Columbia City Paper

   The gallery at 1329 State Street in Cayce is actually an architect’s office. And it serves as a perfect venue for the “Art + Cayce” exhibition, which features prints and ceramics that stretch the boundaries of the constructs of form and function.
Professor Virginia Scotchie, head of ceramics at USC and one of the featured artists, has exhibited her work extensively throughout the United States and abroad and has received numerous awards, including the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramics Premiere Award from the Shepparton Museum in Victoria, Australia. She has lectured internationally on her work and been an Artist in Residence in Taiwan, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands. Due to her international background, Scotchie’s main goal is to develop a more international ceramic program at USC.
“During my career, I traveled a lot and realized the importance of leaving one’s comfort zone to learn more about other cultures and aesthetics,” she says.

Scotchie’s “Turquoise Ball Bowl” is one of her “Between Form and Function” pieces. The design floats between a functional object, such as a bowl and a sculpture with only aesthetic functions. Her graduate students’ works are equally intriguing as they are often from outside of Columbia, often even outside of the United States. Rene Rouillier’s sculpture titled “Silent Conversation” depicts three female figures without lips attempting to carry on a conversation. The works of Diana Farfan, Wen Ting Chung and her enchanting ceramic dishes called “Flower Whispers,” Huy Chu’s sculptures with cartoon figures, and Dana Child’s ceramic bricks are also highlights of the show.
Mary Robinson, an assistant professor of Studio Art and the head of Printmaking at the university, is exhibiting her prints alongside her graduate students. Robinson often uses elements from nature, such as a tree, tree branches, vine or other intervening plants to express the complex connectedness of life and living beings. Robinson’s “Lifeworld Circulation” captures all visitors’ attention upon entering the gallery. The black and white intaglio is lighted from behind the frame and it depicts a large tree. The long tree trunk leads the viewer’s focus from the bottom of the tree towards to top branches and off into the background, which was created by circular hand-stitches and are a combination of the leaves of the tree and the braches and the sky. 
Christopher Johnson and his vivid reduction woodcuts, Adrian A. Rhodes with her intaglio prints, and Belle Blampied with aquatint chinecoles, are exhibiting alongside Robinson.
“Art + Cayce” is going to be a series of four shows this year. The next one is going to be in early May, presenting the works of USC graduate painters’ and sculptures’ works. The third and fourth shows will be later this year, featuring a photographer from New York and local painter’s solo exhibition. Part of the plan is to recreate the old Cayce Village and make it an entertaining and walkable area. Maryellyn Cannizzaro, the architect who offered her office space for “Art + Cayce” is playing a significant role in that planning, as she is designing a building directly next to her office, which would be solar based.
For the meantime, Cannizzaro is happy to offer her office space for the showing of art. 
“As an architect I am drawn to art,” she says, “and Cayce is a very welcoming place for the art. Together with the City of Cayce and the West Metro Chamber of Commerce we are trying to develop this part of the city.”

“Art + Cayce” can be seen until March 31 at 1329 State St

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

Bookmark It