We are excited to announce the newest location in our Jasper Galleries series: Jasper Galleries at the Koger Center. As part of our effort to promote local artists and support local art endeavors, Jasper has teamed up with the Koger Center to craft this gallery space with hopes to draw more visitors to the Center and to create a new stop in the Vista’s existing Third Thursday.
Presently, Thomas Crouch is scheduled for January, Lindsay R. Wiggins is scheduled for February, and Quincy Pugh is scheduled for March. Each show will have an Opening Reception and Artist Talk on the Third Thursday of their respective month, and the work will remain up for the remainder of the 4-week period separating shows.
Thomas Crouch is a visual artist in Columbia SC. After studying at The Lorenzo De Medici School of Art 1990-92 in Florence, Italy he graduated from the University of South Carolina Bachelor of Arts in 1997. He was accepted into the inaugural Sedona Summer Colony Artist Residency 2016 in Sedona, Arizona as well as the Con Artist Collective Winter Residency 2017 in Manhattan NY. He is a member of Solas Studio NYC and has work in private collections nationally and internationally.
On Thursday, January 19th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm, Crouch’s Opening Reception will initiate the new gallery with a showing of his new work entitled Process Abandon. He will hold an Artist Talk at 7:00pm, and art will be available to purchase during the reception as well as throughout the month via QR codes on each individual label.
According to the artist, “This group of paintings focuses on the process. Composition, texture, and value become the subject matter. I’ve wanted to do large abstract nonrepresentational pieces where the viewer can interpret the paintings rather than the artist dictate their experience. This departure from the animal portraiture I’ve done in the past is refreshing to me. Incorporating the two has been both frustrating and rewarding. Painting this way is interesting to me because the end result changes from day to day. The final image is not known to me. There are no blueprints to work on top of and no animals to envelope the canvas. Instead, thick brush strokes create linear texture and wheat pasted prints demand attention from the rest of the canvas. The images shown here that serve as a subject are merely vehicles for the piece. My work has continually changed over the years. This recent change is a return to early form as well as a new direction. Every new piece builds on the last while exposing something new. This group of paintings are the most recent examples of an ongoing process of layering looking and leaving.”
The work will hang in Koger’s Hallway Gallery, which is located on the 2nd floor of their main lobby. Many thanks to Nate Terracio (Director), Chip Wade (Marketing Director), and Emily Moffitt (Marketing and Administrative Assistant) at the Koger Center for their shared vision and their work in making this new location a possibility.
For more information about our spaces visit the Jasper Galleries page.