REBEKAH JACOB GALLERY EXTRA

MUST SEE PHOTO EXHIBITION NEAR NEW YORK CITY

2009-11-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

Impermanence

Impermanence is the result of an almost three year exploration of the devastation caused by the fire that ravished Kendall Messick’s home in 2006. In nearly 200 images of the scene he has oscillated between his typical portrait and documentary practice and a more aestheticized pictorization to create photographs that are metonymic and act as a space of meditation and scrutiny. Many of these images are reminiscent of Aaron Siskind’s metaphoric abstract photographs from the 1960s that portray dripping paint, graffiti and peeling walls. However, unlike Siskind, Messick does not wish to impart a transcendent sensibility but instead, he calls attention to details and privileges a particular type of note taking. One sees in the development of such images, rendered over a period of one year, the artist’s attempt to assess the damage. Messick indicates that in the weeks after the fire, he spent much of his time itemizing his loss for insurance purposes. His abstract images convey a similar type of enumeration, not only of specific objects but also of the space that housed these objects. These images are simultaneously emotive and analytic, their visual impact owed to their composition. Messick’s use of a square format causes the image to be pushed out towards the edges of the pictorial field leaving no room for additional narrative. This, coupled with their diminutive size as compared to other works in the series, afford them a specimen-like quality.

As part of this body of work Messick has also produced surreal images that bring the viewer closer to the facts of the fire. In drawing us nearer, the more concentrated looking that is demanded by the abstract pictures gives way to a visual pulling back, suggesting the palpable weight of Messick’s reaction to the disaster. The artist’s method of managing the constant unfolding of ruin is to translate it into a series of vignettes that reveal more of the destroyed space. In contrast to the abstract pictures, these works recall film stills and are sharply photographed with acerbic color that calls Mannerist painting to mind. In them, charred corridors lead to rooms filled with scorched and mangled objects. In one, an open door reveals disembodied heads bathed in a ethereal light while in another, dripping streaks stain eerie blue walls. These elements make them enigmatic as their seemingly constructed nature belies the actuality of the event. One is caused to wonder how these heads came to be in this room, in this way? What is Messick trying to articulate as he invites the viewer to move with him down lonely corridors? The probing, almost forensic nature of some of his images suggests that Messick is also searching for the answers to such queries.

In Corapeake (1995) and The Projectionist (2007), two portrait-based projects that seek to record the passing of communities and the transience of life, Messick embedded himself in the ever-changing lives of his subjects in order to record the tenor of each passing day. These works contain a biographical element as Messick has always been drawn to such narratives. At first glance Impermanence appears to be a departure from such ruminations, however it is arguably the most intimate of his photo essays and is the first time he has turned his camera onto himself so extensively. In a series of pictures of objects entitled Conflagrations he recalls his portraitist and biographical devices to examine the fire’s aftermath. His likeness can be found in these objects, as they are beloved possessions that for the artist resurrect lost craftsmanship. His penchant for reclaiming the past may account for their fetishist treatment in his images. Portraits of head forms once used by haberdashers, fishing gigs traditionally forged by blacksmiths and Steuben glass vases cloaked in the fire’s residue become otherworldly, seeming to materialize as transient things. It is this space of interstitiality that reveals the photo-essay’s redemptive meaning. The images reflect Messick’s sense of wonder in the rediscovery of his objects. His goal in rendering them is to highlight the distinctiveness of change—to move from a universal discourse about the destruction to a more personal celebration of transformation.

