SCFAC Annual Juried Show 2017

The Coleman Center for the Arts and the Sumter County Fine Arts Council present their Annual Juried Art Show at the Coleman Center gallery from March 2nd to April 12th, 2017.

This juried show features the artwork of Sumter County artists. Award winners were selected by our guest juror Imani Brown, founding organizer of Blights Out and Director of Programs at Antenna in New Orleans.

First Place

Tallahatta Creek Reflections by Sheila Hull

Second Place

Wedding Sign by Garland Farwell

Third Place

Nautical Form by Charlie Munoz

Honorable Mentions

Reunion by Lucille Brandon

Nest by Megan Clark

JUROR STATEMENT

Before arriving today, I knew little of Sumter County, Alabama, but the work here at the Coleman Center for the Arts speaks volumes about this town and about the love its residents feel for it, for their community, their environment, and their craft. A place and a work of art come into being in much the same way. At first, a place is nothing more than a bit of physical geography: A longitude and latitude, a square area, a point in space. Not yet a destination, nor a home. But with care and creativity, with intention and time, with love and commitment, small impressions take on life and settle into the layered patina of memory and history. Gestures, glimpses, sounds, textures, light, color, and moments weave together to create a place, a community, and a work of art. These elements fit together like a mandala, the Buddhist symbol for the circle of life through creative union.

This exhibition is truly a mandala: softness and strength intertwine in quilted portraits of deep family roots and bronze figures frozen in graceful movement; the chaotic order of nature is captured in painting and ceramics; traditional patterns and old histories are revitalized in new materials; and personalities and spirits are vibrant. The Coleman Center–with this exhibition as its hearth–is a welcoming point of entry to York.

ABOUT THE JUROR

Imani Jacqueline Brown is a New Orleans native, activist, cultural organizer, and Director of Programs at Antenna, New Orleans. In 2014, Imani co-founded Blights Out (www.blightsout.org), a collective of citizens, artists, architects, and activists imagining a new model for development that generates art and action to impact issues of blight, gentrification, and housing affordability. She is a member of Occupy Museums, an international artist/activist collective formed in 2011 during Occupy Wall Street to challenge and deconstruct the commodification of art and culture (www.occupymuseums.org). Occupy Museums’ project, Debtfair, will be featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. In 2014, Imani worked as Curatorial Associate and Manager of Publications for Prospect.3, New Orleans under the Artistic Direction of Franklin Sirmans. That same year, her paper “Performing Bare Life: Occupying the Liminality between Civilizations” was named best in stream at the 5th Annual Latin American and European Meeting on Organization Studies in Havana, Cuba. She received her BA in Visual Arts and Anthropology from Columbia University in 2010.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *