Painting in the Park: Featuring Lese Corrigan

Charleston native Lese Corrigan’s work is representational but more expressionistic than realistic. The paintings are full of color and the joyful playfulness of life; surfaces imbued with light – color and texture being the defining structure. Corrigan fully immersed herself in the visual arts in the late 1980s, working her way through the different opportunities in the art community. An oil painter, whose portraits and landscapes pull together in a vibrant expressionistic manner the play of light and the resulting changes in hue and shade that delight the eye in the course of the day, Corrigan also works in other media – linocuts, photography and clay sculpture.

Five O’Clock by Lese Corrigan

Coca Cola commissioned a painting that was presented to Barbara Bush in 1995. She was poster artist for the Charleston Cup Steeplechase 2003 and featured in the Fall 2003 issue of the international Orient Express Magazine. Corrigan and her painting debuted on Turner South Network’s 3 Day Weekend Charleston’s episode that premiered in 2005 and she was the Gibbes Museum Poets’ and Painters’ program artist in residence for 2005. She painted the image for the poster for the Queen City Classic Horse Show in Charlotte, North Carolina for 2006. Corrigan’s paintings are in collections in the United States, France, Great Britain and Japan. In 2006, Ros Smith created a five minute film documentary entitled “Curlesque” on Corrigan’s painting process. A solo show in 2006 utilized the Fibonnacci and golden rectangle relations and in 2008 explored her Charleston surroundings with Mid-River. Her 2010 show presented a different viewpoint of her home with a group of paintings that work as one.

Corrigan’s work was selected for the Medical University of South Carolina’s contemporary collection for the new 2008 Ashley River Tower. She was the president for 2009 of the CFADA – Charleston Fine Art Dealers’ Association and remains active in the promotion of Charleston as the fine arts’ destination it has been for centuries.

Corrigan’s work can be found at Corrigan Gallery located at 62 Queen street in downtown Charleston and her new works will be on display during the Charleston Fine Art Annual on November 2.

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Corrigan Gallery Presents “Over the Edge” Lese Corrigan’s Latest Works November 2

Corrigan Gallery LLC is pleased to present Lese Corrigan’s latest works in a show titled Over the Edge.  This show hangs November 1 through 30 and opens with a reception on November 2 as part of the Charleston Fine Art Dealers’ Association’s 14th Annual Fine Art Weekend.  The reception is from 5-8 pm and is open to the public.  The gallery is located in downtown Charleston at 62 Queen Street just steps away from the Four Corners of Law and the Dockstreet Theatre.

Corrigan will also be painting at Washington Park Saturday November 3 with the CFADA group including gallery artist John Hull and visiting artist Susan Romaine.  The gallery will participate in the Gibbes Museum’s first Art on Paper Fair as part of the Fine Art Weekend.  Artists from the gallery and several visitors will have fine art prints at the fair with preview opening at 8:30 Friday evening and open hours Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday from 1-5 with free admission to the show and the museum.  The print artists include Manning Williams, Mary Walker, Lynne Riding, Kristi Ryba, William Meisburger, Richard Hartnett, Sue Simons Wallace, visiting artists John McWilliams, Charles Ailstock, Nancy Marshall and of course Corrigan.

Birds posed on telephone wires are on the edge performing a balancing act of nature’s adaptation to man’s creation.  They are silhouettes in sky appearing small, being close yet far away.  The visual reverberations in line repetition and the musical note sense of birds and lines draws our eye to the sky with the abstract nature teasing our minds and creating intrigue.  There is a consciousness of birds being harbingers of events (such as the canary in the mine).  There they sit watching from a distance aware of the “earthly” actions of mankind.  What information have they for us.  In these paintings, the birds are paired with the cable that connects them to the earth albeit indirectly. From our point of view, it often appears that they are holding on to the cable for dear life yet the birds are grounded, even while in the sky. Perhaps we humans have not remained connected enough to our world in our attempts to hold on to incorrect or outdated ideas that need to be thrown over the edge. The birds are at the edge of our world – out of reach.  When placed on canvas with the cables ending at the edge there is a sense of the edge of the sky, an end.

