The Department of Fine Arts sponsors the Art Gallery Series in the Hyman Fine Arts Center’s Adele Kassab Art Gallery, hosting varied shows of two and three dimensional works showcasing local and regional artists. The Art Gallery Curator selects exhibitions that support and enhance the academic goals of the visual arts program at Francis Marion University, providing a non-profit institutional setting in the service of both students and the wider community. Information about previous exhibits may be found in Kassab Art Gallery Archive and additional exhibitions are displayed downtown at FMU’s University Place Steven F. Gately Gallery.
Giovanni Difeterici: graphics, paintings, multi-media
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
May 9 – September 28, 2023
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Thursday
Currently the Senior Director of Education at the Flatiron School, he uses his background in formal and graphic design in his role as an educator while maintaining a steady stream of frelance design work for everything from conferences to tarot cards. In his spare time he still like to experiment with sketching and painting to keep his eye active and feed the creative impulse. Creative thinking and the fundamentals of design are something Giovanni believes can be beneficially applied to all areas of life, a mindset he likes to share with his students.
Brittany Gilbert: Ephemeral
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
October 3 – November 9, 2023
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Gallery Talk and Reception 5:00 pm Thursday, October 12, 2023
Statement:
Through sequential and perceptual landscape painting, my work creates a record of my experience with perpetually fluctuating environments.
I paint the same space again and again building an intimacy from which I can respond to fluctuating conditions. With each noticeable change in appearance, I put the work aside to begin a new panel. I am interested in the shape shifts within my subject, as well as the freshness, decisiveness and immediacy of my response. The resulting image corresponds with the pace at which changes occur.
Nameable objects disappear and are replaced by shifts of colors and abstract shapes vying for attention before nestling back into obscurity. Sustained engagement allows me to respond to the unexpected.
Series are installed chronologically as a singular piece.
Bio:
Brittany graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York earning a BA in Studio Fine Arts, with minors in Art History and French. In 2015 she attended the Mount Gretna School of Art in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for its intensive six-week summer program focused on painting landscapes on location, as well as life drawing from models.
She is a 2018 MFA graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a concentration in painting. Her MFA thesis exhibition Prolonged Encounters was grounded in direct observations of changes in specific landscapes. In 2020 she participated in the Four Pillars Artist Residency in Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. During 2022 she was an artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.
Recent group exhibitions include the Four Pillars Mount Gretna Artist Residency at the Susquehanna Museum in Harrisburg, PA, Painting: 2011-2021 through Site:Brooklyn, New York, NY juried by Peter Frank and Chasing Light through Gallery 263 Cambridge, MA juried by Leah Triplett Harrington.
She is currently Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, Painting at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina.
Work in this exhibition has been supported by Francis Marion University’s Professional Development Grants.
This project is made possible through funding from the Florence Regional Arts Alliance’s Quarterly Grants Program, which is funded in part by HONDA and the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Thank you to these supporters.
Works by 3-D Design Classes
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
November 14 – December 7, 2023
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Students taking Three-Dimensional Design classes investigate organization techniques, with special emphasis on the plastic controls of form and space. They learn to use a variety of tools and various sculptural media, including wood, plaster and clay.
Equilibrium: Senior Show by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors Anna Boyce, Carmen Hunter, Chasity Johnson, Erin Pacay and Samuel Wachter
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
November 14 – December 7, 2023
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Senior shows are required of all students majoring in Visual Arts. These shows give students hands-on experience in selection and installation of artworks, publicity of exhibition, and external review by the University community and the general public.
Consolation Prize by Colleen Critcher
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
January 16 – February 22, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
“What is a drawing? For some it is the final step, the end goal. In my personal creative pursuits it is the preliminary step – the first in a series of steps towards physically manifesting a creative idea after it reveals itself. When a drawing is merely part of the artist’s process, it is often stowed away out of sight and rarely meets a visitor. While sorting through studio inventory, I recently discovered that sometimes a stack of drawings is all I have left of a series once the paintings have gone out into the world. They are a lovely consolation prize of sorts.
“I find the simplicity and ephemeral qualities of drawings to be most intriguing. Paper and pencil, or paper and simple pigments are generally one of the first means that we use to express ourselves. Long before we develop sophisticated spoken language, we can move crayons or watercolors and make marks. With very limited means a drawing can emerge. It requires no special training, no fancy materials or tools. This exhibition is the first time I have displayed only drawings for a solo exhibition. They express imperfection, impermanence, and a delightful kinship to the many paintings I have made about consumer culture over the years.”
Strained Resistance by Tiffany Thomas
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
January 16 – February 22, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
“Within the realm of ceramics, my artistic journey has primarily manifested in the creation of mugs, intricately carved to resemble gemstones. However, this installation of work marks a departure into a world where pieced together possibilities converge with the subtle undercurrent of discovery, inviting viewers into a realm of aesthetic exploration.
“In the crafting of this series, I have woven a tapestry of diverse elements, each contributing to the intricate narrative of the pieces. Dried flowers, nurtured and grown in my own garden, delicately dance with porcelain clay tiles bearing my poetry. These tiles are not mere surfaces; they become vessels of expression, intricately bound with thread. I’ve incorporated strips of discarded saris, breathing new life into the discarded. Sticks and limbs, gathered from my yard, form a tethered relationship with the clay and fabric, creating a web of abstraction that mirrors my innermost desire for control and brings to light the undefinable longing that has been a constant companion in my creative journey.
