Hollis Brown Thornton: Photocopy Transfer Demonstration, January 31, 2009

(AAB Photography)

Salon III: January 15- February 4, 2009

For exhibition preview, click here.

For installation images, click here.

For printmaking demonstration schedule, click here.

if ART Gallery

presents

SALON III: The Print Exhibition

January 15 – February 4, 2009

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. 29205

Reception: Thursday, Jan. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Printmaking Demonstrations:

Sunday, Jan. 18, 3 – 5 p.m., Marcelo Novo, Print Gocco

Sunday, Jan. 25, 3 – 5 p.m., Phil Garrett, Monotype

Saturday, Jan. 31, 3 – 5 p.m., H. Brown Thornton, Photo Transfer

Sunday, Feb. 1, 3 – 5 p.m., Steven Chapp, Linocut & Photopolymer Prints

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its January 2009 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents Salon III, an exhibition of prints by gallery artists at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. The opening reception will be Thursday, January 15, 2009, 5 – 10 p.m. The exhibition will be installed salon-style at the gallery’s first floor and continues if ART’s salon-style exhibitions; in December 2008, Salon I & II took place simultaneously at the gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia.

Among the printmaking techniques represented in the exhibition are etchings, dry points, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, photopolymer prints, embossings, monotypes, silkscreens and photo transfers.

During the exhibition, gallery artists Steven Chapp of Easley, S.C., Phil Garrett of Greenville, S.C., Brown Thornton of Aiken, S.C., and Marcelo Novo of Columbia will give demonstrations of various printmaking techniques. For times and demonstrated techniques, see above.

Artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, John Hultberg, Richard Hunt, Sjaak Korsten, Lucebert, Reiner Mährlein, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Joan Mitchell, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Hannes Postma, Edward Rice, Anton Rooskens, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Brown Thornton, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, David Yaghjian and Paul Yanko.

if ARTwalk: Salon I & II: December 11- 24, 2008

For exhibition installation images, click here.

THE SALON I & II

Dec. 11 – 24, 2008

an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations:

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

&

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln Street

Reception and ifART Walk: Thursday, Dec. 11, 5 – 10 p.m.

at and between both locations

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Open Christmas Eve until 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its December 2008 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents The Salon I & II, an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 5 – 10 p.m., if ART will hold opening receptions at both locations. The ifART Walk will be on Lady and Lincoln Streets, between both locations, which are around the corner from each other.

The exhibitions will present art by if ART Gallery artists, installed salon-style at both Gallery 80808 and if ART. Artists in the exhibitions include two new additions to if ART Gallery, Columbia ceramic artist Renee Rouillier and the prominent African-American collage and mixed-media artist Sam Middleton, an 81-year-old expatriate who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s.

Other artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Aaron Baldwin, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Stephen Chesley, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, Jerry Harris, Bill Jackson, Sjaak Korsten, Peter Lenzo, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Matt Overend, Anna Redwine, Paul Reed, Edward Rice, Silvia Rudolf, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, Mike Williams, David Yaghjian, Paul Yanko and Don Zurlo.

Artist's Statement: Hollis Brown Thornton

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth On The Back Of A Giant Sea Turtle, 2007

Acrylic, carbon transfer on canvas

10 x 10 in

hbt07-030

$500

The phrase “The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle” originates in Native American myth. In the story, the world is covered in water and an animal is asked to dive to the bottom of the primordial ocean to collect mud to form the dry land on the back of a huge turtle. Although this earth origin may seem silly today, the story is one in countless explanations cultures throughout history have formed defining the origins of Earth and the nature of the universe. We constantly question events happening around us and our answers are always dictated by our limited perspective, by what we know or don’t know, by being born into a culture with a dominant religious or mythological or scientific belief, and by living in a constant state of flux and, eventually, death. And it is our perspective, beliefs, culture, religion that make this turtle story seem a bit unrealistic, just as future generations will likely dismiss certain beliefs of our culture as outrageous. The story of the earth on the back of the giant turtle is another step in the continuously developing understanding of an ever-changing reality through science and experience, from explaining how and why the sun sets to predicting the path of a hurricane to trying to understand the growing impact of virtual reality to the potential future realities of global climate change, peak oil, and energy crisis. 

The environments in the work are constructed of both the tangible and the remote, things that are already understood and things in a vague state of formation. For instance, images in the photographs are tangible aspects of reality, frozen moments in time, people and places that exist, or at one time existed. Erasing or obscuring elements of the photograph puts the situation in a state of transition. Adding the lines and drawings adds other influences and potentials. Sometimes these lines are controlled by the elements in the photograph and sometimes they are completely independent. But the figures in the photographs, they are the reason the myths exist, they are the questioners who come up with the stories and explanations, so their environment is altered to represent these uncertainties and changing beliefs. 

