NEWS BRIEFS: Wallace abstracts on display in January

Firework by Scott Wallace. Image provided.

Staff reports  |  Works by local abstract artist Scott Wallace will be on display through the end of the month at a free show at the Park Circle Gallery, 4820 Jenkins Ave., North Charleston.

“My newest paintings flirt with the line between representation and abstraction, modified through the process of drawing, while at the same time are an exploration of the base materiality of acrylic paint itself,” Wallace said in a news release on the exhibit, called “Abstraction in Action.” The works in acrylic explore unusual color palettes and the textural possibilities of acrylic paint.

Wallace, who holds a master’s degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, lives in North Charleston and teaches in the Visual Arts Department at Trident Technical College.  More: ScottWallacePaintings.com. 

In other news:

Foundation gets big grant. The Charleston County Parks Foundation recently was named recipient of a $125,000 grant from Chick-fil-A’s 2021 True Inspiration Awards, a program founded in 2015 to support community organizations making positive impacts in hunger, homelessness, communities of color and education.  “We look forward to increasing the number of children and families we support, by continuing to remove barriers throughout underserved areas of Charleston County through the four foundation projects,” said Matt Rosebrock, business development manager of the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission.

Johnson listens during a discussion at a Cuban farm in 2016.

Magnolia’s Johnson retires.  Tom Johnson, director of gardens at Magnolia Plantation, is retiring from his role in Charleston and readying his return to his native Georgia, after more than a decade of work on one of the nation’s only remaining romantic gardens. “I fell in love with Magnolia the first time I walked through the gardens,” Johnson said. “I was in my mid-40s. That’s when a man realizes there’s more behind you than there is in front of you, and in that moment, I knew that the restoration of the gardens would consume the rest of my career.” Read the full story in the Charleston City Paper.

Craft entries sought.   Fine craft artists from around the state are invited to enter the 19th annual S.C. Palmetto Hands Juried Fine Craft Competition and Exhibition, which will be presented April 28 to May 2 as part of the North Charleston Arts Fest.  Entry fee is $15.  The deadline for entries is March 15.  Applications are offered online only. The show, cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, will offer objects made in media of clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, and three-dimensional mixed media. More info: culturalarts@northcharleston.org.

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