The show is a series of new works fleshing out a piece done in 2004. It references a series called “Space Between” painted in the same year about the space between objects – what physicists had previously called empty space but now know is filled with many “things.”  This new series continues the exploration of birds on telephone wires – those “simple” shapes we see up above us on diagonals cutting the space of the sky in a multitude of ways.  Each painting is titled with lines from poems that do not reference birds or flying or sitting, but the sensations elicited or conversations imagined upon viewing those creatures on high. The “edge” in the title is the line of the cable and “over” references that these objects are above us, and that the art pushes over the line between representation and abstraction due to the ephemeral nature of sky and ethereal nature of birds.  In viewing the works together one could imagine the experience of being surrounded by Monet’s lily pond paintings and replace the lily pond with sky.

Every year on the first weekend of November, CFADA puts on this event as a fundraiser for Charleston County’s high school art programs. Saturday morning, artists represented in participating galleries will be painting in en plein air in Washington Park. Come to the park between 9am and noon on that Saturday, November 3rd, and watch us paint!  There will be coffee and snacks for those that can make it out.  Starting at 11am, CFADA will host its Annual High School Art Competition, a juried show with submissions from students of Charleston County high schools. Three students from the show will be selected and recognized for their excellent work in the visual arts.

Saturday evening, paintings done during the morning’s en plein air event will be auctioned off. Proceeds will be used to buy art supplies for the participation Charleston County high schools’ visual arts programs. Corrigan Gallery is proud to be a member of this organization promoting the arts of Charleston worldwide and supporting the artists of the future.

In its eighth year, Corrigan Gallery is the culmination of 25 years of experience in the Charleston art market.  Representing more than a dozen artists in an intimate space, the gallery presents a new show almost every month and invites visiting artists to join in.  Other gallery artists include Richard Hagerty, Gordon Nicholson, John Moore, Paul Mardikian, Judy Cox, Karin Olah, Daphne vom Baur, Joe Walters and Kevin Bruce Parent. Many of these local artists have established national careers and are included in museum collections.

A gallery of contemporary works exploring the depth and intellect behind the drive to create, Corrigan Gallery provides a depth to the historic city’s traditional bent.  Open six days a week and other times by appointment, the gallery can be viewed 24 hours a day at http://www.corrigangallery.com, contacted by phone at 843 722 9868 or by email at art@lesecorrigan.com.

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Corrigan Gallery and Barsa Tapas: Partners for the 2012 Palette and Palate Stroll

Mary Walker – Ice Lady

For the Palette and Palate Stroll, the Corrigan Gallery LLC presents “Contemporary Southern Women Artists” – no shrimp boats, no palmettos, no marshes.  Lynne Riding, Daphne vom Baur, Mary Walker, Kristi Ryba, Lese Corrigan, Judy Cox, Sue Simons Wallace and Lolly Koon make up the stable of contemporary females in the gallery.  Although not all were raised in the South, they have certainly chosen it as their home and have been influenced at least by the sultry, perfumed air.

The gallery opened its doors on September 1, 2005 at 62 Queen Street, Charleston, South Carolina, just off the corner of Meeting and Queen streets in the historic downtown Charleston. The gallery exhibits works of art both representational and abstract possessing the charm of old Charleston with a contemporary edge. Representing artists whose work is beyond the traditional approach to the southern landscape of marshes, the gallery consistently provides new works to see on a regular basis. Artistic vision partnered with an intellectual strength and astute handling of the materials describes the work on display.

Lynne Riding – In the Air -Pecos

The gallery is showing art that is just for that – art! Not following this year’s fashions but reaching towards the future and showing respect for the past, the presented artwork fulfills the beholder’s need for beauty and the collector’s wish for strong investments. This is art for the soul; art that lets the eyes breathe fresh air. Visitors may watch paintings in process on location and view works that have been done en plein air as well asin situ studio pieces.

