Figure 8 by James Busby

 701 Center for Contemporary Art, Columbia, SC presents…

James Busby, Winner of the 701 CCA Prize 2012:
Figure 8
Residency: August 17 – September 27, 2014
Exhibition: August 21 – October 12, 2014

Gallery Open:

Wednesday: 11am – 8pm

Thursday/Friday: 11am – 5pm

Saturday: 9am – 5pm

Sunday: 1 – 5pm

701 Center for Contemporary Art presents Figure 8, a solo exhibition by James Busby, winner of the 701 CCA Prize 2012 for young South Carolina artists. The exhibition will open with a reception on Thursday, August 21, 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Admission to the reception is free to 701 CCA members; for non-members, the suggested donation is $5. Busby, who will be in residence at 701 CCA until late September creating new works, will be present at the reception. The exhibition is Busby’s first solo show in his native South Carolina and his first at a museum or art center.
Busby (b, 1973) is among the state’s most successful artists, regularly selling out shows in New York and elsewhere. His superbly crafted, material-based, non-objective works of art are paintings and three-dimensional objects all at once. The Chapin resident and Rock Hill native sands layers of gesso to create refined, smooth surfaces, then applies graphite, acrylics and oils. The paintings play with viewers’ perceptions as they are solid but precious; appear hard as seen in details above but are soft; seem heavy but are light; contain relief while looking flat; combine geometric and organic shapes; and at once are tactile and smooth.
Busby has averaged about one gallery solo exhibition per year since receiving his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003, showing at Kravets|Wehby Gallery and Stefan Stux Gallery in New York City; Randall Scott Projects in Washington, D.C.; Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Va.; and New Gallery/Thom Andriola in Houston, Tex. In the same period, he was included in some 40 group exhibitions and art fairs, 17 of them in 2013–14 alone. Busby has shown in a dozen states and London, Paris and Stockholm. His work has been represented at art fairs in Stockholm, Miami, Fla., and New York City, including New York’s International Armory Show and Scope. The Nassau County Museum of Art in Long Island, N.Y., included the Chapin, S.C., resident this year in AftermodernisM, a three-person exhibition. Other museums that have shown his work include the Chelsea Art Museum in New York; the University of Richmond Museum in Richmond, Va.; the Palmer Museum of Art at Pennsylvania State University in University Park; the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Mont.; and the Columbia Museum of Art and South Carolina State Museum, both in Columbia, S.C. At the latter, Busby was included in the 2012 exhibition Abstract Art in South Carolina 1949–2012. He also was selected for the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2011 and was the winner of the inaugural 701 CCA Prize 2012 for South Carolina artists 40 years and younger, both projects of 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia.