Liisa Salosaari Jasinski presents OIL PAINTINGS, 2006 - 2009

(Above: Zeitgeist by Liisa Salosaari Jasinski. Oil on Panel. 40" x 48". Click on image to enlarge.)

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski will exhibit her paintings in Columbia at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street from November 5 to November 10, 2009. The Opening Reception is on Friday, November 6th from 5:00 until 9:00 PM.

The exhibition includes work from an ongoing series of abstract oil paintings executed on canvas and rigid supports and using classical oil painting methods combined with contemporary oil and acrylic mediums. These paintings explore themes related to the history of universe and the earth, and they also reflect the artist's ongoing study of historical pigments and their attributes.


(Above: Old World by Liisa Salosaari Jasinski. 20" x 24" on yupo. Click on image to enlarge.)

Finnish-born Salosaari Jasinski has held one-person exhibitions in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Her oil and mixed media paintings have been included in invitational and group exhibitions at Museums, Art Centers, and Galleries throughout the U.S., including New York Hall of Science, Robeson Gallery at Penn State University, and Beverly Arts Center in Chicago. Her work is in many corporate, public, and private collections including "Carolina Contemporary Collection" at the Medical University of S.C. in Charleston. Salosaari Jasinski has received South Carolina Arts Commission's Individual Artist's Grant in 2003 and 2008.

(Above: Blue Untitled by Liisa Salosaari Jasinski. 30" x 48". Oil on wood panel. Click on image to enlarge.)

Exhibition Dates: Thursday, November 5 - Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, November 6 from 5PM to 9PM

Location: Gallery 80808 in the Vista

Address: 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Parking: City Garage at the corner of Lincoln and Washington

Hours: Thursday, Nov. 5: from 12Noon to 6PM

Friday, Nov 6: from 11:30AM to 5PM (followed by the Reception)

Saturday, Nov. 7: from 12Noon to 4PM

Sunday, Nov. 8: By Appointment

Monday, Nov. 9: from 11:30AM to 5PM

Tuesday, Nov. 10: from 11:30AM to 5PM

Also by Appointment – call: 803-321-6261

For more information, directions, or to make an appointment, call 803-321-6261

E-mail: salosaari@yahoo.com

(Above: Fugitive Properties - Proximity by Liisa Salosaari Jasinski. 20" x 20". 2007. Oil on wooden panel. Click on image to enlarge.)

For more information and images, please visit Liisa Salosaari Jasinski's page on the Southern Arts Federation's Southern Artistry website.

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski's exhibition statement:

This series of oil paintings reflects many of the questions that occupy my mind about the universe and the history of earth. My interest in cosmology, theoretical physics, and geophysics is longstanding, and it forms an invisible, energizing scaffolding for my work and also serves as my bridge to the nature. I find that while I work, it is helpful to be anchored into this mental framework of complicated, profound questions. Complexity and ambiguity are always challenging and they can readily translate into visual language. Sometimes the painting’s subject matter or title is a direct allusion to these issues, and often times their presence is just shadowy. The long, rich tradition of oil painting and its attributes of longevity and permanence further reinforce the connection between history, earth, and the universe.

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski's biography:

Liisa Salosaari Jasinski was born 1945 in Helsinki, Finland, where she also spent her childhood and youth. She pursued a career as a writer and translator before receiving a Master’s Degree in Psychology with a Minor in Art History from the University of Helsinki in 1972. After graduation she came to the United States to study psychotherapy. She has lived permanently in the U.S. since 1974. She has traveled widely and studied art on her own since adolescence. The clean, modern style of Finnish design, crafts, and architecture, as well as the early 20th century European Expressionism have had a significant impact on her development as a visual artist.

Liisa has held one-person exhibitions in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, including Urban Artifacts Gallery in Houston, Texas, L.J. Brown Gallery at the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, North Carolina. She has also been included in two-person and invitational exhibitions nationally. Her paintings have been seen in numerous group exhibitions including “Triennial 2004” at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, and “Gross Innovations” at the Cynon Valley Museum in Aberdare, United Kingdom in 2004. She has participated in two public art projects in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2006 she curated "Losing the Reference—Marks of Time, Mysteries of Passage" exhibition of South Carolina Artists' work at the Upstairs Artspace Gallery in Tryon, N.C.

Her award-winning work is represented in many corporate, public, and private collections around the United States, including Carolina Contemporary Collection at the Medical University of S.C. in Charleston, Metropolitan Convention Center and the Housing Authority in Columbia, South Carolina, Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, South Carolina, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Metris Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Trio Enterprises in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stephen Chesley presents "27 Days in July"

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios was prominently featured on the cover and in two articles of the brand new, on-line edition of WINK. See it HERE!


(Above: Vincent by Stephen Chesley. Oil on linen, 20" x 17 1/4". July 27th, 2009. Click on image to enlarge.)

Stephen Chesley presents:

"27 Days in July"
October 29th - November 3rd
Gallery 80808/Vista Studios
808 Lady Street in Columbia's arts and cultural district
(803) 252-6134

OPENING RECEPTION:
Thursday, October 29th from 6 - 8

An excellent article was recently written by the state's best known art critic Jeffrey Day. It includes an in depth overview of the show's concept, undertaking, and challenges. It also includes several good photos. It can be accessed HERE!

When asked for a few words about his solo exhibition, Stephen Chesley provided the following statement:
....." It was Sunday July 27^th ,1890, that Vincent Van Gogh,37, took a revolver to himself,,,,,he had been in Auvers-sur-Oise since May 20^th, and had painted some seventy-five works,and sixty-six drawings."27 Days in July" was inspired by Vincent’s painting "Landscape at Auvers in the Rain", which was exhibited as part of the touring Davies Collection , National Museum of Wales ,at the Columbia Museum of Art in 2009." Landscape at Auvers in the Rain" was painted by Vincent less than two weeks before he took his own life.