Visit the gallery again in October for Richard (Duke) Hagerty’s show of new works entitled “Existential Jukebox.”  November is new works by Lese Corrigan and December a solo show for John Moore’s photographs.

Corrigan Gallery is pleased to welcome Barsa Tapas, a recently opened Spanish tapas restaurant located on trendy upper King Street. Barsa is already making a name for itself as a destination spot for those seeking fine wine and a locally sourced and seasonally inspired menu.

Barsa’s proprietor, Drazen Romic, is always working hard to think of innovative ways to bring people to the popular revitalized upper King Street area and is a pioneer when it comes to unchartered territories and the potential they can offer to business owners and the community. Romic opened the very successful Lana restaurant 7 years ago on Rutledge and Cannon long before that area was on the map as a culinary hotspot and it is at Lana where he discovered Barsa’s Executive Chef Cole Poolaw.

Originally of McColl, South Carolina, Poolaw moved to Charleston seven years ago to ultimately pursue a career in

Chef Cole Poolaw

culinary arts. He attended Trident Technical College’s Culinary Institute while working full time at Lana Restaurant honing his skills and training under Chef John Ondo. At the young age of twenty-three Cole took the helm as executive chef of Barsa tapas, lounge, and bar. There he has ventured into Spanish cuisine and traditional tapas while staying true to his roots and integrating his own Southern charm. Having a deep commitment to local sustainability, he strives to use only the freshest ingredients sourced from nearby farms. Always a purist in the kitchen, his food profiles are simple and clean yet comforting and satisfying. Whether on the line or visiting with guests in the dining room, you’ll find him with a smile and a true enthusiasm to evolve and expand his culinary palate.

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Linda Fantuzzo at Corrigan Gallery Opening on May 4, 2012 – Landscape Reconfigured

Corrigan Gallery LLC presents Linda Fantuzzo’s new work in a show titled “Landscape Reconfigured” opening May 4 and showing through May 30.  The opening reception will be held May 4 from 5-8pm as part of the French Quarter Gallery Association Artwalk.  The reception is open to the public and will be at the gallery in downtown Charleston at 62 Queen Street.  Ms Fantuzzo will be present.

Linda Fantuzzo©2012 Foggy pond 48” x 72” acrylic on canvas

Linda Fantuzzo’s soft, mysterious, elegant paintings are reminiscent of Joseph Mallord William Turner’s waterscapes.  Large, atmospheric passages describing the Lowcountry landscape but with a universality that opens them up to worldwide collector, is the artist’s forte.  Settling in Charleston in 1973 after a visit encouraged by Charleston’s own Manning Williams, Fantuzzo made the city her home and the surrounds her inspiration.  The artist began her journey early in high school in Endicott, New York when she illustrated book reports and discovered her love for drawing. Encouraged by a teacher, she began fine art classes. Fantuzzo pursued a degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In addition to the formal training at the Academy, she has developed her skills by painting en plein aire throughout Europe and the United States.

The artist has explored both abstraction and representation, in still lifes and landscapes.  Known for both her small and large scale, especially her decades long study of Kiawah Island, she has built quite a reputation for herself. Fantuzzo captures a moment in time, exploring the fleeting influence of light. She has stated, “Any object or place can be beautiful in the right light.”  She creates a tension between the light and the lack of light resulting in “luminous color and atmospheric effects.”  Dennis Stiles, poet and former feature writer for The Gallery Guide several years ago described the artist’s work:  “The objects and scenes in Fantuzzo’s paintings are often commonplace – a roadway curving through vegetation, a hunk of burnished metal, walls, clouds, a prism – but her treatment of them is anything but ordinary. Unexpected juxtapositions give many of her paintings a quietly surreal quality. She emphasizes texture tone, atmosphere and above all an inner light created by very careful purposeful handling of cool and warm colors, applied with thick and thin paints and glazes. The typical result is haunting.”  Art critic Kristina M. Kutkus wrote of Fantuzzo’s work in the catalogue,  “In the Dinghy, Lure of the Lowcountry” describing that  “The atmosphere is diffuse and evokes a poetic decay that is eloquent and personal. The beauty of this moment in time is a metaphor for change.”

