There’s More to Know About Laura Spong
Remembering the decorated artist
By Julie Coffey/Over the Mantel Gallery
To our readers: A nice confluence of events led to this story, submitted by the gallery owner representing Laura Spong. This is the 10th anniversary of Over the Mantel Gallery. We at the SCAC are counting down the days to the 2024 Governor’s Awards for the Arts broadcast on South Carolina ETV (Spong is a 2017 lifetime achievement recipient) and Spong and OTM are featured this month in Atlanta Style & Design magazine. Thanks to Julie Coffey for her time and submission. The Hub hopes you enjoy this look back.-Ed.
Laura Spong with J. Bardin (left) and George Gunther (right) at the Three Man Prize Winners exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art, February 1958. The three artists had won the annual Columbia Artist’s Guild competition the previous year. Photo courtesy of the Columbia Museum of Art.
Laura Spong (1926-2018) was a woman living in the mid-1950s conservative South when she embarked on a journey to international prominence in the initially male-dominated painting genre of abstract expressionism.
Laura’s paintings comprise a visual journal of her life. And she painted the way she lived her life—in the moment, without limits, inviting challenges while striking a balance of chaos and order. She was a non-conventional woman whose career flourished later in life – following marriage, while raising six children, partially as a widow, and through consistent work with innate passion.
In her own words, “What keeps me wanting to paint again and again is solving the problems and challenges I create for myself. I like it that with non-objective work, nothing is decided for you – no color, design or subject matter; the search is wide open. I love nothing better than to throw paint and lines on a canvas and then solve the problem I have created, the problem being how to pull a coherent painting out of a chaos of lines, shapes and colors. I also love the challenge of never to solve it like I did before. As I solve those problems, I portray my inner journey as I search for meaning and purpose in life. I hope to make a connection with others on a similar journey.”
Laura took classes at the Richland Art School of the Columbia Museum of Art from instructor J. (Jesse Redwin) Bardin, a modern artist who had studied art in New York City and introduced New York paragons to Columbia residents. Laura became a member of the Columbia Artists’ Guild in 1957 and was one of the its spring exhibition winners that year. She remained active with the Columbia art community for the remainder of her life. Her abstracts were included in juried, solo and group exhibitions; won numerous awards and were acquired for public and private collections. Laura became renowned, regionally and abroad—from the capital of South Carolina to the capitals of Slovenia and Switzerland—when her paintings were displayed in these countries’ U.S. Embassies as part of the U.S. Department of State’s office of Art in Embassies Exhibitions.
In 2017, Laura received the S.C. Governor’s Award for the Arts for lifetime achievement, the highest honor our state presents in the arts. Her achievements extend beyond her prolific art career to her loyal roles of daughter, sister, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, friend, neighbor… as well as role model and heroine. She lives on in the memories and emotions evoked by her paintings.
- Ed. note: two of Spong’s works are included in the State Art Collection, a program of the SCAC.
OTM Gallery
Laura’s six children have opened the finite archives of their mother’s oil on canvas paintings to her Columbia community through OTM Gallery. You may now view images of Laura’s inventory on OTM’s website. Available paintings range in size from 8” x 8” to 60” x 48” and each of six decades of Laura’s painting career is represented. Please contact Julie Coffey at 803.719.1713 to confirm availability and make an appointment to view paintings in person.
Representing 30 artists local to Columbia and based throughout the Southeast, OTM Gallery displays a variety of genres, mediums and subjects. Established in 2014, OTM Gallery is an award-winning*, woman-owned and operated small business with singleness of purpose, to offer fine art to our community at affordable prices.
Julie Coffey, Owner
3140 Carlisle Street
Columbia, SC 29205
803.719.1713
Tues. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
overthemantel.com
Facebook: @overthemantel
Instagram: @overthemantelgallery
*Best Art Studio 2024, Best Local Art 2019-2023 and Best Art Gallery 2018 as voted by readers of Columbia Metropolitan Magazine in their annual Best of Columbia contest
OTM in Atlanta Style & Design
Click images to enlarge.