“Longing, an emotion that has posed a challenge throughout my life, takes center stage in this collection. The string that binds the porcelain tiles serves as a metaphor for the muddled, confusing nature of this indefinable feeling – a longing that lacks a name or a discernible beginning and end. It is undecipherable, a complex tapestry of emotions that offers strained resistance.
“Through these works, I extend an invitation to the viewer – a journey into the visual tapestry of my mind. It is a world teeming with complexity, confusion, and mess, beauty begs to form from chaos. The deliberate interplay of disparate materials and the commitment to creating a cohesive whole aim to mirror the multifaceted nature of human experience
“Ultimately, this collection is an ode to the beauty found within the messiness of life, an exploration of the complexities that define our existence. In embracing the chaos, I strive to offer viewers not just a visual feast but an opportunity for introspection and connection with their own intricacies.”
Minding the Gap by Katherine Colborn
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
March 5 – April 9, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Gallery Talk 4:00 pm, Thursday, March 21, 2024
Guest Lecture 11:30 am, Friday, March 22, 2024 in gallery and FAC 213
“The Immense and the Intimate: Slow Painting as a Practice of Contemplation”
Katherine Colborn is an artist living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her BA in Studio Art and English from Xavier University and her MFA in Studio Art with a focus on Drawing and Painting at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her work engages with themes of sanctuary and threshold, exploring the place of painting in a culture that values speed and production while saturated with an abundance of imagery.
She has completed residencies at Vermont Studio Center and the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland. Her work has been published internationally in ArtMaze Mag and she has exhibited her work around the United States. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Weston Art Gallery, ROY G BIV Gallery, Kansas City Artist Coalition, and Greensboro Project Space, as well as group shows with the Bolivar Gallery at the University of Kentucky, Site: Brooklyn in New York City, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. She most recently has taught at Northern Kentucky University and Xavier University and continues to work out of her studio in Camp Washington.
“My studio work is fueled by a desire to alleviate the contemporary pressures of a culture propelled by competition and production. I use framing and perspectival shifts to process images and structures at a time when—as a result of late capitalism and global crises—the concepts of home and rest are in constant flux. In an attempt to counter feelings of distance, upheaval and anxiety, painting is my quiet resistance: it encourages reflections upon transience and domestic life and offers space to navigate transition. It is an attempt to fix the unfixable—to pin down the fluid concept of the sacred.
“Inspired by hermeneutic philosophy and apophatic theology, I find myself swinging between contradictory states of belief. I am chasing steadiness in a liminal place that encompasses a simultaneous coming and going. This experience manifests itself most often in protected spaces, thus I’ve been led in my work to themes of threshold and sanctuary. My works create a respite and an entryway. They remind us that painting, in its stillness and imaginative capabilities, teaches us to rest where we do not live.”
Found and Formed by James Ray
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
March 5 – April 9, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
James Ray is a self-taught artist of all trades, currently focused on wood turning. His goal is simply stated as, “to reveal what mother nature has already created”. A native of South Carolina, he spent much of his youth and young adult years studying music and didn’t attempt wood working until much later. Though raised as a frame carpenter by his father, the idea of wood as medium of artistic expression didn’t occur to him until helping his parents remove a fallen tree at their home on Lake Murray and noticing the complex patterns created from the struggle of life. From the creation of his first piece, a simple guitar pic, to turning bowls and other pieces on a wood lathe, he has continued to experiment with what is possible to create with natures help.
In his mid-twenties James began a career as a commercial printer and has continued in that field for the last twenty years. Currently he works as a production manager of a print shop for the state of South Carolina and resides in his hometown of Saluda.
James gives most of his art away to friends and family but occasionally will sell items at craft shows.
“Though I consider myself an artist, it feels more like a revelation every time I create anything with wood. I will often begin a project with a specific shape or idea in mind, but it rarely comes out exactly as planned. There may be a defect in the wood that needs to be avoided or I may find something hidden that is just too beautiful to cut away. Those are my favorite things to work on — when I find something truly unique that could not have even been imagined.”
Visiting Artist Lecture Panel: Succeeding in Art & Design
Amy Fichter, Andrew Bogard & Hannah Phelps
Art History Lecture Room, Hyman Fine Arts Center 213
11:30 a.m., Monday, March 18 2024
Learn how visual artists and designers have succeeded and ways you can apply this to your career path. Coming from rural areas, these artists and designers offer knowledge of how to market, freelance, and pursue a lifelong career.
A panel discussion will follow the lectures. Students will have a chance to connect and ask questions to the panelists.
If you cannot attend, join virtually on Zoom:
https://fmarion-edu.zoom.us/j/81514336292?pwd=UE8xWks4SS9ZTGFBNHlhcm94SUE5QT09
Meeting ID: 815 1433 6292
Passcode: 132290
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
April 16 – May 2, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Senior shows are required of all students majoring in Visual Arts. These shows give students hands-on experience in selection and installation of artworks, publicity of exhibition, and external review by the University community and the general public.
Works by Ceramics and 3-D Design Classes
Kassab Gallery, Hyman Fine Arts Center
April 16 – May 2, 2024
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday-Friday
Students in ceramics classes learn processes and techniques in both wheel-throwing and hand building in the art and craft of pottery. Throwing leads progressively toward stoneware clay tooling, decorating, glazing and firing. As they advance through the curriculum, students add ceramic fabrications methods of slab-work, modeling from solid masses, and press molding. Multi-part forms and porcelain formula clay bodies are created as artistic discipline develops along with the individual’s philosophy, critical awareness and aesthetics.
Students taking Three-Dimensional Design classes investigate organization techniques, with special emphasis on the plastic controls of form and space. They learn to use a variety of tools and various sculptural media, including wood, plaster and clay.