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Corrigan Gallery and Cypress: Partners for the 2010 Palette and Palate Stroll

The Lithographer by Manning Williams, acrylic, ink on board

The Corrigan Gallery opened its doors on September 1, 2005 at 62 Queen Street, Charleston, South Carolina, just off the corner of Meeting and Queen streets in the historic area called by some the French Quarter. The gallery exhibits works of art both representational and abstract possessing the charm of old Charleston with a contemporary edge. Representing artists whose work is beyond the traditional approach to the southern landscape of marshes, the gallery consistently provides new works to see on a regular basis. Artistic vision partnered with an intellectual strength and astute handling of the materials describes the work on display. The gallery is showing art that is just for that – art! Not following this year’s fashions but reaching towards the future and showing respect for the past, the presented artwork fulfills the beholder’s need for beauty and the collector’s wish for strong investments. This is art for the soul; art that lets the eyes breathe fresh air. Visitors may watch paintings in process on location and view works that have been done en plein air as well as in situ studio pieces.

Partnering with Cypress once again for this year’s Palette and Palate Stroll, guests will enjoy Chef Garet Hutchinson’s cuisine. A native of Charleston, SC, Hutchinson’s pursuit of the culinary arts began at a young age. Working in kitchens throughout his high school years, Hutchinson found a true passion for food. Eager to break in to fine dining and prove his talents, Hutchinson joined the Cypress team as a dishwasher in 2003. Around this time, he enrolled at the Charleston Culinary Institute to expand his culinary knowledge. Hutchinson talents were easily recognized both in school and at Cypress. Graduating at the top of his class, he was awarded the James Beard Scholarship and selected as a chef for the National Chef Awards Ceremony. Cypress Executive Chef Craig Deihl who promoted Hutchinson within the Cypress team also recognized Hutchinson’s natural talents in the kitchen. Cypress is eager for Hutchinson to demonstrate his culinary prowess this year during the annual CFADA Palette and Palate Stroll.

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“Sans Lens” Photographs by Kevin Bruce Parent Opens at Corrigan Gallery May 7

Photographer Kevin Bruce Parent will present in his first solo show new pinhole camera photographs in a show entitled “Sans Lens” at  Corrigan Gallery from May 3 through May 30.  An opening reception will be held on May 7 from 5 to 8 PM as part of the French Quarter Gallery Association May artwalk.  The gallery is located at 62 Queen Street in downtown Charleston.

Kevin Bruce Parent is a self-taught photographer who has been shooting since 1990. Moving to Charleston in 1997 from New Hampshire, he elected to present in his work what strikes him as southern.  Utilizing pinhole cameras, zone plates and the lith printing process, Parent creates painterly images. The South he sees is moved to another level through the pinhole and the darkroom experience. He says,  “I find it odd and a bit perplexing that anyone would entrust creative decision making to machines instead of using their deeply felt and often ignored intuition. I want to avoid mechanized recordings that verge on the cliché.  It is my wish for the viewers of my work to slow down and contemplate not only what they are looking at, but to slow down in the haste of their daily lives. The world is moving much too fast and we need to gain a little perspective on just how fast things pass us by.”  This last realization came to him after a life altering experience.  The images in this show were made with great purpose and great patience. “As Sally Mann says of making this type of art, this is not drive by shooting.  This is deliberate, methodical stuff.”

