SHEPARD FAIREY INTERVIEWED FOR TIM HUSSEY'S DOCUMENTARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/