March 31-April 17 and April 21-May 9: Senior Shows by FMU Visual Artists

Senior Shows by FMU Visual Arts Majors at the HYman Fine Arts Center Senior shows are required of all students majoring in Visual Arts. These shows give students hands-on experience in selection and installation of artworks, publicity of exhibition, and external review by the University community and the general public.There will be opening receptions at 6:00 pm on March 31 and Tuesday, April 21. Gallery hours are typically 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Monday-Friday

August 19-September 16: Bits and Pieces-New works by Adrian Rhodes at FMU's Hyman Fine Arts Center

August 19 - September 16, 2014 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Mon-Fri Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery Bits and Pieces - New Works by Adrian Rhodes. Adrian Rhodes is a native of Hartsville, S.C. She earned her B.F.A. from Winthrop University, and during her undergraduate studies she spent a semester studying fine art in Imatra, Finland. She completed her M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Winthrop University and is currently teaching at Wingate University. "I am interested in studio practice as a way to question--I am interested in the act of making. I don't try to illustrate an idea, rather I let process guide the piece and find its meaning in the method used to create it. Printmaking is an important part of my process. I create editions, and pull additional prints from the matrix that I deconstruct and use as college material in my mixed media pieces. This leads to recurring imagery across my work that becomes part of my personal iconography, and the meaning I find in these different images helps me to determine the meaning of the larger works. “I like paper, texture, and color. I take cast off things and collage them into my work: onion bags, bits of string, and the mylar press bed covers marked by ink and registration marks. I pick up feathers, dead moths, bees, and scraps of books. Nothing is sacred, and nothing is trash. A "finished" piece might be deconstructed into components for many other paintings, or I might sweep up the studio floor and make a collage of whatever I find. Including these random bits of life in the work blurs the line between studio and sidewalk. “My finished work reflects the enjoyment in manipulating materials: drawn mark making, paint manipulations, printmaking processes, collage and transfer techniques. I find the tension between rigid structural forms and organic, intuitive mark making reflects internal conflict. This tension explores a desire to control life, counterpoised against the futility of that effort. It is recognizing the correlations between my studio and the world outside that allows me to create work which reflects the meaning inherent in the search."

Summer Exhibit at Francis Marion's Hyman Fine Arts Center

Primitive Arts in the Modern World - Greg Pryor.“There is great wisdom in the native American proverb, ‘A man must make his own arrows.’ Beyond the metaphorical, making arrows in the modern world connects us to the primitive world of our ancestors. Working in a variety of media, I strive to use natural resources to create arrowheads, knives, and spearheads from flint, obsidian, glass, and porcelain. I manufacture and shoot arrows and atlatl darts made from these arrowheads and locally-sourced river cane, pine pitch glue, wild turkey feathers, and deer sinew. I grow, cure, and process gourds into a variety of containers, and make cordage, tools, bags, clothing, and jewelry from wild plant fibers, bone, clay, stone, sinew, rawhide, and brain-tanned hides.” Greg Pryor is an Associate Professor of Biology at Francis Marion University with a doctorate in Zoology. He is a traditional artist (working in a variety of media), carpenter, construction worker, cook, and amateur musician, and he practices primitive arts such as bow-and-drill firemaking and survival crafts. He likes to live off the land as much as possible and is a self-proclaimed "nature freak." Notes  From the Curator: Dr. Pryor double majored as an undergraduate in zoology and art.  His acrylic paintings, most often of birds, reveal animals interacting with human artifacts, sometimes using them, sometimes existing in a landscape littered by them. Pryor’s primitive crafts give us insight into the interaction of early humans with the natural world.  His crafts also give us an opportunity to consider how art crept into craft, as useful objects came to be decorated, placing the indelible stamp of the artisan on everyday objects.  The Hyman Fine Arts Center, located on the campus of Francis Marion University is open 8:30 -5:00 pm Monday through Thursdays. This exhibit runs through August 16.

Through November 7th: Alex Palkovich's 'In Homage" at FMU

Don't miss Alex Palkovich's exhibit, In Homage, at the Hyman Fine Arts Center on the campus of Francis Marion University in Florence.  The exhibit opens on October 8th and runs through November 7th.  The gallery is open from 8:30-5pm Monday through Friday.  Admission is free.

The Hyman Fine Arts Center is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street in Florence.

Sculpture has always been Alex's passion. He is a member of the Oxford Arts Society and the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) where for 3 years he also served as Vice President.  In 2010, he became the first South Carolinian elected as a member of the National Sculpture Society. He has lived and worked on three continents and in five countries. During that time, he continued to learn and take on new sculptural challenges. Alex's work is in private and public collections around the world. His sculptures are available to the public in galleries in Carmel, California, Charleston, Brookgreen gardens and Florence, S.C, and Haifa, Israel.  

Einstein Relief was accepted into the National Sculpture Society's 79th Annual in 2012, and On the Way to the Marketwas exhibiting this year in Artfields at the Tampa Museum,and until 27 September 2013 in Brookgreen Gardens in the National Sculpture Society's 80th Annual Exhibition.

Through October 3rd: Hayley Douglas' World Without Walls at FMU

World Without Walls, ceramics by Hayley Douglas, will be on display at Francis Marion University's Hyman Fine Arts Gallery through October 3rd. The gallery is open from 8:30am to 5pm Monday through Friday.

In addition to Douglas' work, Emprical, a photography exhibit by Julie Mixon, will be on display at the Hyman Gallery.  Click here for information about Mixon's work.