“Sans Lens” will contain images of the local landscape as well as surfers on the beach.  Most of the images have a nice quiet feel to them, perhaps a touch of loneliness or longing. A few will be hand-colored, some straight silver gelatin and others lith prints.  Parent’s work tends to be soft, intriguing – subtle presentations of the world around us.  The use of a camera without a lens, the opening through which light travels to the film or paper being only a pinhole, lends a different look to the work – both a look of something from the past and that of a carefully crafted work of art. Often making his own pinhole cameras, the almost exclusive use of these over twenty years has allowed Parent to not only hone the practice of shooting but to learn to use to artistic advantage the vagaries of pinhole camera images married to the fluctuations in the prints created by the lith chemical process of printing.  With small editions, archivally framed, Parent presents very special insights into this sense we call “southern.”

Parent received an honorable mention in the 2005 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Art Exhibition and showed in the Black and honorable White, Graphic Work in the South, 1904-2004 at Carolina Galleries in March 2004 as well as a group photography show here in 2006 entitled Light Writing and a two man show “Southern Remains” in 2008.

Corrigan Gallery, now in its fifth year, is a culmination of 22 years of experience in the Charleston art market.  The gallery represents more than a dozen artists in an intimate space and presents 6 to 10 shows per year with the gallery being refreshed every month.  Parent has been with the gallery since its inception.  Other gallery artists are Manning Williams, Duke Hagerty, Mary Walker, Kristi Ryba, Sue Simons Wallace, Gordon Nicholson, John Moore, Lese Corrigan, Paul Mardikian and John Hull.  Visiting artists are included in the yearly roster with most of the artist being either Charleston natives or individuals living in Charleston.  A gallery of contemporary works exploring the depth and intellect behind the drive to create, Corrigan Gallery provides a breathing space around the historic city’s traditional bent.  Open six days a week and other times by appointment, the gallery can be viewed 24 hours a day at http://www.corrigangallery.com, contacted by phone 843 722 9868 or email art@lesecorrigan.com.

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Jennifer Henriques Phillips’ Solo Show Titled “Building Babylon (is woman’s work)” Opens at Corrigan Gallery April 2

Visiting artist Jennifer Henriques Phillips will present her series of fine art prints entitled “Building Babylon (is woman’s work)” at Corrigan Gallery from April 2 through April 30 with an opening reception held on April 2  from 5 to 8 p.m.  The gallery is located at 62 Queen Street in downtown Charleston. This is Phillips’ first solo show.

The artist explains “Building Babylon (is woman’s work)” consists of three elements:  The title of the series, the iconography within the 32 monotypes and the non-verbal titles of each piece.  This series can be approached as conceptual, inviting the viewer to integrate the disparate components into a dialogue to access for her or himself possible modes of experience.  This dialogue, the prism through which the work can be seen, is intended to include both the individual monotype and the body of work as a whole.  Explicit images of femaleness juxtapose metaphors of the masculine.

How does an authentic femaleness navigate the fine line that divides the perception of woman’s body as sacred/profane, adored/excoriated, protected/brutalized, idealized/marginalized?  These are core, albeit not exclusive, questions I ask of my work and myself.

Babylon, the mythical, the biblical, the historical, projects a rich ground of metaphor in which today’s experience of the femaleness of being can be couched. The masculine attributes of Babylon, conqueror and lawgiver, also embrace the feminine: Babylon is the Greek variant of the Akkadian Babilu, meaning “gateway to the gods.”  A place both of renowned beauty and of exile, Babylon has, throughout history, come to represent depravity and oppression.”

This series was made in collaboration with John McWilliams, photographer and Mary Walker, printmaker. A portion of sales’ proceeds from the show will go to the Center for Women.

Phillips was born in Jamaica to a Sephardi family.  Her ancestors’ lives as secret Jews in Iberia and their flight from Portugal to Amsterdam and on to Jamaica in the mid-1600s, is central to her family history. Raised and educated in Jamaica and Switzerland, she attended the School of Oriental Languages in Paris then passed a decade in London, before returning to Jamaica where she worked in politics.  Immigrating to the United States in the late 1970s, Phillips settled in Charleston where she graduated from the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts in 1990.