A conflagration is an all-consuming fire typically started by human intervention. The heat from such a fire can be so intense that it creates a flow of oxygen, which allows it to feed on itself. Angel, a workman who while using solvent to strip varnish from a room’s wooden detailing, inadvertently struck his steal wool pad against a metal surface starting Messick’s conflagration. In the exhibition, Angel’s image appears in a set of black and white prints, some of which were taken just hours after Messick arrived on the scene. The color reality that describes the conflagration and predominates Messick’s other pictures is transformed in these images to indicate a change in the artist’s mood. Messick often uses this tonal variation to affect an emotional shift. Capitalizing on their warm tones, the photographer seems to be offering up a requiem by locating the images in a room that contains the last evidentiary remnants of the fire. Here, the site as artifact emphasizes the magnitude of the disaster presenting the fire as both historic and contemporary events.
Andrea Douglas
Curator of Exhibitions
University of Virginia Art Museum

MICHAEL MORAN: MEETING WITH TREES

2009-11-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Michael James Moran, an independent furniture designer in Charleston, announces a fall solo exhibition at downtown gallery Rebekah Jacob. Moran’s first solo show with the galley, titled “Meeting with Trees,” will feature all new, original pieces that speak to the relationship we build with tress through furniture.
“Meeting with Trees,” which will run from November 16 to 24, 2009, marries Moran’s custom woodworked furniture and sculpture with the contemporary aesthetic of Jacob’s Lower King Street gallery space. Moran, whose oeuvre deals with designing around perceived "imperfections" in wood, says “It seems ironic to me that many of the characteristics that make a tree unique are often overlooked or discarded.” Driven by a need to balance the presentation of these “quirks” with a functional modern aesthetic, Michael James Moran Woodworked Furniture is a hand-tooled workshop for the present age.

The opening reception for Moran’s “Meeting with Trees” exhibition will take place on Thursday November 19, from 6-8 pm. An artist’s lecture – going in-depth on the pieces in the exhibition as well as the practice of sourcing wood and joinery methods – will be hosted in the gallery the same night at 7PM.

SHEPARD FAIREY INTERVIEWED FOR TIM HUSSEY'S DOCUMENTARY

2009-10-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

SHEPARD FAIREY IS INTERVIEWED BY ADAM BOOZER, PRODUCER OF TIM HUSSEY'S DOCUMENTARY. CHILDHOOD FRIENDS, SHEPARD SHARES STORIES OF GROWING UP WITH TIM IN CHARLESTON, SC AND RESPONDS TO HIS CURRENT BODY OF PAINTINGS. Shepard Fairey is famed for the HOPE design to bolster Obama's 2008 campaign.

REBEKAH JACOB ON RICHARD SEXTON'S PHOTOS

2009-10-23T08:21:00.001-07:00

Sister Cities: Charleston & Savannah are two of the most mythical and charming urban societies in all the South, interchangeable in culinary, tradition, and architecture. I would characterize their natural rural areas to be as dramatic and photogenic: serpentine waterways infinitely changing with the tide and moon, historic fragments, overgrown cemeteries with Confederate and sacred heart markings… Perhaps some of the most incredible and defining things of this region seem to be its trees that appear more like architectural elements and overseers of the land--their greatest wonders often discovered by looking up, as depicted in Sexton’s image of Wormsloe Plantation.

As a gallerist, I am often befuddled at the number of photographers who attempt to capture this region, but whose images translate as casual, sentimental, and sappy. What separates photographers like Richard Sexton from the masses-and certainly the amateurs-is his inherent sense of place, his patience and discernment of light, and his restless search for unique and infinite wonders. However, a Sexton photograh's texture, composition, aesthetic are most fully realized in real life.

VISIT REBEKAH JACOB GALLERY AT 169 KING STREET TO VIEW SEXTON’S NEWSEST BODY OF WORK: CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH

RICHARD SEXTON: CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH

2009-10-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

WORDS FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER:

Shortly after I moved back to the South from San Francisco in 1991 I began photographing the natural landscape. I was intrigued by the low, flat, moss-draped landscape and landscapes became an important counterpoint to my photographs of the built environment, which focused on the mutated, scarred state of the historic architecture in places like New Orleans, where I live. For fifteen years my landscape focus was the gulf coast from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. Very recently I expanded that focus to include the Lowcountry of South Carolina and the Sea Islands of Georgia. I grew up in a small town in southwest Georgia and I remembered the Georgia coast vividly from my youth. As I rediscovered this region in contemporary times, I appreciated the fact it hadn't changed quite as much as the gulf coast of Florida, which has seen rampant real estate development in recent years. The new work from South Carolina and Georgia builds on what I started with the gulf coast, and as with my gulf coast work, I'm focusing both on historic sites and buildings, as well as the marshlands and live oaks of the natural landscape.

