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Register now for 701CCA Open Studios 2023

A call for Richland, Lexington #SCartists

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Sunday, January 8, 2023

Visual artists with a working studio in the city of Columbia or Richland or Lexington counties are encouraged to register for the non-juried Open Studios 2023, organized by 701 Center for Contemporary Art.

This will be the lucky installment no. 13 of 701 CCA’s Columbia Open Studios, during which the public is invited to spend two days visiting artists’ studios throughout Richland and Lexington counties (including the city of Columbia). Through these visits, the public is able to talk one-on-one with a wide variety of practicing artists and observe them as they work.

Event dates

  • Saturday, April  1, 2023; 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
  • Sunday, April 2, 2023; 12-6 p.m.
The event is free for the public, and attracts thousands of visitors from all across the state. Click here to register now.

Jason Rapp

701 CCA Prize winner for 2022 announced

Honor includes solo exhibition, residency, more

[caption id="attachment_51761" align="aligncenter" width="651"] The Mother: Entanglement | Jordan Sheridan | Provided photo[/caption]

A Columbia artist was named winner of the 2022 701 CCA Prize this week, a biennial juried award for artists under 40 that is presented by the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia's Olympia neighborhood.

Installation artist Jordan Sheridan, who was named an SCAC Emerging Artist for FY2022, is a full-time faculty instructor at the University of South Carolina, teaching courses in painting. Her installation, THE MOTHER, was featured in the 701 CCA Biennial of 2021 and at the 2022 ArtFields competition, the latter of which earned her a summer residency at the McColl Center in Charlotte. Sheridan has also received a residency through Stormwater Studios in Columbia. Her next exhibition is a solo show at the Redux Contemporary Arts Center in Charleston. The 701 CCA Prize Exhibition, featuring the work of the three finalists will remain on view through January 15.
“I was taken aback on hearing my name called as the 701 CCA Prize winner,” Sheridan said. “The artists I competed with were fierce, and I am so proud to have exhibited in the 701 CCA gallery with them. I am thrilled by this award; I have dreamt of a residency at 701 CCA and filling the entire gallery space with my work. I will turn the area into a massive installation with woven womb rooms filled with sculptures and experimental paintings. I am working with light technicians to develop lights specifically for my work and plan to design sculptures experimenting with 3D printers and welding.” The other two finalists have impressive résumés of their own. Kate Hooray Osmond, a Charleston painter; and Brittany M. Watkins, a Columbia mixed media artist, are both South Arts state fellows. The independent jury panel consisted of Karen Comer Lowe, curator-in-residence at Spelman College; Shannon Lindsey, gallery director of the University of Central Florida and a past 701 CCA Prize winner; and Michael Neumiester, curator of the Columbia Museum of Art. In her for review forthe panel, Lowe stated, “The Mother: Entanglement is a visually exciting installation that encompasses space through color and form. These contrasts and tensions play out along the draped, crochet paintings. The artists added the tension between sculptural and pictorial qualities to the familiar “push and pull” of color that is usually present in traditional painting.”
Sheridan was born in Southeastern Arkansas in 1989. She gave birth to her son, Samuel, in 2017 while attending graduate school at the University of South Carolina. As a mother pursuing an MFA degree, Sheridan’s work organically shifted to include her understanding of motherhood. This change in research pushed her from working primarily in 2-D painting to large-scale textile installations.  

Jason Rapp

701 CCA announces new staff leadership

701 Center for Contemporary Art announced late last week that Columbia arts scene veteran Caitlin Bright will be its new executive director.

[caption id="attachment_51503" align="alignright" width="200"] Caitlin Bright. Post & Courier image.[/caption] “We are pleased that Caitlin will be joining us as we enter into an exciting season of public programs. Her extensive background in arts management will be an asset as we move forward with an even higher profile for public engagement,” said Lynn Robertson, who heads the 701 CCA board of directors. Many in Columbia are familiar with Bright’s accomplishments in heading Columbia’s Tapp’s Art Center from 2014 to 2021. Before that she had an extensive career with community based arts spaces in New York. “I am thrilled to begin this new chapter in my administrative career with 701 Center for Contemporary Art. The two main tenets of this position are growing opportunities for artists and enriching the quality of life for my fellow community members. I am ready to build on the foundations of success constructed by my predecessors, and continue to provide the level of excellence expected,” Bright said.
701 Center for Contemporary Art was founded 15 years ago by a group of dedicated community volunteers interested in providing a space for the creation and presentation of the best arts of today. Their 701 Whaley St. space holds five or six exhibitions each year, an artist residency, and the annual Young Artists Festival for children. “There are a lot of new and exciting things happening at CCA,” said Ken May, who is chairman of the programming committee. “We just inaugurated the Mill District Public Art Trail through our surrounding neighborhood, and people should look for a new and invigorated Columbia Open Studios event this spring. There is a growing role for the arts in the Midlands and as CCA moves forward with renewed energy, we are definitely an organization to watch.” Caitlin Bright is following Michaela Pilar Brown, who headed the organization for the last two years. Brown was responsible for guiding the organization through the trying times of COVID and the requirement of switching to distanced programing. A well known South Carolina artist, Brown is leaving to focus on her own work and direct a commercial gallery in the Vista, at the former IFArt Gallery.

