SC Arts Commission 40th Anniversary
With works by African-American artists who are among the state's best-known and widely celebrated practitioners, "The African-American Voice" traveling exhibition opened Oct. 25 at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina in Hilton Head as part of the South Carolina Arts Commission's 40th Anniversary.
The exhibition was on view at the Arts Center in Clemson from Jan. 15 – Feb. 29, 2008. Select exhibit pieces have also appeared at Clemson University’s Brooks Center for the Performing Arts. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County will host the exhibition February 3-March 1, 2009, with an opening reception February 12.
The exhibition includes 37 pieces of artwork from the State Art Collection by 24 African-American artists, including outsider artists Sam Doyle, Leroy Marshall, Richard Burnside and Dan Robert Miller, and academically trained artists with established careers such as Leo Twiggs, Arthur Rose, Tarleton Blackwell, MacArthur Goodwin, Jesse Guinyard, Joseph Gandy, Terry K. Hunter, Larry Jordan, Larry Lebby, Robert Spencer, and Winston Wingo. The sweetgrass basket tradition is represented by Mary Jackson, the best known practitioner working in this craft, and by Linda Blake, Marguerite Middleton, and Elizabeth Kinlaw. Artists such as Merton Simpson, Beverly Buchanan, Sheri Moore Change, Maxwell Taylor and Connie Floyd are all South Carolina–connected artists who no longer reside in the state.
The exhibition was created in response to the continued requests for works by African-American artists from the State Art Collection.
Exhibition size will vary slightly from locale to locale depending on space. For more information, call (803) 734-8696.