CYNTHIA KNAPP: OCT 18-NOV 14

2009-10-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

This October, Cynthia Knapp will exhibit several recent pieces from a series of paintings and works on paper. These are abstract musings on the relationships of organic structures where fields of color blur, overlap, and interact to create an amalgam of natural shapes. Her intent is not to represent any literal outward appearance, but rather to portray the essence of abstraction as seen in her physical environment. Knapp's nebulous forms float and meander through the canvas - enabling the colors, shapes and depths to gracefully leap and drift from the foreground to the background. Her vivid colors are interspersed with neutral colored auras which emanate out of the depths of the painting.

LOOK SOUTH: ICONIC IMAGES BY JERRY SIEGEL

2009-09-14T16:46:00.001-07:00

A NOTE FROM THE CURATOR;

A PERSONAL RESPONSE

As an art dealer and curator specializing in Southern images, it has been a dutiful exploration of my own heritage to exhibit photography that has captured the beautiful, sober accretion of a place geographically below the Mason-Dixon and east of Texas (inclusive, of course). I have worked to focus on photographers whose images chronicle a region that feeds our imagination and that we trust no matter what. For the curator and artist alike, this exhibition is about a land of which we profess a fondness and continue to artistically explore.

From the beginning of Rebekah Jacob Gallery, Jerry Siegel’s photography has been essential to our curatorial program. Though Selma, Alabama is at the center point of Siegel’s oeuvre, his pluralism of Southern themes becomes a poetic documentation that encompasses—and exceeds—Alabama borders. Perhaps his current solo exhibition LOOK SOUTH is a microcosm of a long, unplanned road trip: a clapboard church with wooden pews waiting on someone to arrive; a bar-b-q joint whose interior decoration is sparkling white tiled walls and stuffed deer heads; Tucker’s Grocery whose Christmas lights blink past Easter; and a tin building with a tacky graffiti advertisement that reads, “Celebrity Barber." Siegel’s raw, unstaged material shares imagination between the photographer and viewer, spurring questions like, “Is this ‘for real’ or a movie set?’”

As Jerry and I sifted through hundreds of images over the course of the past year, we worked carefully to select photos that poignantly tell of his South, my South…our South. We selected both black/white and color images that tell of the region’s mythic terrain, African American heritage, and compulsiveness with religion (God Bless; Jesus Saves). Throughout the project, I was reminded of the technical genius of Jerry’s concise eye, inherent skill of knowing when to click the shutter, and undeniable patience for the subject matter. Knowing Jerry personally, I have come to believe that it his dedication to the medium, personal kindness, and genuine spirit that grants a fate of being at the right place at the right time.

To watch a concept doodled on a legal pad evolve into a 3-D exhibition is a patient and often grueling, frustrating process. However, the labor and time of LOOK SOUTH has manifested itself into a stunning selection of photography. And we hope viewers alike will experience the story of a place (below the Mason-Dixon), whose intrinsic complexities are at the root of Heritage and a place for which we are proud, no matter what.

Yours Truly,
A Southerner, by the Grace of God

AS FEATURED IN GARDEN & GUN

2009-09-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL MORAN FEATURED IN GARDEN & GUN NEWSLETTER:

"Good Wood"

Michael Moran’s work is a refreshing anomaly in a world of homogeneous, mass-produced furniture. The 27-year-old craftsman still makes individual pieces by hand, with few if any nails or screws, and his wood comes from fallen trees and other salvaged lumber that would otherwise be lost. Many of the logs he uses have rich stories, some coming to his Charleston, South Carolina, workshop from such places as Monticello in Virginia. Moran makes everything from dining tables to benches to lamps, and while no two pieces are exactly alike, his distinctive aesthetic stands out. The wood is cut and finished to reveal splits, notches, growth rings, and other markings and textures, while the furniture’s simple shapes lend it a modern feel. For now, you can buy Moran’s pieces from galleries, such as the Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston, from his online catalog, or by commissioning a custom piece. And while Moran’s process may be decidedly slow, he’s quickly developing a very long waiting list.

