by Ben Tarcson | Jun 1, 2023 | News
June 1, 2023: Join Us for the Opening of the GCS Award Winners Show in the Community Gallery. GCCA will host the second annual Greenville County Schools Award Winners Show, opening First Friday, July 7, 2023 from 6 – 9 PM. The award winning artwork from students of GCS elementary, middle, and high schools represents the best of the best from over 90 schools throughout the district. These students worked hard to create the amazing art exhibited in the GCS Winners Show, and the Greenville County School District is pleased to share the artistic accomplishments of the GCS student artists with the community.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | May 1, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) announced the opening of their latest Main Gallery exhibition, Invisible Planet. The exhibition features the artwork of local Greenville artists Virginia Russo & Joseph Smolin. This exhibition opens on Friday, June 2nd, 2023 from 6-9pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Invisible Planet will be on display in the Main Gallery until Wednesday, July 26th, 2023.
On Tuesday, July 11th, join Russo and Smolin in GCCA’s Main Gallery at 6 PM for an artist talk event in the Main Gallery.
Invisible Planet is an imaginary world that represents untouched beauty and the raw wonder of creation. Russo created “The Planet” which aims to be a refuge for neuro-divergent people who suffer from sensory issues and overstimulation. This world in her work is a mysterious and ethereal land filled with mountains, cliffs, mushrooms, and an ever-present orange sun. Smolin’s experience growing up half-Jewish in the Deep South—Birmingham, AL—is reflected in his symbology and exploration of identity issues. His flamboyant and androgynous characters, as visitors on “The Planet“, challenge gender norms and societal expectations. Smolin’s work delivers condensed psycho-symbolic imagery that deals with themes of identity, religion, oppression, and conformity.
Virginia Russo
Kara Virginia Russo is a visual, performance, and multimedia artist based in Greenville, SC. Upon her adulthood diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, she embraced her inner imaginative world and the elements and symbolism that compose it. Endlessly combining circles, torn paper, and warm colors to create fantastical planet-scapes, she works similarly to a jazz musician, repeating, deconstructing, rearranging, and piecing back together a theme. She has collaborated on musical projects, contributing visual art as well as live performance art, and her work has been shown in galleries in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville.
Joseph Smolin
Joseph Smolin, born and raised in Birmingham, AL, is a Jewish painter and multimedia artist. In 2020, he co-founded Rattlesnake Art Magazine, a journal highlighting underground art in the Carolinas. His contributions, both 2-D and 3-D, were an integral part of the immersive group exhibition Candy Machine. He has also shown work at Modal, Inchoate, Eighth State, and Carolina Bauernhaus. Smolin marries playfully grotesque characterization with bright, candy-colored aesthetics and a dry sense of humor. Joseph has lived in Greenville, SC since 2018.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Apr 21, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) opens their newest Community Gallery exhibition, Messages from the Past, featuring Caroline Hughes & Deborah Puretz Grove. The exhibition opens on Friday, May 5th, 2023 from 6 – 9 pm. Messages from the Past will continue on display through Wednesday, June 28th, 2023.
In Messages from the Past, Caroline E. Hughes and Deborah Puretz Grove test the processes that connect us to each other and our past. Through textures and patterning, we see how textiles, prints, and technologies can be a connecting force to bring understanding and advance towards the future. Caroline E. Hughes investigates personal experiences with place and community through large scale textile works. Aspects of rural living are present in her work. Hughes places an emphasis on her history in those settings as a catalyst for connections and shared experience. Deborah Puretz Grove uses semiconductor plates as metaphors for extending personal memories and connecting people all the time everywhere. In her many series of work, deeds, titles, letters, and family photos, from 1890 – 1950 are juxtaposed by references of semiconductor prototypes of the 1990s to further elaborate on the idea of memory extension.
Caroline E. Hughes
Caroline E. Hughes is a Textile Artist, Educator, and Historian living and working in Upstate South Carolina. She bases her themes of work, tacit knowledge, and craftsmanship in the fading histories of her hometown in rural South Greenville County. That fading, and the changes that affect it, are the basis of the ideas explored by Caroline in her textile work. Her work seeks to bring attention to the importance of a way of life and thought, largely passed over in our modern day-to-day existence. The study of the past is to inform the future. With this belief as a mainspring, her works are created using traditional craft methods and tell an inherent multi-faceted story of craft, community, and belonging.
