There are two art-show receptions on the calendar for Sept. 8 – one in Augusta and one in Aiken. Sacred Heart Cultural Center will open a show by Judy Gillespie and Ginny Griffin, with a reception scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Across the river, the Aiken Center for the Arts will host a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. for several featured exhibits.
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Both Gillespie and Griffin grew up in Augusta, so their opening is sure to draw a crowd of friends to Sacred Heart’s lower level hallway gallery. Gillespie, who earned a bachelor of fine arts from Augusta State University, creates acrylic paintings that are bold and colorful with dramatic skies, as well as photo-insert works that blur the line between photography and painted canvas.
Griffin studied at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Florida State University and ASU, and has participated in painting workshops in North Carolina and Maine. She enjoys taking her camera along on her travels and bringing images home to paint.
For the Aiken show, Augustan Lillie Morris is presenting the January Man Series, which includes 12 paintings based on a song by Scottish songwriter Dave Goulder. Each painting interprets lyrics related to one month of the year. She is also showing four abstract collaged works from her Four Seasons series. See more of her work at www.lilliemorrisfineart.com and http://lilliemorris.blogspot.com.
• Sculptural work by Ashley Gray is also on exhibit in Aiken. Growing up in Arkansas, Gray loved to paint, then discovered a passion for sculpture at Boston University, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts. Prior to moving to Aiken, she lived in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Alfred, N.Y., a small town with a strong ceramics tradition. In Augusta, she has taught at the Art Factory and the Gertrude Herbert. Examples of her work can be found at www.ashley-gray.com.
• A third show at the Aiken Center is a group exhibition by woodblock artists Kent Ambler, Jan Heath, John Hilton, John McWilliams, Myrna Spurrier and Mary Walker. Gretchen Hash-Heffner’s equine art is featured in the Aiken Artist Guild’s gallery at the center.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED is the title for an exhibit of ceramic art by members of Clay Artists of the Southeast now open at the Arts and Heritage Center in North Augusta. Organized by CASE as part of this year’s Westobou Festival, the exhibit will have a delayed reception Sept. 29, but you can go ahead and see it now. Artists featured in the exhibit have interpreted the theme by creating functional or sculptural pieces, all incorporating a whimsical or unexpected element.
ODDFELLOWS GALLERY on Eighth Street is showing Retrospective: The Artwork of Will Fahnoe, on exhibit through the end of October. Fahnoe was a familiar figure in the Augusta art community for years, having taught at Augusta State University, the Gertrude Herbert, and Davidson Fine Arts School. As a working artist, he maintained a studio downtown until his death in 2009.
THE MADISON, GA., Artists Guild and the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art have teamed up to bring works by Philip Morsberger and Anita Huffington to the museum in Morgan County. The exhibit, The Eye of the Beholder, showcases the work of the two friends, one a painter, the other a sculptor.
Morsberger is a former Morris Eminent Scholar in Art at Augusta State University and paints daily in his downtown Augusta studio. He travels frequently to Oxford University in England, where he was Ruskin Master of Drawing from 1971 to 1984. This summer he was artist-in-residence at St. Edmund Hall there. Huffington’s figural sculptures in stone, wood, bronze and mixed media are included in numerous museum collections.
The show was co-curated by Lisolette Johnsson and Karen Strelecki of the Madison Artists Guild. An opening reception will be Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Steffen Thomas Museum, 4200 Bethany Road, Buckhead.
THE FIRE HOUSE GALLERY in Louisville, Ga., is presenting a show titled Dixie Icons: Re-Visioning the Dixie Myth, to mark the publication of Dreaming of Dixie – How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture, by Karen L. Cox, professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. The opening reception, scheduled Saturday, Sept. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m., will include a reading and book signing by Dr. Cox.
Printmakers in the show have created works that focus on the role of the graphic arts in popular notions and cultural stereotypes of the American South in the century following the Civil War, based on images included in the Cox book.
CALL FOR ARTISTS: The Aiken Center for the Arts is inviting artists and photographers to participate in a nonjuried show called You and Your Dog, to be staged Oct. 5-Nov. 11 as part of a Wild With Dogs exhibition in partnership with the Aiken Woman’s Club and Aiken County Public Library. Contact Kristin Kingsland Brown, executive director, at (803) 641-9094 for application information.
PAINTERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, poets and artistic park enthusiasts are invited to apply for the South Carolina State Park Service’s artist-in-resident program. Chosen artists are given a one-week stay in a state park cabin, and in return must donate a completed original work. For application information and a list of participating parks, call Mark Davies at Cheraw State Park, (843) 537-9656 or e-mail mdavies@scprt.com.
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