ALSO RECENTLY FEATURED IN THE POST AND COURIER: http://www.postandcourier.com/photos/2009/aug/28/32380/

MUST SEE PHOTO EXHIBITION, HALSEY INSTITUTE, CHARLESTON

2009-09-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

Aclcaimed and Local Curator Mark Sloan Organizes a Knock-out Exhibition!

Special Projects: Palmetto Portraits Project @ MUSC:

This is the fourth and final year for the Palmetto Portrait project. A comprehensive exhibition of the complete works by each of the twenty-four photographers will be presented at the Halsey Insitutue, Charleston, SC then at the South Carolina State Museum in April 2010.

Selected Photographers: This years photographers were selected by the 07-08 photographers and include Jeff Amberg, Brett Flashnick, and Andrew Haworth of Columbia; Squire Fox of Mt. Pleasant; Molly Hayes and Stacy L. Pearsall of Charleston; and Chris M. Rogers of Johns Island.
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT AT http://palmettoportraits.musc.edu/

KENDALL MESSICK IN CORAPEAKE, NC

2009-08-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

In October of 1995, I made my first trip to Corapeake, North Carolina, with my best friend Brenda. Corapeake is a tiny crossroads community just over the North Carolina line from Virginia and the place where Brenda spent the first eight years of her life. We went so that I could make pictures of her aging relatives. That initial trip marked the beginning of a creative journey for me that continues to this day. The people of Corapeake were welcoming and remarkable for their warmth and lack of pretense. Their stories ranged from the simple pleasures of childhood spent living in the rural shadow of the Great Dismal Swamp to remembrances of losses framed by inevitability and hope. These recollections resonated with me, taking me back to stories my white grandfather had told about his experiences growing up in rural North Carolina. The similarities were striking and having lost my grandfather and his stories, I determined that I needed to preserve the stories from Corapeake. So I began recording the remembrances of the people in Corapeake as I continued making pictures. As I amassed more and more photographs and recordings, I started to gather them all together in journals that I would carry with me on each trip. These journals gradually became scrapbooks as I added documents and objects - a fan from church, a cotton boll from the fields, autographs of each person interviewed, funeral programs that used my portraits on their covers - some stories having come to include me as both observer and participant. "Corapeake" is about love and loss and hope and faith. It explores the nature of memory in that it is about what is remembered as much as what is forgotten. These stories are universal in their depiction of a time and experience not limited to the people of Corapeake or to African-Americans or even small towns. I didn’t realize when I started "Corapeake" the profound way in which these people would ultimately affect and enrich my life. It has been both a privilege and a blessing to be allowed into their lives and to become, in a way, part of the story of "Corapeake." - Kendall Messick

CARING FOR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION

2009-08-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

All of us own photographs. Whether they are treasured family mementos or fine art photography purchased from a gallery, photographs hold special meaning for all of us. Despite their prevalence in our lives, few people know how to properly care for photographs. A few simple steps can help ensure the longevity of your photography collection:

1. Know the Enemy

The biggest threats to photographs are sunlight, fluctuations in temperature, and fluctuations in humidity. When displaying photographs, be sure to keep them out of direct sunlight. Even those not exposed to direct sunlight are susceptible to fading over time. It is best to rotate your photographs on view, to allow periodic breaks from light exposure.

Maintaining a stable environment is the best way to protect your photographs. For museum standards, this means a temperature between 68 to 72 degrees with a relative humidity between 45 to 55 percent. Most of our homes are a bit warmer than 72 degrees, and that is okay. The key is maintaining a stable temperature. And who knows the relative humidity of their home? Again, the key is a stable, climate-controlled environment. This means no photographs in the attic, basement, or stuffy closets.

