- John Stoehr
Arts Editor
There's more to art than you think. It's not just theater, paintings, books and dance. It's the enterprise of human creativity and it takes vastly different shapes and forms. Here you'll find my thoughts about the arts in Charleston and beyond. Neither of us knows what to expect.
Category Archives: Visual Arts
The Gibbes’ Landscape of Slavery: the Plantation in American Art
March 3, 2008 – 1:07 pm
A years-in-the-making exhibit by the Gibbes Museum of Art that looks at American history by way of images of slave plantations is receiving critical acclaim.
Called Landscape of Slavery: the Plantation in American Art, the show is currently on display at the University of Virginia’s Art Museum in Charlottesville through April 20. It will return to […]
This should make the Gibbes wince a little
February 14, 2008 – 1:55 pm
The Gibbes Museum of Art has been thinking about building a new facility for a long time, because the current building, while historically and aesthetically valuable, is not an ideal (it’s not even a very good) space for showcasing the art works of the current century and last.
The completion, in 2006, of a $25 million […]
Journal: Street art is crap, he says
February 2, 2008 – 10:04 am
From the Times of London — J.S.
Do you like adolescent entertainment? Do you have the mentality of a teenager? Do you find Cézanne a bit overrated? If the answer is yes, yes and yes, then I don’t know what to do with you. You are a childish philistine literalist. Get down to Bonhams (one of […]
Review: The Halsey’s Red State Blues
January 22, 2008 – 10:30 am
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art opened its first exhibit of the new year last Friday with Red State Blues, a showcase of S.C. artists concerned about the current state of politics in the Lowcountry, the Piedmont, and beyond. Kevin Murphy went to see the exhibit. He sent us this review. —J.S.
Bombs hang from the […]
Journal: The Eyes of War
December 5, 2007 – 8:16 am
From my review in today’s City Paper . . .
When I learned of an exhibit at the Center for Photography at Alterman Studios featuring the war portfolios of three Air Force photographers, I was skeptical.
First, because pictures of military action in Iraq and Afghanistan are censored by the U.S. Department of Defense. Second, because combat […]
Blood & Guts: Two More Deadly Sins
November 15, 2007 – 7:05 pm
You’ve already seen “Lust,” one of a series of egg-tempura panels by Paul Cadmus, the fantastical realist who inspired Jill Eathorne-Bahr to choreograph her own Seven Deadly Sins (to be performed at Charleston Ballet Theatre studios Friday and Saturday night; read the whole story here). The thing about “Lust” is that she’s awful. As I […]
She does robots
November 13, 2007 – 4:14 pm
Jessie Bower is one of the profiles in our cover story for this week, on the subject of giving in recognition of National Philanthropy Week. The idea here is there are many people — often very young people — who have the ability to go into the private sector, to become lawyers and accountants and […]
Modernisme to close
November 10, 2007 – 2:43 pm
Modernisme announced today that it will close after Nov. 21.
The announcement was made via email in a message to patrons of the gallery, which has since 2006 built a reputation as a forum for local contemporary artists who have had difficulty gaining entrée to commercial space in downtown galleries.
The reason for the closure was financial, […]
On The Other Side
October 11, 2007 – 2:40 pm
There’s only one week left to catch The Other Side, the Robert Lange Studios Upstairs show that features some of the best work from several galleries around town. Up till October 18 you can see a great variety of work there, including Nathan Durfee’s figurative paintings, Glenn Friedel’s effervescent abstracts, and a painting of a […]
Spark Studios Show
September 30, 2007 – 12:52 pm
Danny McSweeney, owner of Spark Studios and Gallery on Hagood, is devoting his space to his old mate Waseem Touma for Ipseity through Oct. 5. The two sculptors met at Kansas City Art Institute and McSweeney’s been looking for an excuse to show his work ever since. Touma’s art is so ambitious and twisted that […]
