In partnership with the South Carolina Arts Commission, 701 Center for Contemporary Art and the McMaster Gallery at the University of South Carolina School of Visual Art and Design present SC.Fellows Part I, a retrospective exhibition of the S.C. Arts Commission visual arts and craft fellowship recipients. The exhibitions at 701 CCA and McMaster Gallery, both in Columbia, S.C., will run simultaneously from August 3 – September 17, 2017. The August 3 artists’ reception will take place in two parts, first at McMaster Gallery from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., followed by a 701 CCA reception from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

SC.Fellows is part of the S.C. Arts Commission’s 50^th Anniversary celebration that includes 15 solo- and group exhibitions of current and past fellows throughout South Carolina. The 701 CCA and McMaster Gallery exhibitions are the first part of the retrospective exhibition drawn from the work of the 89 artists who have received S.C. Arts Commission fellowships since 1976 when the program was established. In the Spring of 2018, the second part of the exhibition will take place at 701 CCA and Benedict College’s Ponder Fine Arts Gallery, also in Columbia. All fellows are current or past residents of South Carolina.

“The 50^th anniversary of the South Carolina Arts Commission provides an ideal opportunity to survey the breadth and depth of art made in South Carolina,” says New York art critic and author Eleanor Heartney, who curated SC.Fellows Part I & II. “The recipients of the award were selected solely on the basis of artistic merit, and as the works here reveal, they work in media ranging from ceramic, papermaking and textiles to painting, sculpture, photography, installation and assemblage. The work is equally diverse in content. The fellowship winners present private worlds, wrestle with social and political issues, explore the expressive potential of abstraction, and celebrate the complexities and beauties of the natural world.”

Heartney is a contributing editor for Art in America magazine and the author of several books, including Art & Today (2008). In 2004 she curated Thresholds, the traveling exhibition of art from five Southern states organized by the S.C. Arts Commission. In 2009, she curated The State Art Collection: Contemporary Conversations, a two-part traveling exhibition organized by the commission and 701 CCA.

The McMaster Gallery section of SC.Fellows Part I will present work by Scott Belville (now in Athens, Ga.), Tarleton Blackwell (Manning, S.C)., Barbara Duval (Charleston, S.C.), James Edwards (Columbia, S.C.), Jamie Davis (Greenville, S.C.), John Gilliam (Greenville, S.C.), Jean Grosser (Hartsville, S.C.), Mana Hewitt (Columbia, S.C.), James Lawton (South Dartmouth, Mass.), Linda McCune (Greer, S.C.), Phil Moody (Rock Hill, S.C.), Gunars Strazdins (Columbia, S.C.), Michelle Van Parys (Charleston, S.C.), Mike Vatalaro (Greenville, S.C.), and the late Charleston painter Manning Williams.

The 701 CCA section of the first part presents Russell Biles (Greenville, S.C.), Jenifer Borg (Winterville, Ga.), Anne Boudreau (Lafayette, La.), Dexter Buell (Brooklyn, NY), Clay Burnette (Columbia, S.C.), Phyllis Constransitch (Lakewood, Colo.), Vinh T. Dang (current residence unknown), Clark Ellefson (Columbia, S.C.), Steven Gateley (Florence, S.C.), Diane Hopkins-Hughs (Greenville, S.C.), Terry Jarrard-Dimond (Seneca, S.C.), Bob Jolly (Rock Hill, S.C.), Christine Kierstead (Phoenix, Ariz.), Ellen Kochansky (Pickens, S.C.), Barbara Layne (Montreal, Canada), Lee Malerich (Neeses, S.C.), Edward Rice (North Augusta, S.C.), Richard Rose (New Haven, Conn.), Joe Walters (Charleston, S.C.), Edward Wimberly (St. Matthews, S.C.), the late Columbia artist Howard Woody, David Ross Puls (Charleston), the late Dennis Croteau of Charleston, and the late New Orleans-based photographer Jorge Otero.

701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley Street, 2nd Floor, Columbia, SC 29201. During exhibitions, hours are Wed–Sat, 11:00-5:00; Sun, 1:00-5:00. For more information, visit www.701cca.org.

The McMaster Gallery is located at 1615 Senate St., Columbia, S.C. 29201. During exhibitions, hours are Mo–Fri, 9:00-4:30. For more information, visit http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/art/mcmaster_gallery.