could have landed me in hot water, but instead got the attention of a higher up who liked what I was doing. That connection helped me get a job at the University of California a couple years later. I have Dawes and Spearen to, at least in part, thank for that.

During the evening Finney also brought up something that reminded me of my time at The State newspaper and what the newspaper did for the arts. She recalled being opening the paper to see a two-page spread of poems from South Carolina residents; it wasn’t something she expected. Behind it, she noted, was Dawes. (You can read about the Dawes partnership with The State here. I cannot believe I found this article.)

That’s how I first Dawes although in a way that I wasn’t sure would turn out well.

In the early 2000s, Dawes wrote a regular column for the paper – imagine that, a column about poetry in a newspaper. Usually, an editor read and edited Dawes column, although I doubt it ever needed or got much editing. With the usual editor away one week, it fell to me to edit his column. And I had questions. One of the more daunting tasks I’ve ever had was calling this acclaimed writer to let him know that I thought there were a few problems with what he had written. I do not remember what issues I had, I only remember he listened to my concerns and agreed with my suggestions. Not a hint ego or “who was I to question his work”? It left me with a great impression of him as well as confidence in my own abilities.

That’s stuck with me all these years. I was very glad to see and hear him again.

As I often say, I do wish there were more people at this event with three amazing and accomplished writers. I’ll keep an eye out for what the center does next. I hope you will too.

Last year was the first time I’d gone to the ArtFields festival/competition in Lake City since its inaugural year of 2013. (I know for many I’m repeating myself, but I lived elsewhere from 2014 to 2024.) I went to all 40 places showing about 400 artworks: barbershops, bridal boutiques, property management companies and restaurants, as well as galleries and other larger venues. ArtFields, open to those in 12 southeastern states, offers a $50,000 first place and $25,000 second place award, both purchase awards. This year the festival has been extended by almost a week; it wraps up May 2.

This year I decided to concentrate on the big spots: Trax Visual Art Center, the Jones-Carter Gallery and the R.O.B., although I did duck into a few shops or looked at works in windows.

Last year, considering how many states are included and the big cash awards, I was shocked at how much not very good art was included. I also questioned if showing art in so many places, many of which didn’t show it well, is the best thing. At the same time, I think the overall concept is great and it can be a really wonderful adventure. I feel very much the same way this year. Everything I wrote last year still applies and while I feel it all needs to be said again, I’m not going to do it here. If you want to read it, and I hope you do, go to my April 26, 2025 review on my other site. (Also, I am no longer going to post on that site. If you want to see anything I wrote before January go there.)

Even hitting only the large venues this year it was still a lot to take in and still I came away surprised at the amount of “not very good art” (I’m using this phrase to try to be nice).

The not very good work comes in two forms.

First are so many paintings that while often having intriguing content are lacking in technical accomplishment; poor composition, lackluster paint handling, little understanding of visual depth, and inaccurately rendered figures, and other elements of realism.

The other are the overwrought, obvious and poorly constructed works addressing political, social and often-painful personal issues (made worse by long text panels about the art and what it means.)

The R.O.B. especially has a number of large, often sprawling, installation-like works that address our current political climate (as do many of the paintings.) Not surprisingly, most come down on the anti-Trump, anti-ICE, anti-anti-abortion side of things. I agree with the sentiments and understand where it is coming from; every day I am disheartened and disgusted by what is happening in this country. Still, I prefer the art coming first and speaking to these issues in a way that more overt forms cannot. I also may be completely wrong in thinking that art can go on its merry way of being delicate and poetic in these times.

You’ll find more nuanced artworks taking on these and other issues at the Jones-Carter and Trax. If you have limited time and patience, these are the places to go for some fantastic artworks.

All that said, I had a great time looking at the art, wandering around town and talking to people and meeting a few artists.

I’m not even going to try to write much about individual works, good or bad. I’m instead going to post images and info on what struck me as a small sampling of the best work in a variety of ways. In spite of its shortcomings, I would never discourage anyone from going to the festival or any other major art event or exhibition. And I’d also take issue with anyone who says they’re interested in and care about art, but doesn’t attend major art projects like this.