In many people’s lives, computers are becoming more and more important and perhaps necessary aspect of existence. Now we live in a merging of real and virtual worlds, an intermingling of realities to form this current reality. This new reality allows new forms of communication and interaction, we have virtual identities, personal websites, social networking, and we have video games, allowing the people to be the protagonists in new mythic adventures. We are able to create images and events that were once impossible, either in the huge blockbuster movies or tiny computer manipulated photographs. Ever increasingly, we are made up of pixels and html code. 

A pigment transfer process moves the images from virtual reality to tangible reality. The steps in this process, from the initial computer work to the outsourcing for the actual prints to the transfer of the mirrored prints to the final physical scrubbing and removal of the paper, each step has its own variables, many of which are uncontrollable. The materials of this method are carbon (from the black transfer pigment) calcium (in the gesso and marble dust) and water (used to remove the paper from the transfers).... these are also a human's main ingredients. The process involves a combination of chance and control, central to the idea of not being in complete control and to the limitations of any human pursuit, while at the same time, being driven by the operation of creation and destruction. The materials of this method are carbon (from the black transfer pigment) calcium (in the gesso and marble dust) and water (used to remove the paper from the transfers).... these are also a human's main ingredients. 

The photographs are occasionally sideways, reinforcing the idea of being on a planet, in space, spinning around. So they are not sideways, but rather in various positions floating in space. The world is round, we are sideways and upside down to many people around the world. So, ultimately, in the sideways photographs, it is the desire to avoid viewing the world from one specific perspective, to try to think outside of that limitation. 

The lines drawings, both on their own and combined with the photographs, are at times influenced by other images and at other times influenced by the previous line. And then there are times were the drawing is uninhibited doodles. These lines are the ideas, the questions and answers of the figures, ideas that are influenced by things existing, ideas that are slight variations of previous ideas, and ideas that are seemingly unclassifiable. Some lines are complete and others fragmented. The lines change the same way perspectives change over time, from the idea of the earth being on the back of a turtle to the earth being at the center of the universe to one planet of trillions of billions floating around at no special place in space.

The mountains in the drawings are the back of the alligator snapping turtle, the giant turtle of the southeastern United States. The mountains range in numerous small jagged spikes, representing the contours of the turtle’s shell, to larger pyramidal mountains then begin to resemble the Egyptian pyramids, another ancient belief of creation, the pyramid representing the primordial mound from which the earth was created, and death, the pyramid being a tomb. And the mountain’s color and the flowing paint, often similar to the melting glaciers, which represents the current reality of global warming. 

Then we look up from the ground and see outer space, a place we continue to ask and answer question after question after question. There are as many theories and myths explaining why events happen in space as there are tangible answers. Why do some stars appear blue and others red? Why are there stars concentrated in the Milky Way? Why do some objects in space follow their own path and not the general movement of the stars? What is dark matter? Do aliens live in the universe? 

The space invaders, which originated in the early Atari video games, represent the origins of virtual reality. Their simple illustrations are noticeably constructed of the square pixels that make up the virtual world. With any beginning, there is an ending, and the invaders illustrate the preoccupation many cultures and belief systems have with an impending doom. This potential end may arrive in the form of space invaders or some other object from space or something here on earth, perhaps a disease or it may be the man made doom, such as the computer itself. It could arrive very quick or very slowly and obviously, like the space invaders, like the closing credits at the end of a movie.

As for the very large paintings, their abstraction, the combination of directly applied marks and free flowing paint, the horizontal broken by the vertical, the continual flux and conflict, and the drips, sometimes transforming subtly and at other times dramatically, very much like our own ideas. They are the vague, undefined scenarios, in the process of formation, meandering, painted versions of the lines, and these drip lines travel across the surface of the painting partially controlled and partially uninhibited, the exact way in which we are in partial control of our environment.

Biography: Hollis Brown Thornton

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth On The Back Of A Giant Sea Turtle, 2007

Acrylic, carbon transfer, graphite on canvas

10 x 10 in

hbt07-003

$500

Thornton was born in 1976 and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. In the spring of 1999, Thornton received his BFA from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. While at Carolina, he studied painting with Philip Mullen and Jim Steven. 

Following college graduation, Thornton worked in a studio space at Gallery 701 in Columbia, SC. Gallery 701, a cultural center for visual and performing arts, once held one of the largest collections of Columbia, SC artists. In February 2000, Thornton had his first solo show at 701. It was in preparation for this show that he began using his 10 x 10 inch painting format. 

