Construction Crew: December 9-21, 2005

Haut XVI (Skin XVI), 2005
Bronze and steel, 1/10
29 x 8 x 8 in.
$ 1,275

if ART, International Fine Art Services

Columbia, S.C.

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC

C o n s t r u c t i o n C r e w :

KLAUS HARTMANN * KIM KEATS

PETER LENZO * EDWARD RICE 

Artists’ Reception:

Friday, Dec. 9, 5 – 10 p.m.

Special Holiday Viewing Hours:

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 a.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 a.m.

Weekdays, 11 AM – 7 PM and by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – (803) 799-7170 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For its holiday exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., if ART, International Fine Art Services of Columbia presents Construction Crew, a group exhibition with work by German artist Klaus Hartmann and South Carolina artists Kim Keats, Peter Lenzo, and Edward Rice. The show consists of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art that has strong constructional or architectural characteristics. The show opens Friday, Dec. 9, with a reception from 5:00 p.m to 10:00 p.m. and runs through Dec. 21. Opening hours are weekdays, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Sundays 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. The exhibition is on view during the Vista Studios Holiday Open Studios, Saturday, Dec. 10, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., and Thursday, Dec. 15, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

“The work by the three-D artists in this show is all very much constructed,” said Wim Roefs, director of if ART and the show’s curator. “The artists build constructions from different materials, be they metal and bronze, tree bark and twigs, or just wood. Ed Rice’s paintings and monotypes are architectural in that they depict buildings or details of buildings.”

Hartmann (b. 1960), of Kaiserslautern, Germany, will show new sculptures of welded steel and bronze. Despite their strong constructional features, the sculptures are actually abstracted figures or body parts, including bronze body forms suspended in an open, four-legged metal armature. Hartmann is a fixture on the art scene of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. He has produced several public sculptures, including one for his state’s Department of Culture. Hartmann makes energetic, abstracted and stylized bronze and metal sculptures. He approaches his metal work as a blacksmith, not simply welding pieces of metal together but actually hammering and bending shapes and forms from the material. In the past few years, Hartmann has exhibited several times in Columbia, S.C., where his work is in several private collections.

Keats (b. 1954), of Okatie, S.C., near Beaufort, holds a BFA from Augusta State University, an MFA from Georgia Southern University, and did graduate studies in fibers at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Galtinburg, Tenn. Her work has been exhibited at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C., the Museum of York County in Rock Hill, S.C., the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, S.C., NationsBank Plaza in Columbia, S.C., the Orlando (Florida) Museum of Art, Carol Saunders Gallery in Columbia, S.C., and at scores of other commercial and institutional galleries. Keats was part the 1999 Material Objects exhibition organized by the S.C. Arts Commission. She uses natural materials such as bark, twigs, palm pods, and roots, as well as linen, bones, and turtle shells, to create architectural structures, vessels, and wall assemblages. 

Lenzo (b. 1955) nowadays is mostly known for his face jugs and full-figure ceramic sculptures that incorporate anything from old pipe heads and small porcelain dolls to fragments of cups and plates. This show, however, will present work from the 1990s, when Lenzo was known for his altar-like constructions. These structures consist of wooden frames with religious statues and drawers full of personal artifacts or amorphous, ready-made metal forms, mostly bed pans. Lenzo is represented by the prestigious Ferren Gallery in Lenox, Mass., and is the owner of Southern Pottery Workcenter and Gallery in Columbia, S.C. He holds an MFA from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. His work is in the South Carolina State Museum, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C., and the Renwick Gallery at The Smithsonian Museum Washington, D.C. His solo shows include those at the Spartanburg (S.C.) Museum of Art and the European Ceramic Work Center in Den Bosch, The Netherlands.

Rice (b. 1953) is one of the Southeast’s most prominent contemporary painters. He has had solo museum exhibitions at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga., the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, S.C., the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Ga., the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art, the Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum in La Grange, Ga., and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Rice was also represented in The Story of the South: Art and Culture, 1890 – 2003, New Orleans’ Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s inaugural exhibition. “Edward Rice: Architectural Works, 1978-1998” was published by the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in 1998, and “Edward Rice: Recent Monotypes,” by the Morris Museum of Art in 2003. Rice is especially known for his stark, meticulous paintings of architectural structures or their details. In recent years, he has also produced a body of monotypes of architectural forms.