2. Give Them a Good Home

The second key to preserving photographs is proper storage. All too often, photographs sustain damage due to storage in acidic materials. If you purchase a vintage photograph in an old mat, remove the mat right away. Go to a reputable frame shop and have the photograph re-matted using acid-free materials. When storing photographs in boxes, folders, or sleeves, make sure all materials are acid-free. If stacking photographs in a box, layer acid-free tissue paper between each photograph. Also, exercise care when handling photographs. It is best to wear white cotton gloves to prevent the transfer of oils from your hands to the photograph. If gloves are not available, be sure to wash and thoroughly dry your hands before handling photographs.

It is also a good idea to identify your photographs. For fine art photography, record as much information as possible including the title, date, photographer, location, provenance (a record of previous owners), and any other information relevant to the work. For family photos, list the names, location, and date on the reverse of the image using a soft lead pencil. Your kids and grandkids will thank you one day.

3. Use Your Resources

When in doubt, seek the advice of an expert. Museums, galleries, and historical societies are your best resources for the proper care and storage of photographs. These people are the experts, and most are very willing to offer guidance to collectors. And if you own a photograph that has sustained damage, they can refer you to a paper conservator qualified to treat your photograph. But if you follow these guidelines, hopefully you will never find yourself in that situation!

Pam Wall
Associate Curator
Gibbes Museum of Art

TAX BREAKS FOR ART DONATIONS

2009-08-15T09:01:00.001-07:00

RESTORATION WORK ON GIFTS OF ART: SENATE BILL TO BRING BACK INCENTIVES FOR DONATIONS

Donating art to museums could soon become attractive again for wealthy collectors.
Reacting to museums' complaints of sharp declines in art donations, a bill announced Friday by Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, could revive the practice of so-called fractional gifts by making the process easier and more tax-advantageous.
Before the 2006 Pension Protection Act, collectors were allowed a tax break when they donated a work of art incrementally, giving away a certain percentage of rights to the work each year. Pieces like the Hope Diamond, given to Washington's Smithsonian Institution, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Annenberg Collection can be attributed to fractional giving.
View Full ImageAssociated Press

Restrictions in the act prevented donors from realizing tax benefits on the appreciation of the art's value and limited the time allotted to complete the donation to 10 years. Wealth advisers and estate lawyers soon stopped recommending the practice and "these gifts virtually dried up," said Michael Conforti, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Now Sen. Schumer hopes to "restore the incentive for collectors to share these works of art with the public," he said.
Among other things, the proposed change allows donors 20 years to complete the donation of the gift and lets them take a tax deduction on some of the appreciation. Here is how it would work: In the first year, if a donor who owns a $10 million painting contributes 10% to a museum, he would receive a $1 million deduction. If the donor gives another 10% the next year and the fair-market value of the artwork has increased to $12 million, the donor receives a deduction on the appreciated value, although it is limited to his 90% stake in the artwork, and thus would amount to $1.08 million.

However, if the art declines in value the same rules apply and the donor's tax break could shrink.
Critics point out that the proposed bill comes at a time when, overall, artwork is declining in value. The art market has dropped 30% so far this year and is on track to return to 2004 values, according to Mei Moses Art Indexes, which tracks 14,000 repeat-auction sales of the same works.

Other new rules require museums to report contributions on yearly tax forms and exhibit the artwork in proportion to its ownership interest over every five-year period, keeping the art from remaining in the donor's private home during the gifting period. The gift also is subject to a binding written contract, to protect against challenges by heirs after the donor's death. Donations valued at more than $1 million would require a review by the Internal Revenue Service's art advisory panel.
"This bill remedies some of the problems with respect to the current law, but it doesn't go far enough," said Neil Kawashima, a partner with McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Chicago who represents wealthy families with respect to estate and gift planning. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who spearheaded the initial changes, said the proposed bill is already a compromise.
"Some museum officials thought Congress went too far to shut down abuse. I agreed to look at a compromise that would preserve accountability from donors and museums to taxpayers," Sen. Grassley said. "I still think partial donations of art are of questionable value to taxpayers, but museum officials and their champions feel strongly otherwise, so I'm willing to continue to listen."