Phillips has always had an interest in voices on the margin. From childhood in Jamaica, she was aware of the economic inequities based on class and the reduced role of women objectified according to social status in traditional idealized roles of wife/mother/mistress or as domestics.  Later, as assistant to the Jamaica Labor Party’s Edward Seaga, then Leader of the Opposition, Jennifer worked on the assembly of a report to Amnesty International and the OAS on the massive fraud and violence that accompanied the 1976 General Election.  She recorded, by hand, the eye witness accounts of the largely poor and illiterate polling station workers from across the island who were the often themselves victims of violence.  In Charleston Jennifer trained as an interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, conducting videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors in South Carolina.

Corrigan Gallery, now in its fifth year, is a culmination of 22 years of experience in the Charleston art market.  The gallery represents more than a dozen artists in an intimate space and presents 6 to 10 shows per year with the gallery being refreshed every month.  Visiting artists are included in the yearly roster with most of the artist being either Charleston natives or individuals living in Charleston. A gallery of contemporary works exploring the depth and intellect behind the drive to create, Corrigan Gallery provides a breathing space around the historic city’s traditional bent. Open six days a week and other times by appointment, the gallery can be viewed 24 hours a day at http://www.corrigangallery.com, contacted by phone 843 722 9868 or email art@lesecorrigan.com.

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Paul Mardikian’s Palimpsest Opening March 5 at Corrigan Gallery

Paul Mardikian, ink, acrylic, polymer on wood © 2010

Artist/conservator Paul Mardikian will present his newest series entitled “Palimpsest” at Corrigan Gallery llc from March 3 through March 30 with an opening reception held on March 5 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM as part of the French Quarter Gallery Association  spring artwalk.  The gallery is located at 62 Queen Street in downtown Charleston.

A palimpsest, from the Greek “again I scrape,” is a manuscript usually written on papyrus or parchment on which more than one text has been recorded, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible.  Mardikian feels that a ghost emerging from the past and any surface can become a palimpsest — our body, our memory, layers of wallpaper or paint, love letters, notes or flowers lost in books. He sees the earth itself as a giant palimpsest in perpetual rearrangement. The term is often used in archaeology to describe traces or earlier phases of construction in the midst of, and below, modern occupation levels.

Mardikian’s work reminds us that a painting is more than a two dimensional illusion, it is a true spatial composition made up of multiple painting events. The accumulation of multiple layers acts as a mystic writing pad or magic slate.  Even though certain information appears to be irreversibly erased, the substrate can survive and become visible under certain conditions. Texts, symbols, and erasures are superimposed and become part of a spatial and temporal composition.  Each of Mardikian’s new works resembles a palimpsest with its unique layered history. Binders and pigments are added and subtracted to recompose the visible skin of the painting. “My paintings should be seen as an open window to a world of poetry and reverie.  Similar to exploring archaeological layers, my work  opens a window to the past, and superimposes one image over another, so that both the past and the present are visible at once.”

“My artwork is probably the result of a wide combination of influences including -but not exclusively- my work as an archaeological conservator over the last 20 yrs. It is also a blend of cultures and encounters with splendid individuals and places. My heart is filled with European, African, Asian, Australasian and American wonders.  Most of my early work is inspired by Lascaux and rock art in general. Not really for the representational power of the animals, more for their abstract beauty and the miracle of their preservation. This incredible preservation after some 18,000 years is the result of an unexpected combination between the human hand and the mineral substrate. The human being behind the trace is long gone but the trace remains almost intact. This thought inspires and fuels all of my work.  Does not the same thing occur with our memory?”

Paul Mardikian was born in France in 1963 and spent most of his childhood near Paris. At the age of 25, while studying archaeology and conservation science at the School of the Louvre and the Sorbonne University, Mardikian developed his own painting techniques and tools that he now uses to convey his feelings through abstract painting, abstraction being something the artist feels is a state of mind, a particular way to look at the world and comprehend its substance.  Mardikian’s training in art restoration offered him a precious understanding of the chemical, physical, and optical properties of paint.