Jason Rapp

Call for art: 701 CCA Prize 2022

For #SCartists 40 and younger

APPLICTION DEADLINE: Thursday, September 1, 2022

701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia recently announced the sixth installment of the 701 CCA Prize, a biennial, juried art competition and exhibition for professional #SCartists 40 years and younger.

The project takes place this year with a juried process resulting in a October–December exhibition for the competition’s three finalists and an award celebration announcing the winner. Eligible artists are invited to apply for the 701 CCA Prize 2022 by completing and submitting the application package by Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. The application guidelines and link to the application can be found here. Important dates:
  • July 29–Sept. 1, 2022 - Submission period
  • September 15, 2022 - Announcement of three finalists
  • October 20, 2022 - Exhibition opens with a public reception.
  • November 29, 2022 - 701 CCA Prize celebration event and announcement of winner
  • December 31, 2022 - Exhibition closes with year-end celebration

“The 701 CCA Prize continues to add a crucial component to the ecosystem and infrastructure for artists and the visual arts in South Carolina.”

-Wim Roefs, 701 CCA founding board member


The project’s purpose is to identify and recognize artists 40 years and younger whose work is exemplary in its originality, shows awareness of artistic developments, and is of high artistic merit. The 701 CCA Prize 2022 will be awarded to one young professional South Carolina artist for outstanding art production since Jan. 1, 2020. Aside from the age requirement, eligible artists must currently live in South Carolina. They also must fulfill several practical requirements outlined in the application guidelines. An independent jury of three art professionals will select three finalists for the 701 CCA Prize. The three finalists will be included in the 701 CCA Prize Exhibition at 701 CCA. The three members of the jury panel will be announced later. The 701 CCA Prize Winner will receive a six-week, paid residency at 701 CCA and a solo exhibition at 701 CCA. The previous winners were James Busby of Chapin in 2012, Shannon Rae Lindsey of Columbia in 2014, Yvette L. Cummings of Conway in 2016, Jena Thomas of Spartanburg in 2018, and Adrian Rhodes of Hartsville in 2020. 701 CCA is a non-profit visual arts center that promotes understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of contemporary art, the creative process and the role of art and artists in the community. The center also encourages interaction between visual and other art forms. 701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley Street, 2nd Floor, Columbia, SC 29201. During exhibitions, hours are Wed-Sat 11–5; Sun 1-5. For more information, visit www.701cca.org.
For further inquiries, contact director@701cca.org or call Michaela Pilar Brown on 803.319.9949.

Jason Rapp

New ‘U’: Artists U offers new podcast series

Tools and tips for #SCartists keep coming

Headphones lying on laptop on armchair. Hygge minimalist home room indoor apartment interior decoration. Cozy room in natural tone

The same value-filled workshops #SCartists have grown accustomed to getting from Artists U are now available in a new medium anytime, anywhere.

To broaden reach, Artists U founder/director/guru Andrew Simonet is now offering a podcast series of conversations with artists across media. It's called Artlife on Blast, and it's the result of a partnership that includes 701 Center for Contemporary Art and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Michaela Pilar Brown, executive director of 701 CCA and a notable artist in her own right, joins Simonet to talk with featured artists.
Here's a little more from Artists U:
  • We talked with South Carolina artists about making art, making a life, and making a living.
  • How do we nourish our practice and feed ourselves?
  • And how much money could you make selling your CDs out of your trunk in the 1990s? (a lot, turns out)

We spoke with artists about things artists don’t always discuss publicly.

FatRat Da Czar has been building a life in hip hop and the artist community to nourish that work for three decades. Camela Guevara turns waste streams into art and her day job into her studio. Malik Greene is building a life as a self-taught artist and the first professional artist in his family. Cedric Umoja got honest with a community and told them the mural he was painting would probably be a gentrifying force (and the conversation that developed was profound). Ed Rice carefully managed his expenses to live off his painting for fifty years. Fifty. Years.