Deborah Puretz Grove
Deborah Puretz Grove received an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona and a BA from UCLA and Lund University, Sweden. Deborah completed an MA in TESOL at California State University, and hundreds of hours in post graduate art history courses. Grove has traveled to over 40 countries and speaks four languages. Since 1977, Deborah has work within the IT industry in Hong Kong and Redwood City, CA. She has exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Stanford University; Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois; Napa Valley Museum & the Berkeley Art Museum in California among many other.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Mar 23, 2023 | News
Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Past/Present. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Lee Malerich & Dwain Skinner. This exhibition opens on Friday, April 7th, 2023 from 6-9 PM. There will be opening remarks for the exhibition made by GCCA’s CEO, Jess Burgess at 6:30 PM. Admission is free and open to the public.
On Tuesday, May 9th, join Past/Present exhibiting artist, Lee Malerich, in GCCA’s Main Gallery at 6 PM for our ARTalk event discussing her artwork. Past/Present will be on display in the Main Gallery until Wednesday, May 24th, 2023.
In Past/Present, artists Lee Malerich and Dwain Skinner use patterns and myriads of cultural imagery to explore how personal history’s impact us. Through lived experiences, journeys are chronicled and work confronts the past to reconcile the present. Lee Malerich repurposes old furniture, toys, or tools into large wooden sculptures that suggest ways of having lived. Malerich’s history in textiles provide insight into her use of patterning to unify the complex compositions in each sculpture. Beginning in 2019, after years away from art-making, Dwain Skinner created over 100 pieces in what would be his last year of life. This proliferation of mixed media, collage, and found objects largely embodies a deconstruction of nostalgia surrounding ideals of Americana.
Lee Malerich
Lee Malerich is a sculpture and textile artist from South Carolina. Malerich received her BFA in 1979 & MA in 1981 in Studio Art-Textiles from Northern Illinois University. She is a retired teacher and has taught at Coker College, Orangeburg Calhoun Technical College, & Columbia College. Malerich is the recipient of many major grants and fellowships including the South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship in Crafts and the National Endowment of the Arts Regional Fellowship. Her work can be found in the South Carolina Arts Commission State Art Collection as well as in the collections of the City of Charleston and the SC State Museum, among many others. Being originally trained in textiles, Malerich has over the past decade transitioned to sculpture and woodworking. “I started patterning using colored pencils on the surfaces of the sculptures and then I began to play with value in the same way I did in my textiles. I construct reclaimed wood in layers, shadowing the actual construction of my [history in] textiles.”
Dwain Skinner
Dwain Skinner was born in Greer, SC in 1969. He attended the Fine Arts Center, as well as the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He received his B.S. in graphic design from Winthrop University. After completing his degree, Dwain worked as an illustrator and graphic designer until the beginning of 2019, when he and his wife, Meredith, left the corporate world to pursue their mutual dream of opening an art gallery and working as full time artists. As a full-time artist, Dwain constantly explored and refined his personal style. He developed an impassioned interest in mixed media, and would often journey to flea markets and rummage sales to collect small objects for his unique collages. He prepared well over 100 pieces for the opening of Woodbine Studio & Gallery in November 2019. That same year, his illustrations were published in a children’s book, he won the cover of Greenville’s Visitors Guide, and participated in Open Studios for the first time. His experiences provided the impetus for Dwain to continue to move forward as an artist. Tragically, Dwain passed away on November 20, 2019, just ten days after showing his work for the first time.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Feb 1, 2023 | News
February 1, 2023: GCCA announced the opening of the spring Community Gallery exhibition, Works by Elizabeth Kinney, on First Friday, March 3, 2023, from 6 – 9 PM. Join us for the evening with welcoming remarks from our CEO, Jess Burgess, at 6:30 PM and the opportunity to meet Elizabeth and discuss her exhibition.
Elizabeth Kinney’s solo exhibition showcases large-scale paintings and charcoal drawings. Elizabeth, a muralist, captures strange, beautiful, and comforting moments through the use of intense colors and finds inspiration from the community around her. She has been working in mixed media since 1994, with a focus on portraits, murals, and paintings. She currently has work on display at Hotel Domestique, and Restaurant 17. You might see some of her murals around Greenville and Travelers Rest if you ever bike the trail, wander the neighborhoods, or listen to Music in the Park.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jan 1, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, It’s all around us. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Heather Brand, Alan Shuptrine, & Dawn Stetzel. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, February 3rd, 2023. There will be opening remarks from GCCA Chief Executive Officer, Jess Burgess, at 6:30 PM. This exhibition continues until Wednesday, March 29th, 2023.
