FOCUS: Redux hosts opening of two new art exhibitions

From Becca Hopkins’ Expressway show, which opens June 4. Image via Redux.

Staff reports  |  The Redux Contemporary Art Center opens two new shows this week with one dedicated to a talented watercolorist and the other featuring works of several studio artists.

Charleston native Becca Hopkins offers a series of poignant watercolors June 4 to June 17 in her first solo show at Redux’s Gallery 1056.  Called, “Expressway” and curated by Mia Loa, Hopkins’ art highlights the “immensity and artificiality of the Septima P. Clark Expressway stands in jarring contrast with the soft and settled 19th and early 20th century homes around it. It is an alien and alienating landscape that interrupted the human ebb-and-flow of mid-century Charleston,” according to the gallery. 

A generation ago, the highway carved through a tight-knit predominantly Black community, displacing approximately 150 residences and businesses in its path. Ironically, it was later named after one of the leading figures of the civil rights movements during the 20th century. 

“Drawing on this history and conversations with local activists, as well as the artist’s position as a public servant, Becca Hopkins painted Expressway as a visual exploration of the Septima P. Clark Expressway. She uses watercolor because of its fluidity and dreaminess soften the hard edges of the concrete, asphalt and steel landscape. Charlestonians live with water, making the medium all the more appropriate to describe sunny, dry days, rain and puddles, and the significant floodwaters left over from a downpour.”

The opening reception is 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. June 4, the first day of the show.  It runs through June 17. 

Redux Studio Artist Exhibition opens, too

Also on tap this week is the annual Redux Studio Artist Exhibition, which is on display June 4-17 and shares the opening reception.  

The “Creative Corridors” exhibition allows resident Redux artists to showcase a sample of their work as it relates to a specific prompt and is curated as a group exhibition in Redux’s main exhibition space.

“For Creative Corridors 2021, we asked the Redux Studio Artists to consider the ‘why’ behind their individual artistic practices,” according to a press release.  “The creation of a new piece of artwork can serve as a meditative process for artists. As a new piece of work comes to life from the hands of an artist, intention plays a significant role in the evolution of each piece. Sometimes the work deviates from the original intention, but the overarching concept of the artist’s “why” remains ever present.”

Exhibiting Redux studio artists in the show include: Abe Garcia, Alice Keeney, Barb Montgomery, Bob Fine, Celeste Caldwell, Christine Patterson, Connor Lock, George Read, Hale Horstman, Jenifer Padilla, Jordan Cave, Julia Harmon, Karen Vournakis, Kate Comen, Kate Ritchie, Katie Libby, Kevin Foltz, Kirsten Hoving, Kris Hanson, Madison Kingery, Marie Carladous, Megan Collier-Bansil, Mia Loia, Morgan Kinne, Nancy Perry, Rebecca Hopkins, Shelby Corso, Susan Altman, Susan Perkins, Susan Vitali and Todd Anderson.

• More information: Redux Contemporary Art Center, 1056 King St., Charleston.
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