While editing, I got to listen to the conversations many times, and I gotta say: these artists are fascinating. In each episode, we also share some Artists U prompts and tools, ways artists are building sustainable lives.


Artists U made "Art Life on Blast"available on artistsu.org on these common platforms: The series was created and is produced by Michaela Pilar Brown and Simonet (who edits, as you read above). Production support comes from Omme-Salma Rahemtullah. Music is from Sheldon Wright and Jamil Byron. Funding support comes by way of a partnership grant from the SCAC (/mic drop). Go have a listen!

Jason Rapp

SCAC Fellow lands residency in Columbia

701 Center for Contemporary Art announced Adrian Rhodes today as its new artist in residence.

The 701 CCA Prize 2020 winner receives a six-week paid residency at 701 CCA. A solo exhibition following the residency will feature work created during it. 701 CCA in Columbia provides the time and place for conversations and reflection. The 701 CCA Prize is an art competition and exhibition for South Carolina artists 40 years old and younger. The project identifies and recognizes young professional South Carolina artists whose work is exemplary in its originality, shows awareness of artistic developments and is of high artistic merit. Rhodes submitted to all four previous prize competitions. The printmaker and mixed media an installation artist holds both bachelor's and master's in fine arts from Winthrop University and has exhibited widely and often throughout the Carolinas and beyond. Recognitions of her career so far include being South Carolina Arts Commission visual arts fellow in 2020, selection for the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial in 2019 and 2021, and the recent region-wide exhibition Coined In The South at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.

Artist statement

“My work is about relationships, and the complexity of closeness- the simultaneous struggle to separate from your past and return to it in the same breath. As a medium based in the creation of multiples, printmaking becomes a method for creating structure. This framework, indulging a desire for order, creates space for disruption. Using prints as modular components allows the work to inherit visual information across pieces. I am interested in how this repetition of imagery and motif reflects recurring thought patterns. Tedious handwork is an anxiety response, reflecting an obsessive desire for control, which is undone through woundings within the work. In a world of instant gratification, the act of sitting with heavy thoughts and repetitive processes for an extended time becomes a statement in itself, bringing that act to the content and context of the work."

Jason Rapp

South Arts’ 2021 Southern Prize & State Fellows debut in S.C.

Traveling exhibition opens today in Columbia

[caption id="attachment_48982" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Marielle Plaisir | R. Bridges | In The Malediction of Cham Series | 2021 Printing on Duratrans, backlit transparent archival film | 63 x 43 in.[/caption]

Nine accomplished Southern artists—or some of their works, anyway—debut in Columbia today as part of a traveling exhibition to showcase South Arts' 2021 Southern Prize contenders.

Among them is Charleston's Fletcher Williams III (right) of #SCartists fame, the Southern Prize finalist (runner up) last year. The exhibition series, which fans out across the Southern states served by frequent SCAC partner and regional arts agency South Arts, began at 701 Center for Contemporary Art (701 Whaley St., second floor, Columbia) in 2019 (known affectionately at Hub HQ as "the before times"). It returns today beginning at 1 p.m. and runs through March 6, 2022. Williams, certainly, will draw much attention as a native son. Joining him are Southern Prize winner Marielle Plaisir of Florida, Tameca Cole of Alabama, Raheleh Filsoofi of Tennessee, Joyce Garner of Kentucky, Myra Greene of Georgia, Jewel Ham of North Carolina, Ming Ying Hong of Mississippi and artists duo Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick of Louisiana. South Arts rightfully lauds the 2021 cohort of state fellows is the most diverse group to date; of the six American-born artists, all but Garner are African American. Filsoofi is from Iran, Plaisir was born in France but has roots in Guadeloupe, and Hong was born in China but raised in Los Angeles. With COVID continuing to rage in South Carolina (perhaps plateauing? maybe?), 701 will not be holding an opening reception. The gallery hopes it can present a smattering of events to accompany the exhibition instead—details TBA. Presenting sponsors are Cyberwoven and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

Jason Rapp

South Carolina Biennial 2021 rolls on at 701 CCA

Two-part exhibition ends Dec. 23


(Ed. note: this is a lightly updated version of this Hub story on Part I's opening.)

The 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2021 is the sixth survey of South Carolina art taking place at 701 Center for Contemporary Art.