It’s all around us is a group exhibition featuring artists Heather Brand, Alan Shuptrine, and Dawn Stetzel with works examining natural & synthetic elements of our surroundings. Through photography, sculptures, and paintings, the artists explore the delicate manner in how man-made materials and structures can affect our relationship with the natural world. Objects, structures, and places which are not found naturally but are created and synonymous with humanity’s connection with nature question the desire of an ideal natural world versus balancing ways to respond to and maintain our environment.
Heather Brand
Heather Brand is a visual artist living and working in Meadville Pennsylvania. She has an MFA in Visual Studies from the University of Buffalo and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Allegheny College. Her work depicts scenes of humans’ mediated relationship with nature via deceptions of built environments concerning the collection, cultivation, and recreation of the natural world. Brand’s work has been shown internationally in London UK, Rome, Italy, Sao Luis, Portugal, and Madrid, Spain. Nationally her work has recently been exhibited at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the Midwest Center Center for Photography in Wichita, Kansas, and the Community Arts Center of Oneonta in Oneonta, New York.
Alan Shuptrine
A painter known for his realistic watercolors, oils, gold leafing, and handmade frames, Alan Shuptrine’s works can be found in the permanent collections of several American museums and hundreds of corporate and private collections nationwide. A multi-faceted artist, Shuptrine is a leading practitioner in the centuries-old art of handcrafting and water gilding, fine art frames and mirrors, wood carving, and sgraffito etching. Born the son of recognized painter, Hubert Shuptrine (1936-2006), Alan also has continued the legacy of watercolor realism that both Andrew Wyeth and his father Hubert established and has cemented himself as a nationally renowned watercolor artist.
Dawn Stetzel
Dawn Stetzel is an artist from the United States currently living on the Long Beach Peninsula on the southern coast of Washington on the unceded land of the Chinook and Lower Chinook. Her performative sculptures interact with environments in the margins, where humans and nature rub together leaving a sometimes-messy residue. An intensely strong work ethic was formed through growing up in Iowa and this physicality and fortitude shows up in her sculptural works. She is innovative in her field of sculpture and has contributed through her work over the past twenty years. In 2000 she was awarded her first solo exhibition and a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant in North Carolina. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She has exhibited widely in the United States through multiple solo exhibitions, public art commissions and group exhibitions including Grounds for Sculpture, Disjecta and the Portland Biennial. Her work is included in permanent public collections at The City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and the Shiwan Ceramic Museum in the Guangdong Province of China. Her work is printed in multiple publications, she has shown internationally and has lectured in the United States, China and Brazil.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9 AM – 5 PM & Saturdays from 11 AM – 3 PM. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Dec 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of a new Community Gallery exhibition, No Detail Too Small, featuring KC Christmas & Jordan Winiski. The exhibition opens on Friday, January 6th, 2023 from 6 – 9 pm. No Detail Too Small will continue on display through Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023.
In No Detail Too Small, Jordan Winiski and KC Christmas explore the intricacies of life. Jordan Winiski transforms overlooked flora into intricate ceramic dioramas to magnify the dichotomy between what is valued or destroyed. KC Christmas’s flora collages serve as a reminder to pause and reflect. By capturing florals in their bloom, the progress of time is paused in order to observe a moment before it is gone.
KC Christmas
KC Christmas is a contemporary painter and collage artist living and working in South Carolina. Known for her unique interpretations of florals, she takes inspiration from the Old Masters of art history and combines them with current, relevant topics. Her work ranges from themes of deep, personal struggles to local scenes to work infused with a bit of snarky humor. Many of KC’s works have been exhibited across the United States and around the world, including Egypt and Scotland. She has won multiple awards with her works and earned a residency with the South Carolina State Parks in 2022. Currently, she works from her home studio as both an artist and illustrator.
Jordan Winiski
Jordan Winiski is a current ceramic artist and Post-Baccalaureate student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Jordan teaches at two art centers in Illinois and emphasizes environmental consciousness in her studio work and curriculum. In 2021, she graduated from Furman University, studying Studio Art and Sustainability Science. She received the Howerton Award for high standard of craftsmanship in Three-Dimensional Arts as well as the Excellence in Service Award from the Art Department. In addition, Jordan was the Earth and Environmental Sciences Scholar Award Recipient and completed a year-long senior thesis on the role of sustainability in art education. Jordan has completed residencies in Georgia and Massachusetts, was named a 2022 South Carolina Emerging Artist, and was a 2022 NCECA Multicultural fellow.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Dec 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) has named Alicia Mizuno as its next Operations Manager. As the newest member of the GCCA team, Alicia brings extensive experience in facilities and operational management to the organization.
