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March Issue 2008
Sumter County Gallery of Art in Sumter, SC, Features Works by Kimberley Hart and Carolita Cantrell
The Sumter County Gallery of Art in Sumter, SC, is presenting two exhibitions including: Kimberley Hart: The Chase and Carolita Cantrell: Dreamscapes. Both exhibits will be on view through Mar. 27, 2008.
Kimberley Hart
"Knitting is a lot like welding," says Brooklyn-based artist Kimberley Hart. "Many of the motions are the same. You make something flat, you cut it, you bend it."
Hart was trained in art school as a "regular
old super-sculptor: welding, plaster..." But she got tired
of being dirty with the boys in the foundry. She knew how to sew
- a gift from her mother, a professional sail-maker - and she
started to do needlework. Ten years later, Hart is deep into making
art with craft materials and techniques, including crochet, latch
hook, and knitting.
"You can't put a nail in the wall and hang my art up,"
says Hart. From a crocheted, sequined hunting blind to a life-sized
latch-hook pony, her work is big and almost completely hand made
(except for a few parts knitted on her Barbie knitting machine).
Most of Hart's work deals with issues of tomboyism, and her effort to portray the complexities of real girls. This preoccupation with the more malevolent inclinations of the quintessential sweet girl prompted the emergence of an alter ego that tramples on traditional sentimental expectations and serves as a constant source of inspiration. The work reveals the complex nature of this fictional character through mini narratives that depict her enterprising endeavors. She's an aspiring angler, a fortress defender, and impudent enough to strike down her coveted pony. Of late, Hart fancies herself uniquely suited to the pursuits of the consummate sportsman (the subject of the Sumter exhibition is a rabbit hunt, complete with a bevy of articulated, brightly painted wood beagles, and stick horses with "shimmering" manes, all intent on capturing the red rabbit silhouetted on a giant woodland diorama).
In support of these fantastic scenarios and the sentimental images and icons found throughout the work, Hart uses a wide range of kitsch processes and materials ranging from sequins and stickers to latch-hook rugs and macrame, that exceed the conventions of the inherent sentimentality.
Like many artists who work with yarn and fabric, Hart finds people are comfortable with her work and can approach it in a way they might not approach a painting. "It doesn't say 'I'm an important piece of artwork'. It's inviting," says Hart.
Hart received an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, 1996. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received her BA in art from the University of California, Davis, 1992. She has had several solo exhibitions including Open Season, Mixed Greens, NYC, (2007), Charmer, Bellwether Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2004), Daffy Patch, Hudson Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA (2001), Compulsions, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI (1996), Recent Work, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA (1994), and many group exhibitions including Ultrasonic International I, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2006), The Sportsmen Redux, Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, ME (2005), Exceeding Painting/Expanding Painting, Pratt Manhattan, NY, NY (2005). Hart is represented by Mixed Greens Gallery, NY, NY.
Carolita Cantrell
Growing up in Atlanta, GA, Carolita Cantrell recounts that when she was young she had to take a nap every day. She asked if she had to sleep, or could she draw. She has been making art ever since in some form: paint, dye, sculpture, wax, pastel, and watercolor. It is the creative process, and not the end result that excites her. Cantrell, who lived in Sumter for many years, recently moved to Nevis, in the West Indies. This new environment and its people have influenced her recent work which is comprised almost exclusively of lush, brightly colored dreamscapes and island scenes painted on silk.
It takes at least a week to make a silk painting. The silk is
washed in Synthropol, a special detergent. Then it is stretched
on a frame. The design is drawn with a pen that will disappear
in a later step. Next comes the resist, which is applied following
the lines of the design and around the perimeter to prevent the
dyes from concentrating in the hem. The dyes are then applied.
Once the painting is complete, the silk is removed and placed
on sheets of craft paper and newsprint that are rolled up and
secured with string. The silk is then steamed for 5 hours, which
sets the dyes. The silk is unrolled and washed again and rinsed
until the water is clear. Cantrell never duplicates a design,
so each piece is one of a kind.
Cantrell studied art at the New York Academy of Art, University of South Carolina, and Atlanta Art Institute. She has been in many solo and group shows throughout the US and Europe. Throughout much of the 70s and 80s, she won many competitive awards in shows including a Best in Show and two purchase awards. Cantrell is represented by several galleries in the Carolinas including Verve, Columbia, SC, The Art Cellar, Banner Elk, NC, The Twisted Laurel Gallery, Spruce Pine NC, and Fish or Cut Bait, Edisto Island, SC.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803//775-0543 or visit (www.sumtergallery.org).
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