This exhibition,"27 Days In July" contains the exact number and dimensions of Vincent’s last works, ,,,,painted that last month,,,,, July, 1890. It is homage to Vincent and a further understanding of him ,,,it is testimonial to his dedication to painting and himself under the most devastating of personal circumstances. The number of works, 23, is a physical illustration of Vincent’s focus, strength, and ability.,,,also, looking at the same canvas dimensions Vincent utilized gives one and understanding of the intellectual challenge and approach to space and design that Vincent himself saw.,,,,those last 27 days ,,,,,,in July.,,,,,,,,,,,,,

.....
and

",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,In essence this exhibition is what Vincent saw and accomplished in his last month in July of 1890, it is a testimony of what he could do under extreme circumstances,, and in seeing ,, looking at theses 23 canvas surfaces and dimensions,,,perhaps one may experience some of the same spatial and compositional thoughts Vincent entertained, ,,,,, and a more poignant unanticipated outcome,,,,,, through Vincent’s canvas choices as one looks at them,,,the presence of Vincent himself."

Included in this exhibition are the following three pieces:

(Above: Melon. Oil on linen. 21" X 25". Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: Tree, Pond. Oil on linen. 26" X 31". Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: The Last Farm House. Oil on linen. 29" x 36". 2009. Click on image to enlarge.)

Additional images of art work by Stephen Chesley can be found HERE!

Morsberger and Yaghjian: Time Travelers and Dancing Man

if ART Gallery presents
at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios
808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

Philip Morsberger - Time Travelers
&
David Yaghjian - Dancing Man

Oct. 16 – 27, 2009
Artists’ Reception: Friday, Oct. 16, 5 –9 p.m.

(Above: That-A-Way by Philip Morsberger. 2002-2006. Oil on canvas.

30" x 24".)

(Above: Dog Through Hoop by David Yaghjian. Oil. 20" x 20". Click on image to enlarge.)

Opening Hours:
Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m. Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and by appointment.
For more information, contact Wim Roefs at (803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For a preview of the exhibition, go to http://ifartgallery.blogspot.com

With its two simultaneous solo exhibitions at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., if ART Gallery introduces the widely revered painter Philip Morsberger. Morsberger is the former head of the Oxford University art department in England; he recently joined if ART Gallery. Along with the Morsberger’s show, Time Travelers, if ART presents Columbia native and resident David Yaghjian’s solo exhibition Dancing Man. Yaghjian’s will be his first solo exhibition in Columbia since 2000, when he exhibited at the now-defunct Morris Gallery. The exhibition will also be Yaghjian’s first solo exhibition featuring his “every man” series, which he began to develop some five years ago.

Morsberger (b. 1933) will be showing a selection of the vigorously painted and drawn figurative/representational works inhabited with cartoon-like and other creatures for which he is known. The exhibition also will include Morberger’s non-objective paintings, in which he develops an abstract-expressionist approach that also often shows through in his representational work. In the 2007 book Philip Morsberger: A Passion for Painting, author Christopher Loyd writes of Morsberger’s “mythical universe, comprising a whole cast of fantastical creatures, both human and animal. . . All these creatures inhabit a turbulent, chaotic world that is hugely energized and dominated by a mood of restlessness.” About Morsberger’s use of colors, Loyd writes: “Color is a distinctive feature of the recent narrative paintings . . . The colors sing on the canvas.” Baltimore native Morsberger studied at Oxford in the mid-1950s and from 1971-1984 was the university’s Ruskin Master of Drawing. He used the prestigious position to develop and head a now renowned, full-blown art department at Oxford University. In the United States, Morsberger has taught at Harvard University, Dartmouth University, UC Berkeley, the California College of Arts and Crafts, Miami University and other institutions. He retired from teaching after a five-year stint as Williams S. Morris Eminent Scholar in Art at Augusta State University in Augusta, Ga. His work is in several museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Yaghjian (b. 1948) will present a selection of his most recent “Everyman” paintings. Many of the works present metaphoric and symbolic, often psychologically pregnant scenes showing a man edging toward post-middle age, and physically somewhat resembling Yaghjian, going through “real” or fantastic trials and tribulations. “The images,” Yaghjian says, “are a way of acknowledging the below-the-surface currents. Stating in a full frontal position the obvious and not so obvious. A man is a man angry, sad, fat, dying, elated, lecherous, leprous, deflated, pompous, hilarious…on his head, with a dog, with a monkey. Sometimes a woman accompanies him. They are figurative pieces, fantasies, what I call ‘semi narratives’. They are scenes of a midpoint in a situation.”

Yaghjian has exhibited across the Carolinas, including at the Blue Spiral I Gallery in Asheville, N.C., if ART Gallery and the Florence (S.C.) Museum of Art. In Atlanta, where he used to live, Yaghjian has shown in the Spruill Center Gallery, the Right Brain Gallery and other venues. He also painted two murals in the Georgia capital. Yaghjian holds a BA from Massachussetts’ Amherst College and studied in New York City at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Art. Among his instructors were Fairfield Porter, Leonard Baskin, Will Barnett and Chaim Koppelman.

(Above: Back Bend by David Yaghjian. Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: La Barricade by Philip Morsberger. 2006-2007. Oil on canvas. 48" x 36".)

David and Ellen Yaghjian featured in Columbia Metropolitan

The following image and article appeared in the October issue of Columbia Metropolitan Magazine. The article, "Complementary Pairs" was written by Robin Cowie Nalepa and featured photography by Jeff Amberg. Two other couples were included....but this blog post is only about Gallery 80808/Vista Studio artist David Yaghjian and his lovely wife Ellen. Click on the images to enlarge...and to read the text!