In what has become a venerable tradition at the College of Charleston, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art presents Young Contemporaries 2019. Now in its 34th year, the exhibition features work by College of Charleston students selected by a nationally prominent juror. The exhibition reflects the strength and diversity of practice in the School of the Arts’ rigorous programs. Featuring a wide range of media—including paintings, sculpture, photography, and prints—the exhibition showcases the talent of the student body at the College. The juror for Young Contemporaries 2019 is Dan Estabrook.
Concurrent with Young Contemporaries will be the Salon des Refusés exhibition, showing in the exhibition space of the Simons Center for the Arts. The works in the Salon were chosen by Studio Art faculty. The origin of the Salon des Refusés dates to Paris in 1863, when artists who had been rejected from the official Salon caused such a protest that Emperor Napoleon III ordered another exhibition held for them. Among the painters in the original Salon des Refusés were Camille Pissaro, Henri Fantin-Latour, James M. Whistler, and Edouard Manet.
Join the Halsey Institute staff and tour guides for the international celebration of “slow looking” and participate in guided in-depth conversations about a handful of the artworks in Young Contemporaries 2019.
Slow Art Day was started in order to invite novices – and experts – to experience the power of looking at art slowly.
It’s a very simple event. Visit your local museum (or gallery, public artwork, etc.) and view a small number of works of art for 5 to 10 minutes each. Then everyone meets to discuss their experience. And all this happens the same day around the world.
The result? Participants say they get “inspired, not tired” and plan to return to that museum or gallery again and again (the not-so-secret agenda is to help more people experience the excitement of art and become regular patrons of their local museums).
In 1968, amidst new technologies like computers and video being used in art, theorist Jack Burnham declared the art of that time “is fundamentally concerned with the implementation of the art impulse in an advanced technological society.”
Today, over half a century later, the same phrase could be uttered with a minor alteration: The art of today is fundamentally concerned with the implementation of the art impulse in a heavily networked society—one with the internet.
How does the (omni)presence of the internet influence the way art is made today? Can artists still create work in the same way that they did before the internet?
This Halsey Talks discussion will examine these questions of how art has shifted since the internet has become a large part of daily living. We will look at examples of several artists working today in order to explore art after the internet.
The Halsey Institute is proud to present a double feature of films by director Olympia Stone. Her latest documentary, Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King (61 minutes), examines the work of Richmond-based artist Elizabeth King. This film will be preceded by Stone’s short documentary The Original Richard McMahan (20 minutes), a profile of the artist Richard McMahan, who was featured at the Halsey Institute in the 2008 exhibition MINIMUSEUM.
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King engages the viewer in the work of sculptor and stop-action filmmaker Elizabeth King, who embarks on each new project by posing a single question to herself: “Can this physically be done?” Tracing King’s creative flow, curiosity, and obsessive drive to solve the inevitable series of artistic and technical problems that arise in creating her disconcerting sculptures and animations, this documentary film explores King’s passion about the mind/body riddle, the science of emotion, the human/machine interface, and those things a robot will never be able to do. From studio to exhibition, and in conversations with fellow artists, curators, and critics, the film asks what looking at and seeing one another means in an increasingly mediated world. See a trailer for Double Take here!
The multitalented outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to more obscure intricate Maori canoes, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over thirty years of creating, and he’s made most of the works on a cluttered kitchen countertop using recycled materials. McMahan is also the curator of a mini-museum with a collection that surveys the scope of humanity’s visual record.
About Olympia Stone
Olympia Stone is an independent producer of documentary films about art and artists. Her production company, Floating Stone Productions, is based in Chapel Hill, NC. Her films probe the motivations and personal histories of eclectic artists as a way of providing intimate insight into their work. Her previous films include The Original Richard McMahan (2017), Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck (2015), The Cardboard Bernini (2012) and The Collector (2007).
This lecture is part of our Meet the Maker series for Postmodernist members and above. To join our membership program, please visit here or call (843) 953-5652.
Butch Anthony is a multi-faceted self-taught artist from Alabama. At fourteen he was building birdhouses and stuffing his own taxidermy. His first building, a little log cabin on his grandfather’s farm, would eventually become his shop. He has spent decades building the Museum of Wonder, a walk-through cabinet of curiosities. Started in the 1970s as Butch’s taxidermy shop and artifact room, the Museum of Wonder is now filled with art, artifacts, and antiques including the world’s largest gallstone. Butch also hosts the Possum Trot Auction, a weekly junk and art auction on his 80-acre parcel of land in Seale, Alabama. He has also built the Museum of Mystery, the first drive-through art and antiques gallery (pictured right). In addition to making and selling art, building bizarre roadside attractions, and collecting found objects to incorporate into his own artwork, Butch contributes to Auburn University’s Rural Studio design + build program.
Butch Anthony’s hand-built home has been featured in the New York Times. Have a peek inside here.
Olympia Stone is an independent producer of documentary films about art and artists. Her production company, Floating Stone Productions, is based in Chapel Hill, NC. Her films probe the motivations and personal histories of eclectic artists as a way of providing intimate insight into their work. Her previous films include The Original Richard McMahan (2017), Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck (2015), The Cardboard Bernini (2012) and The Collector (2007).