The Ponder Gallery at Benedict College welcomes home American artist and educator Tarleton Blackwell. Blackwell, a native of Manning, South Carolina, received his Bachelor’s Degree in art from Benedict College in 1978.

​Best known for his “Hog Series” of paintings that he began approximately twenty-six years ago. Today his work has evolved into an ongoing visual journey of rich southern inspired works on canvas, paper, and in public spaces. As a Manning native, Blackwell’s eerily, whimsical works are fused with iconography that cements his memory of the Rural South like opossums, roosters, pigs, and foxes.

​Blackwell is the recipient of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Martha Beach Endowed Chair in Painting. On May 17, 2004, Blackwell was honored at the White House by First Lady, Laura Bush and the United States Department of State by Colin Powell in recognition of his contributions to the arts.  In addition, United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Howard Franklin Jeter, requested Blackwell’s work hang in the ambassador’s residence in Nigeria from 2001 through 2003.