Again & Again: The Art of Repetition

Through Again & Again: The Art of Repetition, 701 Center for Contemporary Art explores repetition as an aesthetic and conceptual device in art through the work of 11 artists whose approach and concerns vary widely. The exhibition opens with an artists’ reception on Thursday, September 1, 7 – 9 p.m., and runs through October 16, 2016. 

Of the artists, Charles Clary, Amiri Farris, Kara Gunter, Ken Hamilton, Brent Pafford and Ann Stoddard live in South Carolina. Stephanie Shively received her MFA from the University of South Carolina earlier this year but now lives in the state of New York. The late Robert Courtright is a South Carolina native who lived and worked in New York and France. The remaining artists, Chris Myers, IlaSahai Prouty and Stacy Rexrode, live in North Carolina. 

“All but Robert Courtright and Stepanie Shively were also present at this year’s ArtFields in Lake City,” said Wim Roefs, board chair of 701 CCA and the exhibition’s curator. “This is an exciting opportunity for people who missed ArtFields this year to see some highlights from that event.” 

Charles Clary’s work in the exhibition is a “second movement” of Be Kind, Rewind, his large installation of VHS tapes that won the top, $50,000 prize at ArtFields 2016. Brent Pafford’s work won the $25,000 Juried Prize at this year’s ArtFields. The works of Ken Hamilton and Stacy Rexrode were among ArtFields 2016’s ten honorable mentions. 

“The exhibition shows that artists use repetition for a wide variety of reasons,” Roefs said. “For someone like Ken Hamilton, who highlights the structure and look of existing buildings through scale models, repetition is the immediate consequence of what his chosen subjects look like. For Amiri Farris, the repetition is an invented backdrop, wallpaper perhaps, of an otherwise figurative painting. IlaSahai Prouty’s work deals with the so-called ‘paper bag test’ to define African Americans’ skin color, and with the wide variety of skin colors at hand and brown paper bag sheets being a main vehicle here to address issues related to skin color, a repetition of brown sheets is perhaps inevitable.” 

Charles Clary’s work features hundreds of VHS tapes purposefully adapted. Robert Courtright made his name with minimal compositions consisting of square of rectangular fields. Kara Gunter’s work shows several large human figures dropping from the ceiling or rising from the floor. Chris Myers collected scores of skate board decks from different locations to create one large, oval work of art with a light feature. Brenf Pafford’s work consists of dozens of hanging porcelain frying pans, while Stacy Rexrode mounts dozens of plastic Delft’s Blue plates in a grouping. Stephanie Shively has created a structured collage of her family life through polaroid-like photos mounted on wood panels. Ann Stoddard Hands That Build shows a large circle of stuffed gloves in various color positioned on the floor.