Elizabeth Roberts McFalls & Samantha Meeker at City Gallery

Drawings and oils by Georgia based artists on
view throughout month of August.

Hamilton Hill by McFalls

Elizabeth Roberts McFalls uses historical photographs of the rural southeast as a reference and departure point for her pen and ink drawings and lithographs. The pieces in her exhibit, titled At Rest, reflect on the ideas of family, community, and heartbreak expressed in the photographs, while also confronting issues like mortality, sacrifice, and false sentimentality. “Revealing, concealing, and reinventing truths is central to my art making process,” she explains. “In my drawings and prints I question how we categorize ourselves and relate to one another through a veil of romanticized history.” 

McFalls has exhibited in a number of group and solo exhibitions both regionally and nationally. She has also given several artist lectures at colleges and universities throughout the country. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA. For more information on the artist and her work, visit www.roberts-mcfalls.com. 

Also on exhibit at the gallery are works by Samantha Meeker. Her exhibition, Lovers & Fighters, features a combination of two sets of figurative oil paintings. The Lovers series addresses the idea of what men will do for women in the name of love, such as enduring great humiliation, pain, and sacrifice. The Fighters series focuses on struggle and conflict.  The pieces, which depict fighters in a ring, were created at a time when the artist was battling with many aspects of her life, including family, college, and learning to paint. “The scenes of the fighters are all representative of emotions I was feeling while undergoing this life balance,” she explains. 

Watching You by Meeker

Meeker received a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009. Her work is currently being shown in Atlanta and has recently been juried into two national exhibitions. For more information on the artist and her paintings, visit www.samanthameeker.com. 

Both artists’ work will be on display from August 1-31, 2011. The gallery will host a reception on Thursday, August 4, from 5pm-7pm. The public is invited to attend. 

The North Charleston City Gallery is located in the Charleston Area Convention Center with free parking and admission during regular Convention Center operating hours 9:00AM – 5:00PM, daily.  The Gallery is staffed on Friday, Saturday, and Monday only.   Inquiries regarding artists or purchase information may be directed to the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at (843) 740-5854. For information on additional exhibits, programs, and events, visit the Cultural Arts section of the City’s website at www.northcharleston.org.

Alan Finch & Curtis Bartone at City Gallery

Alan Finch and Curtis Bartone will be on exhibit at the
North Charleston City Gallery during the month of July.

Lay Down with the Lamb

Alan Finch will present digital photography in his exhibition titled I Wish I Was a Camera. Inspired by spontaneity, Finch’s abstract nature photographs feature extreme close-ups of natural and organic materials with manipulations executed before the photos are taken. Most of the images are of rock formations and organic materials at a remote island on Norris Lake at Norris Dam State Park and at the artist’s home in Clinton, TN. 

Finch has worked as a visual artist for the past 25 years. His photography, paintings, sculpture, and performance art videos have been included in numerous national, regional, and local juried shows and invitationals, including the Positive/Negative National Exhibition. His photographs have recently been exhibited in the McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, TN, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Oak Ridge Museum of Art, and the Rose Center in Morristown, TN. 

Grace

The gallery will also feature paintings, etchings, and lithographs by Savannah, GA, artist, Curtis Bartone. Bartone’s works depict human beings’ relationship to the environment. Each piece explores our fear and fascination with poisonous flora and fauna and how that contrasts with our indifference to manmade, ubiquitous, and seemingly benign toxins and hazards. “Here in Georgia, we worry about black widow and brown recluse spiders, while ignoring real threats like the toxins spewed from our factories and the pesticides and herbicides we use on the lawns where our children play,” he explains. 

Bartone has exhibited and lectured throughout the US and abroad. His work is part of several public collections such as the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Grinnell College in Iowa, and the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Illinois.  He is currently a printmaking instructor for the Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Both artists’ work will be on display from July 2-31, 2011. A free reception, featuring a performance by the pop group Rabbit, will be held at the gallery on Thursday, July 7, from 5pm-7pm. The public is invited to attend. 

The North Charleston City Gallery is located in the Charleston Area Convention Center with free parking and admission during regular Convention Center operating hours 9:00AM – 5:00PM, daily.  The Gallery is staffed on Friday, Saturday, and Monday only.   Inquiries regarding artists or purchase information may be directed to the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at (843) 740-5854. For information on additional exhibits, programs, and events, visit the Cultural Arts section of the City’s website at www.northcharleston.org.