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October Issue 2005
Vista Studios in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Aaron Baldwin and Mike Williams
If ART, International Fine Art Services, presents
Up From The Mud, an exhibition of paintings, three-dimensional
wall pieces and sculptures by Aaron Baldwin and Mike Williams.
The exhibition is at Gallery 80808 at Vista Studios in Columbia,
SC, from Oct. 7 -19, 2005.
The artists will present a mixture of new work and older pieces
not previously shown in the Columbia area. Baldwin's work will
include wooden sculptures and three-dimensional oil paintings
on board with wooden relief elements. Williams will not just show
the abstracted swamp and fish paintings he's know for. Much of
his contribution will consist of works on the margins of his artistic
production, including metal wall assemblages, formalist metal
sculptures, and even energetic, highly expressionist, painted
portraits.
Both Baldwin and Williams are deeply influenced by the natural
environment, the water and dirt of their childhood. Baldwin (b.
1966) was born and raised in coastal McClellanville, SC, with
the ocean and marshes nearby. After some time away living in Clemson,
SC, and Charlotte, NC, Baldwin in the 1990s moved back to his
hometown. Williams (b. 1963) was born and raised in Sumter, SC,
near the swamps and lakes of Sumter and Clarendon counties. He
lives in Columbia, and is still an avid outdoorsman.
Literal elements from the environment the artists hold dear are easily identifiable in their work. Baldwin, for instance, incorporates boat shapes or reduces bird forms to their abstracted essence. In Williams's paintings and sculptures fish and fish forms play prominent roles.
Still, while their backgrounds and personal preferences inform their subject matter, both Baldwin and Williams more often lean toward sensibilities they associate with the environment they grew up and live in. The work is about how they personally relate to that environment, about the existential, even spiritual component of the physical world. Esthetically, that translates not into literal depictions but compositions with strong formal qualities, built from abstracted forms that can be traced back to nature.
"In that sense, Baldwin and Williams have a lot in common," says Wim Roefs, if ART's director. "They share a certain sensibility. At the same time, their work looks very different. Baldwin's three-dimensional work, usually in wood, relates to the cool, reductive, understated stylings of Constantin Brancusi or, more recently, Martin Puryear. Williams, especially in his paintings, takes his cues more from Abstract Expressionism's legacy, although his metal sculptures at times take austere, clean forms."
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803/252-6134 or at (www.gallery80808vistastudios.com).
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