Mardikian’s career in conserving archaeological artifacts, such as those of the Titanic and the Hunley submarine, has fueled his inspiration.  Being directly connected to the past, discovering and preserving the fragile remains of ancient civilizations, has left a mark on his artwork.  “Interpreting abstract traces of humanity such as imprints, traces of fire, tracks, trash, brush stokes, graffiti, and scarifications left by a human being on any given substrate are part of this iconography. Those traces, whether intentional or inadvertent, are symbolic of the temporary physical presence of a person in the flux of time.”

Corrigan Gallery, now in its fifth year, is a culmination of 22 years of experience in the Charleston art market.  The gallery represents more than a dozen artists in an intimate space and presents 6 to 10 shows per year with the gallery being refreshed every month.  Visiting artists are included in the yearly roster with most of the artist being either Charleston natives or individuals living in Charleston. A gallery of contemporary works exploring the depth and intellect behind the drive to create, Corrigan Gallery provides a breathing space around the historic city’s traditional bent.  Open six days a week and other times by appointment, the gallery can be viewed 24 hours a day at http://www.corrigangallery.com, contacted by phone 843 722 9868 or email art@lesecorrigan.com.

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Corrigan Gallery Presents “Forrest at the Beach” by John Hull on February 5

Corrigan Gallery is pleased to present the first solo show in South Carolina for painter John Hull. Hull’s show entitled “Forrest at the Beach” will be the first of his work with a Lowcountry background. A reception is on Friday, February 5 from 5 to 8pm. The show will run through the end of the month finishing on February 28.

Having begun as a journalist who wanted to be a novelist, this storyteller creates in paint stories of life passages – “a series of psychological stories filled with boredom and wonder.” Continuing to refine his story and referencing the high horizon line used by Frederick Remington in these new works, the beach scenes have Forrest, Hull’s dog – named for Bedford Forrest, the Confederate General – as the only animation in the works. Forrest finds the beach and marsh of Folly Island all his for the taking. Do not make the mistake of thinking “oh what a lovely painting of a dog running on the beach.” To simplify the viewing of Hull’s work would be a serious error in judgment. There is a depth of thought and process put into his work. This series is possibly the most solitary of his works at first glance – as he sinks deeper into the milieu one could wonder how his Lowcountry work will evolve in the scheme of his peopled narratives. But at second look, one notices that Forrest is in charge and has complete command of his location. He is at ease, having fun, exploring and free from the limitations of others or structured surroundings. John

Hull holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and masters in fine art from the University of Illinois. Most notably, His work is included in collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Israel Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Greenville County Art Museum, the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum and Yale University Art Gallery. He has exhibited since 1981 with a long list of solo shows including at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and More Gallery, Philadelphia as well as the J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. With many other shows nationwide, the most recent solo shows were at the Wichita Art Museum in 2006 and the Alpha Gallery, Boston in 2007.

The impressive list of show locations in which Hull has participated includes: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Academy of Design, Borgenicht Gallery, P.S. 1, One Penn Center, Tatistcheff Gallery and A.R.T. Resources all in New York; the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, The Center for the Visual Arts, Plus Gallery and Ron Judish Fine Arts in Colorado; the Neuburger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; The National Gallery of New Zealand; the Tampa Art Museum, Florida; The Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana; the New House Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor, New York; Rutgers University Art Museum, Newark, New Jersey; the Butler Museum of Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles; Ulrich Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas; the Yale University Art Gallery; the Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and the Greenville County Art Museum and the Halsey Institute in South Carolina. Hull received four National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists’ Fellowships, one from the Maryland Arts Council, the Thomas Benedict Clarke Prize for Painting in 2004 from the National Academy of Design and an Achievement Award in 1995 from American Artist Magazine. He has taught at Augustana College in Illinois, Yale University and the University of Colorado. He is currently Professor of Painting and Department Chair of Studio Art at the College of Charleston.

