if ARTwalk: Salon I & II: December 11- 24, 2008

For exhibition installation images, click here.

THE SALON I & II

Dec. 11 – 24, 2008

an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations:

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

&

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln Street

Reception and ifART Walk: Thursday, Dec. 11, 5 – 10 p.m.

at and between both locations

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Open Christmas Eve until 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its December 2008 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents The Salon I & II, an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 5 – 10 p.m., if ART will hold opening receptions at both locations. The ifART Walk will be on Lady and Lincoln Streets, between both locations, which are around the corner from each other.

The exhibitions will present art by if ART Gallery artists, installed salon-style at both Gallery 80808 and if ART. Artists in the exhibitions include two new additions to if ART Gallery, Columbia ceramic artist Renee Rouillier and the prominent African-American collage and mixed-media artist Sam Middleton, an 81-year-old expatriate who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s.

Other artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Aaron Baldwin, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Stephen Chesley, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, Jerry Harris, Bill Jackson, Sjaak Korsten, Peter Lenzo, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Matt Overend, Anna Redwine, Paul Reed, Edward Rice, Silvia Rudolf, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, Mike Williams, David Yaghjian, Paul Yanko and Don Zurlo.

Works of Art: Christine Tedesco

Untitled, c.2003

Dupioni silk

12 x 12 in.

$450

All works of art by Christine Tedesco are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.1.

Essay: Christine Tedesco

CHRISTINE TEDESCO

By Wim Roefs

In Christine Tedesco’s quilts and textile pieces, the quilters of Gee’s Bend meet modern artists such as Josef Albers, 1960s color field painters and even Sean Scully. While Albers was hard to miss, Tedesco arrived at her style well before becoming aware of the Benders or the likes of Scully. But Tedesco shares with the quilters the traditional textile craft of the U.S. South, where she developed her interest in the medium. She also shares with them a modern abstract aesthetic.

Isolated from the modern art world, the Benders developed their remarkable style from the early 20th century in rural Southwest Alabama using old clothing and discarded fabric. Tedesco came to her style in part through formal art education, using fancier fabrics, especially silk. Tedesco’s quilts are “reminiscent of 20th century modern master Josef Albers’ paintings that explore the shifting character of color based on its neighboring color,” curator Lori Kornegay wrote for the 1999 South Carolina Arts Commission exhibition Practical Extravagance. They “reveal an examination of the architecture of color while also functioning as beautiful adornments for a bed or a chair.”

Tedesco mostly uses dupioni silk, which is often woven from two different colors of thread and shimmers and changes colors in the light. She makes vibrant, both colorful and more monochromatic textile pieces that show sure but fluid line work. While Tedesco creates both symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns, she also matches symmetry and asymmetry in a single design, placing smaller shapes off-center within an overall symmetrical, often grid-like design.

Tedesco is an architect, and her geometric compositions and patterns have an architectural quality in which shape and color interplay. Wallpaper magazine in 1999 referred in that context to Tedesco’s “rational approach to the design of each work and her recognition of the parallels between architectural construction and that of her own craft.”

During studies in Italy in the early 1990s she discovered Italian tile design. “I began to notice the beautiful tile work that was everywhere throughout the country,” Tedesco says. “I began to photograph, draw and make watercolors of these tiles.” Tile design and architectural design provided her with a visual vocabulary for her textile works. “I also began to incorporate the gold and jewel tones of mosaics in Italian and Byzantine churches.”

But the initial impetus for Tedesco’s art came from her upbringing in the South, where she grew up loving the creativity of cooking and sewing, including making clothing and handbags. “Later, the study of architecture furthered my visual awareness for things in a built environment,” Tedesco says. “The act of making or creating anything, whether it is a simple tile pattern, drafting a complex technical drawing or making a quilt or garment has always been an artistic endeavor for me.”

The Inventory: February 15-26, 2008

Untitled, c. 2003

Dupioni silk

12 x 12

$450

if ART

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

THE INVENTORY:

A Group Show of if ART artists

Feb. 15 – 26, 2008

Artists’ Reception: Friday, Feb. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For its February exhibition, if ART presents The Inventory, a group exhibition of artists from if ART Gallery. The show will consist of many new works by if ART artists as well as older pieces from the gallery’s inventory.

Included in the show will be work by Columbia artists Jeff Donovan, Mary Gilkerson, Marcelo Novo, Anna Redwine and David Yaghjian. Other South Carolina artists include Carl Blair, Jeri Burdick, Phil Garrett, Bill Jackson, Peter Lenzo, Dorothy Netherland, Matt Overend, Edward Rice, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, H. Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Katie Walker and Paul Yanko. Furthermore, the show will present work by former South Carolina residents Tonya Gregg, Eric Miller and Andy Moon. Also included are California collage artist Jerry Harris, Dutch painter Kees Salentijn and German artists Roland Albert, Klaus Hartmann and Silvia Rudolf.