our introduction exhibitions are always a highlight of the summer. every other year we curate a group show to introduce artists who have never shown in charlotte. a lot of planning goes into prepping for a large group exhibition and quite a few of the artists we have been waiting to exhibit for years. all the artists in intro 8 push the boundaries of the definition of a painting. barbara campbell thomas and jean alexander frater manipulate the actual canvas through sewing and weaving the material to form unique patterns. donald martiny and stephanie patton use polymer and mattresses respectively to create 3 dimensional sculptural works. conny goelz schmitt manipulates vintage books into abstracted wall sculptures. emma childs stretches her own canvases over wooden formed frames in her shaped paintings. painters woody shepherd, millie sims and celia johnson stand out for their distinct painting styles. we are always looking for artists who are willing to find their own path through their art and challenge the viewer to see things differently. this exhibition is all about manipulating forms and materials to create something inspiring and fresh. enjoy!
donald martiny was born in schenectady, ny in 1953 and currently lives and works in chapel hill, north carolina. he studied at the school of the visual arts, the art students league in new york, new york university and the pennsylvania academy of fine arts. museum exhibitions include the fwmoa, courtauld institute of art, alden b dow museum of art, falmouth museum, and the cameron art museum. martiny's paintings are dramatic abstract expressive gestural works. his abstract paintings are related to both action painting and abstract expressionism. his works are vibrantly colourful, sometimes with a singular colour in a sweeping brushstroke, at other times contrasting colours. the sculptural works appear to be frozen brushstrokes which float in mid air.. donald martiny has achieved to combine the mediums of paintings and sculptures. he paints primarily with polymer and pigment on aluminum. making a new traditional technique of impasto, the sculptural laying on of paint so that it stands in relief. he had to experiment for years with the composition of the paint, which should be liquid enough to reproduce the brushstroke and at the same time be so durable in a dry state that the work can be mounted on the wall without breaking.
“my paintings are actual authentic gestures. these brushstrokes are very much me and i want to be present in the works as honestly and authentically as i can be. they are records of my physicality at a specific point in time. the paintings are made on the floor because i like to walk around them and work into them from all angles...sometimes i employ brooms and mops for brushes or simply paint with my hands. i like being in the painting as much as possible and enjoy the primal experience of pushing the painting around."
-donald martiny
born in new orleans, la, stephanie patton is a multi–media artist whose work crosses the realms of sculpture, painting, photography, installation, performance, video, audio and text. she received a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the university of louisiana in lafayette and a master of fine arts degree in photography from the school of the art institute of chicago. she has studied various types of vocal and comedic performance in new york through the new school, upright citizens brigade and gotham writers workshop. stephanie is currently the producer and host (as the characterrenella rose champagne) of lost in love on KRVS 88.7FM.
stephanie patton has shown her work nationally and internationally including shows at the bronx museum of the arts, the ogden museum of southern art, louisiana artWorks, the contemporary art center in new orleans, la; the mcnay art museum in san antonio, the galveston art center in texas and galerie patricia dorfmann in paris, france. she is also a founding member of the front, an artist’s collective, in new orleans, la. stephanie has received several grants including a career advancement grant from the louisiana division of the arts in 2009 and 2012. she has been an artist in residence at the vermont studio center, the santa fe art institute and the joan mitchell center in new orleans. in 2019 stephanie was a south arts fellowship recipient for the state of louisiana and a finalist for the 1858 prize for contemporary southern art with the gibbes museum of art in charleston, sc. her work is often humorous in nature and frequently investigates aspects of human emotion.
as a multi-media artist, i often use humor as a device to bring attention to more critical issues. my work frequently addresses psychological themes while exploring the relationship between humor and personal therapies. i construct these text-based pieces with my industrial sewing machine and gravitate towards materials and processes that I feel best address my conceptual concerns. mattress quilting can suggest ideas related to birth, death, intimacy, relationships, illness and rest. the mattress quilting, when coupled with words or phrases, which often have multiple meanings such as “please”, is meant to bring a humorous yet poignant conceptual message to the viewer. issues that remain constant in my work are an exploration of mental and physical health, themes of healing, comfort and self-preservation.
humor plays an important role in my work. i often use it as a device to bring attention to critical issues including an exploration of mental and physical health, themes of healing, comfort and self-preservation. i gravitate towards materials and processes that I feel best address my conceptual concerns and often allude to various emotional states.
-stephanie patton
emma childs was born and raised in baltimore, maryland and received her bfa in fine arts from the maryland institute college of art. she uses eloquent shapes and thoughtful pops of color to create objects that physically interact with their environment. through her minimalist approach, childs transforms experiences and emotions into simplified form, color, and geometric edges. the results are eye-catching compositions, which tell complicated and interconnected narratives in an accessible way. emma childs’s paintings are layered depictions of existence in the worlds we build around ourselves.
in this current body of work, emma childs has been developing a language of painting that allows her to explore the way we exist in the world we build around us. childs’ work explores moments of chaos and mundanity, freedom and containment, isolation and contact. she is interested in the ability of a work to evoke an energetically emotional response from the viewer as well as creating objects that physically interact with their environment, to walk a line between creating something self-contained as well as reaching outward.
conny goelz schmitt is a collage artist and sculptor who spent her youth in germany, moved to taiwan in her twenties, and relocated to the united states in 1996. having been immersed in three very different cultures, she is drawn to hard edge painting influenced by the german “attention to detail”, the retro color palette reminiscent of taiwan in the 80s, and the very often experimental and creative pioneering spirit of americans. her medium of choice is almost without exception the vintage book.