Originally from the Dallas, Texas area, Alicia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from the University of North Texas. She was awarded the True Blue Award for Collaboration in 2019 by her previous employer, Allied Solutions, based in Plano, Texas.
“We are extremely excited to have Alicia join our team. Her operational experience and knowledge of facilities management for a large company, coupled with her passion for the arts, makes her a tremendous asset,” explains Jess Burgess, GCCA’s CEO. “GCCA works tirelessly to bring high-quality accessible arts experiences and education to the community of Greenville. Alicia’s expertise will help the organization streamline operations for the artists that call GCCA home and help us continue to make a lasting impact for Upstate South Carolina.”
Alicia comments: “I recently moved to South Carolina after living in Texas my whole life and everyone has been so nice and welcoming since I arrived. I’m very thankful to have been given this opportunity to work with such amazing artists in the Greenville area. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow with GCCA and our community!”
Please consider joining us for our First Friday Opening Reception on Friday, December 2, 2022, from 6-9 PM and greet Alicia to welcome her to our team.
by Greg | Nov 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Strangely Familiar. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Heather Deyling, Joseph Kameen, and Mark Brosseau. The exhibition continues on display until Wednesday, January 25th, 2023. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9 AM – 5 PM & Saturdays from 11 AM – 3 PM. GCCA will be closed to the public from December 23rd, 2022 – January 2nd, 2023 for the holidays.
In Strangely Familiar, artists Joseph Kameen, Mark Brosseau and Heather Deyling confront relationships to the world around them. Familiar yet sometimes indiscernible objects and scenery call into question the connection we have with the world around us. Mark Brosseau and Joseph Kameen’s paintings find figures and objects coming to terms with their surroundings; while, Heather Deyling’s fiber and mixed media installation of amalgamated flora and fauna defy identification and question the ways in which they emerged.
Heather Deyling
Heather Deyling is the Professor of Foundation Studies at SCAD Atlanta. Deyling earned an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a BFA from Kent State University. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame, CA and group exhibitions at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA, the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, Duluth, GA and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL.
Joseph Kameen
Joseph Kameen is the Assistant Professor of Art at the University of South Carolina Aiken teaching painting and drawing. Kameen received his BFA in painting and sculpture from Boston University, and an MFA in painting from Indiana University Bloomington. Kameen has exhibited his artwork nationally and internationally at venues such as The Painting Center, Site: Brooklyn, and Torstraße 111.
Mark Brosseau
Mark Brosseau lives in Greer with his wife and two dogs. He received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has had fourteen solo exhibitions, has been in a number of group shows, has had his work reviewed by ArtForum, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has been featured in Town magazine. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland (2001) and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship (2019). He is the Art Teacher at Lakeview Middle School in Greenville.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Oct 31, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) has promoted Ben Tarcson to the position of Gallery Director. As one of the longest-serving staff members at GCCA, Tarcson has played an important role in the strategic development of GCCA’s exhibition program, facilitating the committee review process and serving as a liaison to exhibiting artists.
In his new role as Gallery Director, Tarcson will become the lead advisor to the Brandon Fellowship program, as well as continuing his exhibition management duties. Tarcson has coordinated and installed over 50 art exhibitions across the Main, Community, and Studio Artist Loft galleries during his five years with GCCA. Some notable exhibitions include The South Carolina State Art Collection’s Contemporary Conversations and Narratives Ending in Separation by Linda McCune, amongst many others.
Tarcson is a graduate of Allegheny College with a bachelor’s degree in studio art, a concentration in painting, and a minor in history. While at Allegheny College, he worked as a Gallery Assistant for the college’s Bowman-Penelac-Megahan art gallery, where he assisted exhibiting artists and the Director & Curator with exhibition installation and other art-related events.
CEO Jess Burgess comments, “Ben’s promotion is a direct result of his exemplary work and dedication throughout his time at GCCA, and we’re thrilled to support his continued growth as a leader for the organization.”
Join GCCA for its next exhibition opening on Friday, November 4, from 6-9 p.m., to see the newly installed Square Roots by Sarkis Chorbadjian in the GCCA Community Gallery.
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