The Department of Visual Art & Design at the University of South Carolina Beaufort will present the artwork of Amie Esslinger at the Sea Islands Center Gallery early next month. An opening reception will take place Friday, Oct. 4, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. A gallery talk will follow at 6 p.m. The exhibit will remain on view through Oct. 26. The Sea Islands Center Gallery is located at 1106 Carteret Street.
Esslinger will be exhibiting paintings and installations that depict microscopic views of cellular activity. Microbiology is the aesthetic foundation of her work. Acrylic paint, ink, gel medium and thread all combine to create bright, abstract-looking images on paper that are titled “Hydro Vents,” “Before the Egg Tooth” and “Spores.” These media, and more, are used to create her installations. The installation “Family Virus (Spillover)” will be spreading around the walls of the gallery.
“The abstract biomorphs and hyper-palettes portray the energy and dynamism of biological processes and systems,” Esslinger says. “By interjecting activity not visible to the human eye into the space of the gallery, [the work] draws the viewer in to experience promiscuous patterns of repetition and mutation constituting the reality of the aesthetic object.”
Based in Atlanta, Esslinger has most recently shown in The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Scienceat the David J. Sencer CDC Museum: In Association with the Smithsonian Institution, Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a B.F.A. with a concentration in drawing and painting at Georgia State University in 2008. She has been a recent resident of Yaddo, an artists’ community in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences in Rabun Gap, Ga.
Esslinger’s work also will be on display at the Beaufort Art Walk, Saturday, Oct. 26, from 5 to 8 p.m.
About the Sea Islands Center Gallery
The Sea Islands Center Gallery is the art gallery of the Department of Visual Art & Design of the University of South Carolina Beaufort. It is located on the Beaufort Campus in the Sea Islands Center building at 1106 Carteret Street. Since 2012, the gallery has hosted visiting artists, traveling exhibitions, group exhibitions, and shows of student work. The mission of the gallery is to promote the academic and creative programming goals of the Department of Visual Art & Design and to serve as a catalyst for creative inquiry and exploration within the Beaufort community. The directors of the Sea Islands Center Gallery are Ann Holderfield and Chad Penner.
Contact the gallery at seaislandscentergallery@uscb.eduor 843-521-3147 for current hours. For information about the USCB Department of Visual Art & Design, contact Department Chair Chris Robinson at robinsct@mailbox.sc.edu.