in germany she studied sinology and german literature at eberhard karls university in tuebingen. she was named sculptor of the year by chief curator of boston university, kate mcnamara in caa’s 69th members’ prize show. in 2016, paul c. ha, director of the list visual art center at massachusetts institute of technology, selected her work for the best multi media prize in caa’s national prize show. he work has been featured at galerie biesenbach, cologne (germany), the cultural association of rosa venerini, viterbo (italy), the painting center, new york, site: brooklyn, new york, the danforth art museum, framingham, ma, among others.
celia johnson uses the contrast of the raw texture of her panels and the transparencies of her brushstroke to create layered, collage-like paintings. her works are inquisitive and act as puzzles to be solved. celia’s focus is on the play of color and form and how these interact on the picture plane. there is a modernist sensibility to her paintings which manifest as non-referential, rhythmic, geometric abstractions. celia johnson has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the united states. she was most recently featured at the north carolina museum of art, and has work in the corporate collection of credit suisse. celia lives and works in chapel hill, nc.
i create paintings with a collage sensibility. they are informed by an ongoing investigation into the effects of color and form in various states of collision on the picture plane. it is an idealist, modernist interest that has manifested as a non-referential, rhythmic, geometric abstraction.
structured figure/ground relationships explore the push-pull of form and color in the space within the edges of the rectangle. here i am viscerally exploring how painting and collage can formally work together. each new concept is an immersion in shifting planes and forms that afford limitless experimentation in which i attempt to mine the dual role that color can play both as content and as structure. the work has a dynamic, haptic quality, as if one could reach in and shift, reposition or rearrange the layers within the frame. saturated flat colorfields are layered and shuffled in degrees of reveal to float above or recede beneath the picture plane.
i disrupt and concretize the immaculate color fields of the composition through scraped and incised marks on the picture surface. this reveals the layers beneath so that the final image is not only the outcome of a sequencing of flat layers but also has painterly gestural qualities. the resulting work is a freeze frame of a kinetic procedure. thrill is won in the seeking of an image and the realisation of it in my attempt to impose order on fluid chaos, finding a way to the final image by puzzling through it, leaving behind evidence of execution.
while the work is formally intuitive, it is calculated in its design and plotting, playing juxtaposed elements and relational situations against one another in the layering and building of the planar surfaces. this is the continuation of a utopian fascination with color-as-form that began in my childhood, and which continued to inspire through my discovery of the revelatory work of the russian avant-garde, the de stijl group, the bauhaus, and the polish constructivists strzemiński & kobro.-celia johnson
jean alexander frater experiments with the materials inherent to painting and then integrates other histories, traditions and language into this form. alexander frater was a 2017-2018 chicago artists bolt resident, received an mfa. from school of art the institute of chicago, and a ba in philosophy, from the university of dayton, ohio. her work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the wexner center for arts, columbus; el museo cultural de santa fe; images festival, toronto; possible project space, brooklyn; ben-gurion. airport, tel aviv; kulturhuset, stockholm, aspect/ratio, chicago and guest spot @ the reinstitute, baltimore.
frater works with painting as an object rather than a picture. she converses with the materiality of each piece in an effort to allow it to retain its voice. treating the surface of the canvas like fabric, frater folds to disrupt the forms she has painted on: the gestures of making are integral interests for frater, seeing the ways that these different gestures create different meanings. the ripples that result are a refreshing approach to grids, stripes, gradients, often used in abstraction. the large woven paintings are intensely physical, and the smallest ones are experimental in form and color.
woody shepherd was born 1980 in greensboro, nc, though lived most of his childhood outside birmingham, alabama. he obtained a bfa from the rhode island school of design (2003), with an emphasis in painting and drawing, and a mfa from yale university (2005) in painting and printmaking. since 2005, shepherd has lived in logan, utah, where he is an assistant professor of painting and drawing at utah state university. shepherd's studio is based in logan, where he continues to work on his paintings.
millie sims is an abstract artist specialising in geometric paintings in acrylic on canvas. throughout her body of work, millie reshapes classic imagery in her signature sharp-angled style from abstract adaptations of audubon prints and slim aarons photographs to the low country landscapes and chinoiserie patterns, her paintings put a fresh, modern spin on the recognisable images of comfort.
millie’s artistic background is varies and inventive. after earning her bfa in English and comparative literature at the university of north Carolina-chapel hill, she spent two years in Paris, where her passion for the visual arts was revived. over the next two years in Manhattan , millie began studying painting privately under various professional artist to gain a balances blend of technique and expertise, while working in the fashion and beauty industries. her creative education in not only painting, but also fashion marketing and graphic design in her early career, ballet throughout her youth and early adulthood, creative writing as a freelance writer, and good old fashion geometry, have provided her the foundation to create her own unique style and process as an artist.
millie currently resides in charleston, south carolina, where she works in a studio on historic king street. her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Dixon gallery & gardens in memphis, the birmingham botanical garden and in productions with hbo + netflix.
barbara campbell thomas's work combines painting with quilting, overlaying their material vocabularies to create complex formal dialogues within each painting that resonate with the details of her own life and the history of each medium. she came relatively late to quilting, which she learned from her mother, but quickly realized its power as an art form traditionally practiced by women to inform and expand the range of painting.
barbara’s paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the united states: at the weatherspoon art museum, the painting center, the atlanta center for contemporary art, the southeastern center for contemporary art and the north carolina museum of art. she has been an artist-in-residence at the hambidge center for creative arts and sciences, the skowhegan school for painting and sculpture and, in 2021, she will attend the elizabeth murray artist residency. she is a recent recipient of a north carolina artists fellowship.
barbara campbell thomas is an associate professor of art in the school of art at unc greensboro. she lives and works in climax, nc.
all available work by each artists in introductions can be viewed on our website under the intro 8 tab including sizing + pricing. hidell brooks gallery is by appointment only. please call the gallery if you have any further questions.