Art going out of the galleries and on the road

This weekend, Molly McDowell is taking her art on the road, or at least up the hill. Although she recently closed her gallery on Broad Street, she is already thinking out of the box by presenting Edward Rice, one of her top artists, in a very short-term exhibit at a private home on Milledge Road.

The exhibit will be open Friday evening, March 21, from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday afternoon from noon to 5 p.m.  That’s it. Call (706) 724-9542 for details.

Edward Rice, whose works have been shown in museums and galleries nationally and internationally, has always kept Augusta/North Augusta as his home base and has a contingent of devoted patrons in the area.  In addition to the detailed architectural paintings for which he may be best known, the exhibit will include works on paper and monoprints from the series he created with printmaker Phil Garrett’s King Snake Press in Greenville, S.C.  Subjects range from Southern and Italian architectural elements to botanicals to barns of the South Carolina lowcountry.

“Ed is one of the best painters anywhere for capturing light and mood and feeling from a single detail of a building,” Molly said. It would be hard to disagree with that assessment. Anyone who’s had the good fortune to spend time in front of an Ed Rice painting knows how easy it is to become engrossed in the way he can play light and shadow from window blinds across a tin roof.  He’s a meticulous researcher with a lifelong interest in Augusta’s history and natural history. He can tell you exactly what time of year and even what time of day is represented by the light in a particular painting, and probably how many trips he made until he found the light just the way he wanted it.  

If you’ve never had the opportunity to see his work, you’ll almost always find one or two of his paintings on display in the permanent collection at the Morris Museum of Art, and you can visit them for free on Sunday afternoons.

Count me among those who lament the closing of Molly’s Mary Pauline Gallery. She took a big risk 10 years ago when she left Atlanta, where she had gained significant gallery experience, to open her own contemporary gallery on Broad Street. In doing so, she set a new standard, built a strong, diverse stable of artists and developed a solid client base. Blessed with high energy, enthusiasm and a good deal of charm, she also became a champion of downtown Augusta’s young artists and restaurateurs and a hands-on supporter of Augusta’s arts community. During the past decade she married Jarod McDowell, and they now have two children, so she has added wife and mom to her collection of titles that include marathoner, world traveler, art patron, art peddler and chairman of various fundraisers and community events.

Her Broad Street building is currently temporary exhibition space for a group of Augusta State University students. Beyond that, she says, she has had discussions with various people and is open to ideas. In the meantime, she will take occasional shows out of the box and on the road.

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Speaking of road shows, the Morris Museum of Art has sent its John Baeder exhibition out on tour to Charleston, Asheville and Nashville, and the staff is in the process of installing an important exhibition with an unusually long title: Something to Look Forward To: Abstract Art by 22 Distinguished Americans of African Descent.

Opening festivities will be Tuesday, March 25. The show was organized by Bill Hutson, distinguished artist-in-residence at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and he will join internationally-known artist Sam Gilliam to talk about the how and why of it at 6 p.m. in the museum auditorium.

Following their talk, the museum’s Friends of African American Art affiliate group will host the opening reception, which runs until 8 p.m. You don’t have to be a museum member to attend. Pat Elam has succeeded Ann Johnson as president of the Friends, and members of the group will be on hand to share their knowledge about the artists in the exhibit.

According to museum director Kevin Grogan, this particular exhibit offers the opportunity to explore both the impact of abstract art in the overall consideration of art in the South, and the contribution of African Americans to one of the important art movements of the 20^th century. Several of the artists have strong Southern connections, including Sam Middleton, whose work represents jazz in visual terms, and Sam Gilliam, whose abstracted imagery has taken on abstract form. There are lots of programs planned during the exhibit, and you can visit www.themorris.org for more information.   

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At the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, a special exhibit by the multi-talented artist/writer Malaika Favorite will remain on display through the end of March. The Louisiana-born artist has had a remarkably wide-ranging career as poet, teacher and mixed media artist. Back in Augusta after several years in Atlanta, she recently completed a series of collage paintings incorporating landscapes and historic or notable structures.

With a Porter Fleming Foundation grant, she was able to complete 20 paintings of the Augusta area and eight based on Louisiana scenes. For the Augusta paintings, she photographed scenes throughout the city, and then worked some of the actual photographic images into the paintings to create multiple juxtaposed views. One Broad Street scene includes statues of James Brown, Oglethorpe and Confederate soldier Berry Benson. There is a triptych with views of the Savannah River, and several works focusing on historic sites in the Laney-Walker neighborhood. In creating this series, she said she set out to show some of the wonders that surround us every day, things we may not appreciate until we see them from another point of view, through the eyes of an artist. www.lucycraftlaneymuseum.com

You’ll also find work by Malaika Favorite illustrated on Pomegranate’s  sets of boxed notecards stocked by countless museum shops and bookstores around the country.

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And then there’s the art of dance.  The Augusta Ballet is giving us big names and live music for its fifth annual gala, Ballet Stars of New York.  The performance is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 28 at the Imperial Theatre with a black-tie reception to follow at the Augusta Museum of History.  Sponsors and donors will be treated to a pre-performance gathering in the Lamar Building Penthouse.

The performance will showcase some of the top names from the New York City Ballet.  Principal dancers Albert Evans and Wendy Whelan, the featured performers, will be joined by principals Charles Askegard, Megan Fairchild, Benjamin Millepied and Abi Stafford. Guest violinist Kurt Nikkanen will perform, with additional live music by the Augusta Symphony under the direction of Donald Portnoy.

For the gala reception, Caroline Morris and Greg Boulus are teaming up to transform the history museum rotunda into a sleek, elegant New York lounge with low benches and a central custom-built banquette carrying out a silver and white theme. Ann-Toni Estroff is creating a Lincoln Center inspired hors d’oeuvres menu, and Air Apparent will provide music for dancing. The NYC Ballet stars will attend the party, and they have been known to be among the first on the dance floor. Dickey Boardman and Marilyn Wangsnes are the overall chairmen for the event.

Performance tickets are $15-35, and reception tickets are $100. www.augustaballet.org