Art and history a beautiful blend in downtown Aiken

Aiken, S.C. was recently named one of a dozen distinctive destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, so it should be no surprise that art and history make for a happy mix in the center of the city.

Take for instance the eclectic group at Studio 143, whose working spaces occupy the light-filled second floor of a restored historic building at 143 Laurens Street. All the studios have high ceilings and good light from large windows. Once buzzed-in past the locked entrance, visitors find an impressively wide staircase to the second floor.

The first studio on the left, overlooking the street, belongs to Barney Lamar, an established conservator who works to bring life back to dirty or damaged works of art. With lengthy apprenticeships in Europe and several years restoring art treasures at the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C., (and a brief stint as director of the Gertrude Herbert Art Institute in Augusta in the mid-1980s,) he has clients that include museums and private collectors around the country.

Other studios belong to a variety of artists, and there is a heavy concentration of dogs and horses in their subject matter. Studio 143 includes Julie Adams’ figural drawings, Sarah Taylor’s photographs of horses and dogs, and Ginny Southworth’s fine art photography and photomontages of birds and horses.

Leslie J. Alexander does atmospheric semi-abstracted figures in acrylics, and Christi Koelker’s photographs are often done as giclees on canvas or printed on watercolor paper, including an interesting Buddha series.  Louise Mellon, formerly a commercial horseracing photographer, produces brightly colored oil pastels on canvas or paper, concentrating on horses, polo and yes, dogs. www.Littlehouseart.com

Shelly Marshall Schmidt does sleek and stylish advertising photography, and lately has turned her talents to elegant large-scale photographs of sand hill cranes, blue herons and other animals. Pam Verenes’ work includes prints, pencil drawings and acrylics in a variety of subjects. Rounding out the current group is Barbara Strack whose door signage touts her technical writing, editing and indexing services, but she also has a sign saying: “The artist formerly known as….”

This being Aiken, the humans are often accompanied by their dogs. Beauregard and Tuxie are studio regulars.

Most of the artists show their work elsewhere, so Studio 143 is more working space than display space. About six months ago they opened a small storefront gallery at street level in the Croft Building, where they have occasional gallery receptions and participate in the downtown art walks.

Across the street at the Aiken Center for the Arts, several new exhibits are going up this week. In the Founders’ Gallery, a traveling exhibit sponsored by the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor highlights the cultural and historical connections between South Carolina and Barbados, West Indies. The exhibit includes some 70 objects created by South Carolinians and Barbadians. The show remains up through May 16. 

In the Wyatt Gallery will be garden sculpture by clay artist Ann Baker.
www.annbclay.com.  Jane Popiel is featured in the Aiken Artist Guild Gallery through April 29.  A reception for these exhibits is scheduled April 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. The center also has locally-made jewelry and a gift shop and hosts a variety of classes and community events. www.aikencenterforthearts.org

At the Jackson Gallery & Sculpture Garden, 300 Park Avenue SE, there are paintings by Paul Reed and Hollis Brown Thornton, paintings and sculpture by Bill Jackson and photography by Becky Jackson. www.jacksongallery.com

There are other visual arts venues in the Aiken area, and sometimes art can pop up in unexpected places. Check out paintings by well-known Aiken artist Anne Lattimore and family members in the window of Sundance Dry Cleaners on Laurens Street.

BACK ON THE GEORGIA SIDE OF THE RIVER:

The Morris Museum of Art has scheduled two April programs with noted artists. Yvonne Pickering Carter will talk about her career and her life as an artist April 4 at noon in the museum’s Art at Lunch series. One of the 22 artists spotlighted in the current exhibition of abstract art, she holds B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Howard University and headed the Department of Mass Media, Visual and Performing Arts at the University of the District of Columbia for many years. She now makes her home in the Charleston, S.C. area, where she is the owner of Gallery Cornelia, specializing in nationally recognized African American artists and contemporary women artists.

The Art at Lunch series gives audiences a chance to meet working artists in an informal setting, to hear about their work and ask questions. New Moon Café will provide the lunch, and the program costs $10 for museum members and $13 for non-members.  Reservations are required. www.themorris.org

Next up in the museum’s Terra Cognita Contemporary Artists Lecture Series is sculptor Nene Humphrey, who will speak at 6 p.m. April 17. She will discuss her three-dimensional pieces that incorporate a variety of fabrics including silk and felt. Following the lecture, there will be a reception and an opportunity to visit with the artist.

For the April exhibit at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, in conjunction with the first Augusta Photography Festival to be held in June, William Anderson has compiled a retrospective of black and white photographs from a period covering 1958 through 2008. This exhibition will be flanked by sculpture and a selection of paintings. Mr. Anderson is also the speaker for the museum’s monthly Senior Luncheon April 9, and will return for a special lecture on June 21. www.lucycraftlaneymuseum.com

Following up on last year’s nicely successful inaugural event, Walton Rehabilitation Hospital’s second Undercover Artists fundraiser will be held April 18 beginning at 7 p.m. More than 120 works of art will be up for silent auction. Their creators will be “undercover” because until later in the evening, signatures are covered, and no one knows which work is whose. The paintings, all done on 12 x 12-inch canvases, have been contributed by some of Augusta’s well-known artists as well as community leaders and local “celebrities.” Bidders will begin vying for paintings based solely on their response to the work. You could be the proud owner of an original Lucy Weigle or Jim Gensheer, or perhaps one by Mayor Deke Copenhaver or former mayor Larry Sconyers.

Enhancing the art-themed evening will be catering by Kevin Goldsmith’s TakoSushi, music by Daddy Grace, and “Artinis” served by “Artenders.”  Tickets cost $75, with proceeds benefiting the hospital, and you can give your tux a rest; casual attire is fine for this one. Call Vicki Greene at (706) 823-8584 for an invitation.

In addition to raising funds for Walton, the Undercover Artists event is designed to bring attention to the traveling Georgia Artists with Disabilities juried exhibition on display there through April 29. 

April 18^th will also be the opening day for an exhibit of woodcuts by South Carolina artist Kent Ambler at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art.  A 6 p.m. gallery talk and reception will be open to the public, with a $5 charge for non-members. Ambler’s work is included in more than a dozen public and corporate collections and hundreds of private collections around the world. He has also received several grant awards and exhibited in more than 30 shows during the past two years alone. Check out the work in advance at www.kentambler.com

First and third-floor galleries at GHIA will showcase works in a variety of media by graduating seniors at Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School April 17-May 2.  The institute is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  www.ghia.org