By Shelly Banjo (shelly.banjo@wsj.com)/ WALL STREET JOURNAL/ AUG 8-9, 2009

ART BUYING 101

2009-08-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

Purchasing art can be daunting with so many mediums, artists, and genres available. There is no right or wrong. When purposeful buying, the whole is the greater sum of the parts so the buyer should ask how does each piece relate to the next. Everyone can buy art and collect intelligently and passionately. With a willingness to learn, visit galleries museums, one can develop a connoisseurship that will parlay into solid investments. Applicable to all mediums, the list below is designed for the new and seasoned collector when making a decision about buying art.

● GETTING STARTED

--Buy what you like

--Set a Budget

--Develop a connoisseurship by visiting galleries and museums
--Develop a relationship with reputable dealers (gallerists, private dealers, consultants…)

--Be thorough and patient

--Think about how one piece relates to the next in your collection

● WHO IS THE ARTIST? IS THE ARTIST SIGNIFICANT?
A collector should always research the artist through literature and oral discussions with dealers, scholars, and museum curators. Typically the gallery will provide information on the artist from a plethora of resources: art reference books, gallery/museum catalogues, resumes, exhibition reviews, and art reference books like dictionaries of artists, art indexes, art or artist encyclopedias, and monographs on artists. BEWARE OF EMERGING TALENT.

● WHAT IS PROVENANCE OF THE ART WORK?
Where was the art purchased? Who owned it? What museum or gallery has exhibited the art work? Has the art work been included in publications (articles, books, magazines, etc)? If so, which ones? Did the art appear on a secondary market? If so, which ones?

● IS THE ASKING PRICE FAIR? WHAT ARE THE MARKET COMPS?
Like buying real estate, compare the art work to similar pieces on the market. Ask questions. Research values.

●THE COLLECTORS AND CURATORS
Study who is buying the artist’s work, including private collectors, corporations, and museums. Also, research which curators are taking notice of the artist and including their works in museum exhibitions and catalogues.

●GO THROUGH A REPUTABLE DEALER
There are many reasons to work with a reputable dealer, including the following:
--Dealers are held accountable for certain standards within the industry, including quality of the work and fair market values
--Dealers understand market trends
--Dealers are motion-makers of the market, driving prices and placing works in significant collections
--Dealers have immediate access to experts and curators who are resourceful in various ways—artists to watch, authentication, developing scholarship on the artist.
--Dealers have access to a variety of resources for reselling your art work if the owner wishes to place it on a secondary market.

●SIGNATURE INFORMATION
Is the art work signed? Is not, are there papers a dealer/seller can give you authenticating the work.

●CONDITION
Check the work for its condition. If you buy it in a frame, dealers will typically remove the frame, allowing the buyer to see the piece with a naked eye.

WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK AN EXPERT.

ROAD TO FREEDOM EXHIBITION

2009-08-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

ROAD TO FREEDOM EXHIBITION:
Julian Cox organized the exhibition Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968, comprising approximately 130 images by 20 photographers, including James Karales. Road to Freedom has exhibited at the High Museum, Atlanta, as well as the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and will continue to travel to the following destinations:

Field Museum, Chicago
June 5 – September 7, 2009

Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
November 17, 2009 – March 7, 2010

Bronx Museum, New York
March 27 – July 11, 2010

MONICA KARALES

2009-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

A special note of gratitude to Monica Karales, widow of James Karales and Exectrix of the estate, for her patience to sift through thousands of photographs and archives to advance scholarship on James Karales and the Civil Rights movement. Monica has helped to develop my eye, as well as to improve my curatorial skills while extending encouragement and support. Her attention to detail and her knowledge of the James Karales collection at large is a great gift to the gallery and beyond. Most importantly, Monica's daily visits to the gallery have been a good, positive source of energy, and I am thankful for her friendship.

