08.18.10 - 09.24.10 / Reception - 08.26.10
Alternate Realities Converge in “Reverie” at Gallery Up
July 15, 2010 - Gallery Up is pleased to present Reverie, an exhibition of drawings and paintings by Harriet Marshall Goode and Merja Isomaa-James, on view from August 18 through September 24, 2010. The artist reception will be held on Thursday, August 26, 2010.
With the coupling of these artists, Gallery Up introduces a new body of work by Isomaa-James, crafted from across the ocean, and provides a new perspective on Goode’s familiar oeuvre. The purpose of this exhibition is to acknowledge the uncanny, ambiguous and unfamiliar that is ever-present in these artists’ works. Both women share a fascination with alternate realities, despite their difference in location, cultures and generation. Reveries function in their work as a kind of distorted mirror in which to better observe their own lives.
Merja Isomaa-James was first introduced to Rock Hill as part of an exchange program from her home in Finland to Winthrop University in 2005. She is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Art Education from the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland. Her work has been displayed in multiple group and solo exhibitions throughout Europe and is featured in the Finnish National Collection. Isomaa-James tends to use either excessive or minimal visual information to form her “parallel kingdoms,” hoping to capture the duality of beauty and anxiety in life.
Rock Hill native Harriet Marshall Goode has been an active member of the regional art community for over 50 years. Well known throughout the Southeastern United States for her paintings of women, Goode has studied at multiple universities along the East Coast, participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and received both an honorary degree and The Medal of Honor in the Arts from Winthrop University. Courageous markmaking, as she puts it, is of much importance in her work as she strives to capture the intrigue of the female figure. This quest often manifests through use of amorphous form and surface quality, paired with the placement of the figure with curious objects and in unknown spaces with no explanation.
Reverie will open in conjunction with the 21st Annual Juried Competition at the Center for the Arts. Select artist studios at both the Gettys Art Center and Center for the Arts will also be open to the public that evening, and the last Old Town Market of 2010 will be taking place from 5 to 8 pm in the rear parking lot of the Gettys Art Center. Visit www.galleryup.com for details on the show and information on upcoming events.