Just off the corner of Meeting and Queen streets in the historic French Quarter, the Corrigan Gallery exhibits works of art both representational and abstract possessing the charm of old Charleston with a contemporary edge, representing artists whose work is beyond the traditional approach to the southern landscape. Artistic vision partnered with an intellectual strength and astute handling of the materials describes the work on display. Photographs, fine art prints and paintings all find a place in the gallery while awaiting the trip to your home. Other artists represented are Manning Williams, Mary Walker, Lynne Riding, Duke Hagerty, Gordon Nicholson, Tim Fensch, Max Miller, John Moore, Kristi Ryba, Lolly Koon, Kevin Bruce Parent, Lese Corrigan and Sue Simons Wallace with visiting artists regularly. The Corrigan Gallery is showing works that are art for the sake of art. The art will fulfill the beholder’s need for beauty and the collector’s wish for strong investments. This is art for the soul; art that allows the eyes to breath fresh air.

Charmingly contemporary art for the discriminating and the novice collector is available 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and by appointment. The gallery can be reached at 843 722 9868 or art@lesecorrigan.com. The news portion of the http://www.CorriganGallery.com website remains up to date with images being updated on a varied basis.

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Corrigan Gallery Presents Manning Williams Show “Respecting the Past” October 2

Corrigan Gallery is pleased to present works of artist Manning Williams in a show entitled “Respecting the Past” made up of his early pieces.  These works mark the path of his rise as a spectacular and notable southern painter.  These special jewels from his studio are sure to please and provide a timeline for his life’s work.  The opening reception for this show will be from 5- 8 pm on Friday, October 2 as part of the French Quarter Gallery Association artwalk.

The Corrigan Gallery is honored and excited to have the opportunity to showcase these earlier representational works by Charleston native Manning Williams.  His work is legendary to many – his series of Indians and the series of landscapes, which often were gigantic. Trucks replaced the Indians and a series of narrative paintings tackling war followed those. The past eighteen years of work based on cartoon format with abstract imagery still shows many figurative aspects in it and strong threads connecting these paintings to his earlier work and sense of composition.

“I consider myself a narrative painter. Yet times have changed the way we see the world. TV, movies, and the Internet pour out information faster than we could have ever imagined only a few years back. My work today is about finding a new way to narrate our times,” said Williams in the recent years.  Going through his studio it becomes very apparent how he made the “leap” to the current work. This show will please his former collectors and help illuminate for all the progression of his vision.

Manning Williams was born in Charleston in 1939. He received his BS from the College of Charleston before doing graduate work at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  Williams’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with solo shows in Charleston, New Orleans, Washington, at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Art and the Greenville Museum of Art. Group shows including his work were “Second Story Show” at Piccolo Spoleto in 2002, “100 Years/100 Artists, Views From the 20th Century,” at the South Carolina State Museum in 1999-2000, and “Old South, New South” at Winthrop College in 1995. In 2004, Williams and Linda Fantuzzo had a duo show at the Gibbes Museum of Art entitled Framing a Vision: Landscapes.  Williams had a solo show at the Florence Museum of Art in 2008.

Williams has received a SC Arts Commission Fellowship.  His best known commissions are displayed at the Charleston Airport and the East Cooper Hospital. His poster for the “New Figurative Painting” exhibition is included in “Fairfield Porter: A catalogue raisonné of his prints.”  Williams produced the book jacket and illustrations for “Poems from the Scorched Earth” by James Everett Kibler (2001).  His work has been the subject of reviews and feature stories, and included in the video “Charleston Art Now.”  His work hangs in public and corporate collections, among them the SC Arts Commission, R.J. Reynolds Corporation, Citizens and Southern National Bank, Post & Courier Publishing Company, Kiawah Resort Association, Greenville County Museum, South Carolina State Museum and the Gibbes Museum of Art. Most recently his work was included in the MUSC Contemporary Carolina Collection and the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia.  He is included in the Southern Registry of artists.

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