JAMES KARALES OF LOOK MAGAZINE

2009-08-01T09:07:00.001-07:00

Key photographer for LOOK magazine in the 1960s, James Karales recorded the the Civil Rights Marches, creating a quintessential record of those political and humanitarian upheavals. Karales covered these tumults, not from a newsroom, but from helicopters, back seats of trucks, unheated briefing rooms, hospitals … and the kitchen tables of key politicians. Clumsy with weapons, Karales armed himself with only a camera - and a confidence visible in all his work.

In 1962 Karales met Martin Luther King and began to chronicle this multi-dimensional life: spiritual aspirant, humble father, philosopher – and ultimately, martyr for racial justice. He was one of the first photographers to enter King’s house in Atlanta. Civil Rights had become increasingly bloody. King needed to show a more “humanistic” side of himself.

As the two men sat at the kitchen table, Karales listened-and photographed-while King told his daughter Yolanda that she couldn’t go to Funtown. No “colored” were admitted. King told Karales “One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky.” The caption in the February 12, 1963 issue of LOOK reads “I told my child about the color bar.”

James Karales graduated with a BFA in photography from Ohio University in 1955. That same year, his portfolio secured him an assistantship to W. Eugene Smith, who was then printing his Pittsburgh photographs. Karales continued photographing his own projects while honing his printing skills under Smith’s tutelage. He had two big breaks in 1958 when Edward Steichen bought some of his Rendville pictures for the Museum of Modern Art and Helen Gee exhibited the Rendville photographs at the Limelight Gallery in Greenwich Village. Karales became a staff photographer at Look in 1960, and for the next eleven years traveled the world as a photojournalist. The Village Voice described Karales’ prints as having “the weight of history and the grace of art.” In 1965 Karales recorded the Selma to Montgomery March as scores of people walked for 54 miles in protest. The New York Times called his Civil Rights images, “a pictorial anthem of the civil rights movement.” When Look folded in 1971, Jim Karales went independent—and was criticized for being too modest. That trait may well be the secret appeal of his work.

From the Artist's Studio: Tim Hussey

2009-07-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

TIM HUSSEY IN HIS OWN WORDS:

For decades I have been drawn to obscure items from the past—diary entries, school papers, government documents and receipts—dating as early as the 1700s. Through collecting these extracted bits from other people’s lives, I have discovered an age-old landscape of personal emotional patterns: self-promotion in the face of competition, uncertainty about decisions, and the overarching theme of desiring an enduring companionship. These found papers, utilitarian in nature, affirm and become visual references to the universality of the human experience, and more particularly, my personal experience.

Collage satisfies my desire to collaborate and become part of something larger. As my work has matured, I find more beauty and mystery by incorporating old papers than by filling a blank canvas with only marks and lines by my own hand. Art is a way to illustrate and explain the world before us, and I am particularly drawn to a handwritten spelling chart or a diary full of shorthand when appropriated especially into a precious and inspired context.In the past three years I have expanded on this concept of merging found writings and depictions with my own marks and drawings, and blurring the boundaries between artist and viewer. Which layers are mine? Which parts of the work were created long ago, perhaps before my great grandparents were even born? Re-appropriating these rediscovered remnants allows me to fold time in on itself and let the "artist" become secondary to the composition. Through editing the existing found materials and overlaying them with paint, I marry graphic elements and archetypal symbols, creating signature elements of ambiguity of humor. -TIM HUSSEY

Tim Hussey is currently exhibiting in PAST/PRESENT at Redux Contemporary Art Center Charleston, as well as pursuing a new body of work.

NOW!

2009-07-16T16:36:00.001-07:00

LAUNCHED!

We are proud to launch our blog, which creates an ongoing conversation about art. Rebekah Jacob Gallery’s principal focus is the representation of an international group of contemporary artists whose diverse practices include painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography and video. Since its founding, the gallery has subscribed to the highest level of connoisseurship and scholarship with an in-depth focus on modern art and photography of the American South. Each artist has exhibited widely in the US and abroad and is included in museum and corporate collections. The gallery adheres to a rigorous curatorial model and maintains an accelerated exhibition schedule, non-media specific, that features emerging contemporary artists, as well as artists from all generations. FOLLOW US....