Mt. Pleasant artist collective to present exhibition of oils at City Gallery

The City of North Charleston’s Cultural Arts Department is pleased to announce that works by the Mt. Pleasant based artist group, Friends with Brushes, will be on exhibit at the North Charleston City Gallery from September 1-30, 2012. The public is invited to attend a free reception at the gallery hosted by the artists on Thursday, September 6, from 5pm-7pm. 

Friends with Brushes is a group of local emerging and established artists seeking excellence interpreting their surroundings, whether it is abstraction, realism, or somewhere in-between. Members include Roberta Byron, Sandra Wrenn, Denise Avera, Kathy Clark, Janie Schloss, Martina Yearwood, and Phyllis Leventis. The group will exhibit mostly Lowcountry landscapes and still-lifes in oil, offering viewers a unique and interesting way of seeing the southern lifestyle.

The North Charleston City Gallery is located in the common areas of 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.

Works by Elena Barna at City Gallery in May

Works by Elena Barna will be on display at the North Charleston City Gallery during the month of April. Barna, winner of the 2012 North Charleston Arts Festival Design Competition, will display works in acrylic and oils featuring a variety of subjects, including her winning piece, My Muse.

The artist's work will be on display May 1-31, 2012. A free opening reception will be held at the gallery on May 5, from 10:00am-4:00pm and May 6, from 2:00pm-5:00pm. The artists will be present and the public is invited to attend.

Titled Expanding the Horizon, Barna’s first solo exhibition strives to show viewers the many sides of her art. Works on display showcase the breadth of her inspirations and will include portraits, still lifes, and nature scenes. “The first and major inspiration for my art is people,” Barna explains. “I’ve done some body painting in the past and have translated that process onto canvas.” Viewers will enjoy portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Bob Marley, as well depictions of the artist’s friends and family. Other portraits share the same style and inspiration as her winning design, featuring a beautiful woman disappearing into a mosaic atmosphere.

Another prominent source of inspiration for the artist comes from her homeland, Russia. “I’ve done some work with Russian old style painting,” she says. “In general it’s flowers and some flowery designs mainly inspired by masterpieces by Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel.”

Barna’s style is heavily inspired by the Impressionism and Post-impressionism art movements, as well as Art Nouveau. She cites Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Monet, Degas, and Alphonse Mucha as artists she admires. Preferring to work in acrylic and oil, her work features vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and realistic subject matter, mainly people. Form and color are central to her aesthetic and shimmering surfaces and rich dabs of paint characterize her paintings.

Born in 1987 in Volgograd, Russia, Elena Barna came to Charleston in 2008 to work for the summer and learn about life in America.  To her surprise, she fell in love with the city, the Carolina Lowcountry, and resident Josh Barna.  After returning home to complete her education and the long process of legal immigration, Elena and Josh were married following her return to Charleston in 2009.  She currently lives and works in North Charleston with Josh and their bull mastiff, Phoenix.

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.  Inquiries regarding the artist 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. For information about the North Charleston Arts Festival visit www.NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com.

Entries Sought for 2012 North Charleston Arts Festival Judged Fine Art & Photography Competitions & Exhibitions

Fine artists and professional and amateur photographers ages 18 and up are invited to participate in the annual North Charleston Arts Festival Judged Fine Art and Judged Photography Competitions and Exhibitions, which will be on display throughout the Charleston Area Convention Center Complex May 4-12, 2012. Cash prizes are awarded for winning entries. Details for participation are available for download on the Applications page at www.NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com. The deadline for submissions is 7:00pm on Thursday, May 3, for photography, and noon on Friday, May 3, for fine art. Entry fees are $5 and $10, respectively.

Fine artists may submit work in 5 categories: Acrylic, Oil, Drawing/Pastel, Watercolor, and Mixed Media. Entries will compete for cash prizes totaling up to $4425. Awards are at the sole discretion of the juror, Kimberly H. Spears. As the Executive Director of the Anderson County Arts Council, Ms. Spears oversees the rotating gallery exhibitions in the Anderson County Arts Center. She has served as juror for art exhibitions around the state. 

Photographers may submit work in the Professional/Advanced division or Amateur division under the categories of Color or Monochrome. Entries will compete for cash prizes totally up to $1450 and are judged using the Photographic Society of America Print Guidelines. Scoring is done by three competent judges in the field of photography who will score entries using the 3-9 range of scores. Each judge will evaluate each entry as a whole, considering the areas of Impact, Composition, and Technique. However, there is no specific weighting or allotment of points for each category. This system is used efficiently and effectively by many councils, at international exhibitions, and by camera clubs. It allows an adequate qualitative separation of entries while lessening the potential for a large number of the higher scoring entries having identical scores. In the event of a tie-breaker, judges will choose the winning entry. 

Awards for both competitions will be announced at an artist reception on Friday, May 4, from 6:00-7:00pm at the Charleston Area Convention Center, located at 5001 Coliseum Drive in North Charleston. Exhibition viewing times are Saturday, May 5, 10:00am – 4:00pm; Sunday, May 6, 2:00pm – 5:00pm; Monday through Friday, May 7-11, 9:00am – 5:00pm; and Saturday, May 12, 9:00am – 12:00pm. 

The North Charleston Arts Festival, scheduled May 4-12, is one of the most comprehensive arts festivals in the Lowcountry, providing thousands of residents & visitors with a fabulous array of performances, exhibitions, and activities. The Main Event, held the first weekend in May, offers free admission and parking to over 40 performances on four stages. Other Main Event activities include exhibitions, a gem and mineral show, an antique show, children’s activities, art and crafts booth, and food court. The Arts Festival continues with over 50 free or moderately priced ticketed events throughout the week at various locations and concludes with fireworks over the Cooper River at the Grand Finale at Riverfront Park. 

For more information about the North Charleston Arts Festival, or to download applications for the Judged Fine Art and Photography Competitions and Exhibitions, visit www.NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com. For more information about other exhibition opportunities, visit http://bit.ly/culturalarts or call the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department office at 843-740-5854.