Join us to celebrate the opening reception of Butch Anthony: Inside/Out and Coulter Fussell: The Raw Materials of Escapeon Friday, January 17, 6:30-8:00 PM. All College of Charleston students, faculty, and staff, and current Halsey Institute members receive free admission to our opening receptions. Non-members will be charged $5 admission.
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Butch Anthony of Seale, Alabama. The exhibition will consist of new images, assemblages, and installations created specifically for our galleries. As a multi-faceted self-taught artist, Butch Anthony creates works that investigate and appropriate images from the American vernacular. His practice includes painting X-ray like skeletons on top of antique portraits in elaborate, often gilded frames. An avid collector of unique and bizarre objects, he created the Museum of Wonder, a modern-day cabinet of curiosities filled with art, artifacts, and antiques including the world’s largest gallstone and an actual footprint from Sasquatch. Anthony also hosts the Possum Trot Auction, a weekly junk and art auction (featured on television’s American Pickers) on his 80-acre parcel of land that has been in his family for generations. He has also built The Museum of Wonder Drive-Thru, the first drive-through art and antiques gallery, also on his property. In addition to making and selling art, building unique roadside attractions, and collecting found objects to incorporate into his own artwork, Anthony built his own house and several outbuildings which have been featured in the New York Times.
Coulter Fussell’s early-developed artsview perceives craft and other arts as indistinguishable from one another. Painting, sculpture, and textile work are one solitary entity in her mind. From youth, the combination developed into an unintentional mash-up, resulting in quilts and textile works that defy expectations of the medium. Fussell relies on the no-holds barred nature of contemporary painting rules to free her compositions from the constraints of pattern. In turn, she simultaneously relies on the strict discipline of traditional craftwork to act as a self-editing tool.
Join us for an artist talk with Coulter Fussell as she speaks about her work in the exhibition The Raw Materials of Escape.
Coulter Fussell’s early-developed artsview perceives craft and other arts as indistinguishable from one another. Painting, sculpture, and textile work are one solitary entity in her mind. From youth, the combination developed into an unintentional mash-up, resulting in quilts and textile works that defy expectations of the medium. Fussell relies on the no-holds barred nature of contemporary painting rules to free her compositions from the constraints of pattern. In turn, she simultaneously relies on the strict discipline of traditional craftwork to act as a self-editing tool.
In the revered halls of art museums around the world, high art forms are usually confined to specific media: oil on canvas, marble, bronze, and so on. But are these the only materials that we consider to be fine art? Recently, curators and arts institutions have been paying more attention to other media, including textiles, collage, and ceramics.
What does this shift say about the nature of art? Is art dependent on what it is made of? Is there a distinction between so-called fine art and what we consider crafts?
Halsey Talks are an ongoing series of roundtable discussions on intriguing concepts in art. While they may take advantage of exhibitions on view at the Halsey Institute, they are open-ended in nature. As a platform for a deeper understanding and discussion of fascinating ideas in art, Halsey Talks are open to all.
