Koger opens Laura Spong exhibition
Laura Spong: A Passionate Perspective runs through Dec. 18
Big Red | Laura Spong | 2013 | 96″ x 192″ | Oil on canvas
An artist has serious influence when her voice remains loud and clear even after her passing.
Laura Spong has that influence. See for yourself now through Dec. 18 at the Koger Center for the Arts (1051 Greene St., Columbia), which opened a new exhibition of her works last week.
Laura Spong: A Passionate Perspective covers works from her later years. Included are Big Red (pictured above) which has not been on exhibit since 2015, according to the Koger Center website. It continues:
Recognized as one of South Carolina’s leading abstract painters, Spong began painting in the 1950s, quickly receiving awards in local and state art exhibitions. Through the years Spong continually worked and exhibited while raising her family, but it was not until the late 1980s that she committed to being a full-time artist and embarked on a period of enormous productivity and growth. During these later years, Spong moved from her earlier more angular compositions to the organic, complex oil paintings that defined her mature style. In 2015, Spong commented on her work with these words, “First of all, I like to paint – it’s my passion. I move around shapes, forms, textures and colors until the components fall into place, like a child on the floor arranging and rearranging blocks.”
Spong’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia with pieces acquired for the permanent collections of the Columbia Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum and the Greenville County Museum of Art as well as many private collections … Spong continually painted, completing works until shortly before her death at 92 in 2018.
The SCAC presented Spong the Governor’s Award for the Arts for Lifetime Achievement in 2017. Two of her works are included in the State Art Collection, which the SCAC manages.
Laura Spong: A Passionate Perspective can be viewed Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Koger Center’s Upstairs Gallery. Free.