In June 2000, Thornton moved to a family house in Modoc, SC, where he worked for a year. Thornton then moved to Chicago in August 2001 and was employed as Gallery Director at Mongerson Galleries and Assistant Preparator at Russell Bowman Art Advisory. While in Chicago, it became apparent that the South was a significant aspect of Thornton’s work and it ultimately lead him to return to Aiken in August of 2005. Currently, Brown Thornton lives and works in a warehouse studio in Aiken, South Carolina.

Exhibitions: Hollis Brown Thornton

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 10 in

hbt04-117

$500

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
2008 The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, preview exhibition, if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL
2007 Great Sea Creatures & the Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle , if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
2006 Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
2005 Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, City Art, Columbia, SC
Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, Jackson Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Aiken, SC
2004 The Great Fish & Every Kind of Plant that Bears Seed, Jackson Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Aiken, SC
2002 Verdir, Chicago, IL
2001 80808 Vista Studios, Columbia, SC
Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken, SC
2000 Gallery 701, Columbia, SC

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 The Inventory, if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
20th Anniversary Juried Art Exhibition, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
2007 Art Miami, Miami, FL
The Warming Landscape, www.thebruise.com
The Project Room, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL
Kleinformat / Small Format, The Columbia - Kaiserslautern Exchange, if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC
A Holiday Exhibition, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
2006 South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, The City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC
Take The Field, Winfield Studio & Wilmington Street Gallery, Winfield, KS
South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, Pickens County Museum of Art & History, Pickens, SC
A Holiday Exhibition, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
2004 Aberration/Pollination, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, IL
South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC
2003 The Felt Moment, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
2001 Procession, Fresh Pastabilities, Columbia, SC
Phobia 2001, Thirteenth Floor Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 The Muse, Gallery 701, Columbia, SC
Aritsta Vista 2000, Columbia, SC
1999 USC Student Art Show, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC
Foundation, Gallery 701, Columbia, SC

Works of Art: Hollis Brown Thornton

Works of art by Hollis Brown Thornton are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.

The Geography Room, 2009

Acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas

36 x 48 inches

$ 4,400

VHS, 2009

Acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas

30 x 26 inches

$ 1,950

The Beekeeper's Skin, 2008
acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
$ 4,400

Cree Indians Call Electricity Nimischiiuskataau (Fire That Shakes the Ground), 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
30 x 46 inches

$ 3,500

421 Winged Birds & Punica Granatum, 2004

Acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas

70 x 70 in. (25 individual 10 x 10 inch paintings)

$ 9,500

No One Knows What Colors or Patterns the Dinosaurs Were, 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 15 inches

$ 750

The Monarchs' Migration, 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 15 inches

$ 750

FOX GTI R.E.M. HOPE SEGA ETV, 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 15 inches

$ 750

August 10, 1983, 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 15 inches
$ 750

Shielding the King from Public Gaze, 2003
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt03-020

$ 500

The Effects of a Prevailing Wind is Exemplified by a Uniquely Contoured Tree Growing Away
from the Direction of the Wind, 2003
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt03-074

$ 500

Complicated Phenomena Such as Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulations are Being Predicted with Increasing Accuracy by Computers, 2003
acrylic, color pencil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt03-075

$ 500

Angiosperms Spread Through the World at a Time when the Continents Had Not Yet Split Apart, 2003
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt03-091

$ 500

Nectar Is Essentially an Aqueous Solution of Sugars, 2003
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt03-103

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt04-101

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt04-105

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches

hbt04-112

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt04-117

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt04-122

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & Punica Granatum, 2004
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt04-131

$ 500

Carbohydrates Help Give You Energy for Growing, 2005
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt05-020

$ 500

Great Blue Heron, 2005
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt05-024

$ 500

Willows, Oaks, Poplars & Sycamores, 2005
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt05-026

$ 500

Every Kind of Plant That Bears Seed VIII, 2005
acrylic on canvas
52 x 58 inches

hbt05-03
$ 7,500

The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2008
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
26 x 30 inches
hbt08-08

$ 1,950

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-026

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-027

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-029

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-030

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-021

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-022

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-023

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-024

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-025

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-012

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-014

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-015

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-016

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-017

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-020

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-006

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-007

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-008

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, graphite on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-010

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-011

$ 500

The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, graphite on canvas
44 x 48 inches
hbt07-01

$ 5,200

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, graphite on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-004

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, graphite on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-003

$ 500

Great Sea Creatures & The Earth on the Back of the Giant Turtle, 2007
acrylic, pigment transfer, graphite on canvas
10 x 10 inches
hbt07-002

$500

Works of art by Hollis Brown Thornton are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.