As the successor of the South Carolina Triennial, 701 CCA's Biennial is the main regular event of its kind. The Biennial presents some of the best contemporary art produced statewide and is a juried, multimedia exhibition in two parts. Exhibitions Part I and II both feature works created on a variety of media—oil or acrylic on canvas, photography, inkjet print, woodcut, mixed media, and three-dimensional art.

Acceptance to the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2021 was based on a competitive selection process. Contemporary artists living in South Carolina were invited via a public call to submit both images of their recent artwork and documentation of their career to 701 CCA.

An independent jury of three art professionals reviewed all submissions, selecting 24 artists out of a total of about 88 applications. Visit the 701 CCA website to find out who they are. Part II is now open through Dec. 23, featuring 12 artists of the 24 total selected. Among them are two recipients of the S.C. Arts Commission individual artist fellowship:

The jurors were:

  • Anita N. Bateman, Ph.D., associate curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • Paul Barrett, independent curator, Birmingham, Alabama
  • Cecelia Lucas Stucker, independent curator and founder of both Curating & Collections and the Palmetto Curatorial Exchange, Columbia, South Carolina

701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley St., 2nd Floor, in Columbia. During exhibitions, hours are Wednesday-Saturday 1-5 p.m. by appointment and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. Free, but donations appreciated.

 

Jason Rapp

701 CCA’s South Carolina Biennial opens tonight

Two-part exhibition runs Oct. 7 to Dec. 23


The 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2021 is the sixth survey of South Carolina art taking place at 701 Center for Contemporary Art.

As the successor of the South Carolina Triennial, 701 CCA's Biennial is the main regular event of its kind. The Biennial presents some of the best contemporary art produced statewide and is a juried, multimedia exhibition in two parts. Exhibitions Part I and II both feature works created on a variety of media—oil or acrylic on canvas, photography, inkjet print, woodcut, mixed media, and three-dimensional art.

Acceptance to the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2021 was based on a competitive selection process. Contemporary artists living in South Carolina were invited via a public call to submit both images of their recent artwork and documentation of their career to 701 CCA.

An independent jury of three art professionals reviewed all submissions, selecting 24 artists out of a total of about 88 applications. Visit the 701 CCA website to find out who they are. But know that among them are four recipients of the S.C. Arts Commission individual artist fellowship:

  • Jean Grosser (1993) – Part I
  • Adrian Rhodes (2020) – Part II
  • Kristi Ryba (2022) – Part II
  • Valerie Zimany (2020) – Part I

The jurors were:

  • Anita N. Bateman, Ph.D., associate curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • Paul Barrett, independent curator, Birmingham, Alabama
  • Cecelia Lucas Stucker, independent curator and founder of both Curating & Collections and the Palmetto Curatorial Exchange, Columbia, South Carolina

The Biennial 2021 will be presented in two parts. The first part begins tonight with a reception from 7-9 p.m. and remains on view through Nov. 14. The opening reception for Part II will be Friday, Nov. 19 from 7-9 p.m. 701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley St., 2nd Floor, in Columbia. During exhibitions, hours are Wednesday-Saturday 1-5 p.m. by appointment and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. Free, but donations appreciated.


Jason Rapp

Tuning Up: Student art call + Carter Boucher, Adrian Rhodes news

Good morning! 

"Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...
[caption id="attachment_34666" align="alignright" width="150"] The world-famous Hub Calls for Art Megaphone.[/caption]

ArtFields Jr. is looking for student art

Submission deadline: February 12, 2021 The ArtFields Jr. Art Competition is open to South Carolina students in grades 1 through 12. All artwork submitted is considered by their review panel. Select pieces will be displayed during the month of April and final judging takes place during ArtFields. Schools and families are encouraged to attend the awards ceremony to support their student artists and developing artists throughout the community. Submissions for the 2021 competition are open through February 12, 2021. For complete details of the ArtFields Jr. competition, click here.

2020 is stopping neither Carter Boucher...

(Submitted material) Clarence Carter Boucher, Arts Access South Carolina master teaching artist, is continuing a very successful year. The website/blog https://www.detour-ahead.org/ is featuring three of his paintings and information about his art career, live now here. Plus:
  • "Art from the Heart," a hardback book about art, is going to include his oil portrait, Jesse James, composer.
  • Hip Pocket Press is publishing a piece of his flash fiction, Postcard to a Train Conductor.

... nor Adrian Rhodes

The 2020 SCAC visual arts fellow made a book of recent drawings, currently on view at 701 CCA as part of the 701 Prize Finalists exhibition. She is taking preorders for the book on her website through December 3rd.

Jason Rapp