Hayley Douglas is primarily a ceramic artist, but she also experiments in other mediums. As of May 2013, she received her Master's Degree in Ceramics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. She completed her Bachelors of Arts degree in 2009 at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC. She is currently continuing to explore her ocean-inspired concepts and pushing her experimentation to more cosmic levels.

Through October 3rd: Julie Mixon's Empirical on display at FMU

Empirical, photography by Julie Mixon, will be on display at the Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery on the campus on Francis Marion University through October 3rd. The gallery's hours are Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5pm.

Julie Mixon is an image-based media artist that focuses on processes that merge analog and digital photography. Currently, Julie is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. She began her studies in photography as an undergraduate at Barton College where she received a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. In 2004, she received her Master of Fine Arts Degree with a concentration in photography from East Carolina University. Julie's career in photo education began at Lenoir Community College in 2004 where she taught as an Art Instructor for over seven years. Her photography courses emphasize traditional and digital darkroom techniques with an emphasis on the fusion of the two mediums.

In addition to Mixon's exhibit, Hayley Douglas' World Without Walls will be on display in the Hyman Gallery through October 3rd.  Click here for more information about that exhibit.

Through August 8th: Metamorphosis by Sasha Federer at FMU

Metamorphosis: New Works by Sasha Federer will be on display at the Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery at Francis Marion University from May 7 - August 8. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30am-5pm.

Sasha was born in Prague, Czech Republic. He came to the United States in 1972. For the last 40 years he has worked as a Psychologist, which is his profession, and for the last 38 years, worked as a potter, which is his passion. He studied ceramic art in the state of Washington and Wisconsin. He worked as professional studio potter for three years in New Hampshire and served as Artist in Residence with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sasha and his wife, Tari Federer, built a ceramic art studio and the Running Horse Gallery in Florence, SC. Sasha has exhibited in galleries throughout the east coast. He had the opportunity to have two solo shows in addition to many group shows in Florence, SC. He collaborates, on many of his pieces with Tari, his wife, also an artist, and their shared pieces are signed Satari, which is a combination of both of their names.

Even though he works in all temperature firing ranges, his greatest enjoyment comes from working with high-fired porcelain, which brings out the beauty of colors. He creates all of his own glazes and enjoys the constant search for new colors, combinations, and textures for his surface decoration.

The Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street on the campus of Francis Marion University in Florence.  For more information, call 843.661.1385.

Through May 4th: Senior Art Exhibits at Francis Marion University

Art Gallery Series

April 22 - May 4, 2013

8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri

Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery

All artwork on display is from FMU's Ceramics and 3D Design students.

A showcase of new works created during the current semester by students learning skills in visual arts classes.

The Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street in Florence.

Through May 4th: Senior Shows in the Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery at FMU

April 2 - May 4, 2013
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors

Senior shows are required of all students majoring in Visual Arts. These shows give students hands-on experience in selection and installation of artworks, publicity of exhibition, and external review by the University community and the general public.

The Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street in Florence.

Check back with Pee Dee Arts regularly for updated information about each senior's show.

Through March 28th: Gleason and Powers to have artwork on display at FMU

work by Alex Powers

work by Jim Gleason

The Hyman Fine Arts Center on the campus of Francis Marion University will be hosting exhibits by Jim Gleason and Alex Powers from February 19th through March 28th.  For more information about each exhibit, click the links below:

The Brass Menagerie - Works by Jim Gleason

Drawings by Alex Powers

The Hyman Fine Arts Center is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street in Florence. Gallery hours are 8:30am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.   

January 8th - February 14th: Critcher's 'Expansion' at FMU

Don't miss Colleen Critcher's Expansion at the Hyman Gallery on the campus of Francis Marion University.  The show will be display January 8th through February 14th.  

Francis Marion University's Hyman Gallery is located 4822 E. Palmetto Street in Florence.  For more information about this exhibit or the gallery, email Joseph Sallenger at jsallenger@fmarion.edu or call 843.661.1385.

The Hyman Gallery is open weekdays from 8:30am to 5pm.

About the Artist:

Artist Colleen A. Critcher was born in Newton, New Jersey in 1980. She began her childhood in Sussex, New Jersey and later relocated to Florence, South Carolina with her family. She attended college at Francis Marion University where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. In 2012 Critcher received her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. She currently lives and works in Florence with her husband Bradford Critcher.

Throughout her career the artist has explored both objective and non-objective imagery. The common thread of Critcher's work is based on personal concerns regarding the significance of images within contemporary life. In one of her recent artistic investigations, The Gnome Project, she employed the image of the humble garden gnome in an attempt to better understand the popular culture's fascination with plastic kitsch objects. In a separate body of work titled Expansion, Critcher has focused on the creation of intuitive abstract works influenced by her immersion in the intense visual language of popular culture. Expansion is an intuitive and non-objective series that seeks to invent space. The artist focuses her concerns on expressing a visceral and universal visual experience explained through the vehicle of color. These works utilize a visual language that is referential of the colors and objectification of popular culture, while at the same time seeking to expose a concealed layer of beauty, contemplation or spirituality.

October 18th - 20th: Our Town at FMU

Francis Marion University's "University Theatre" presents "Our Town," a play by Thornton Wilder, directed by Professor Glen Gourley, at the Fine Arts Theatre, Hyman Fine Arts Center. The performances will be on Thursday, October 18 through Saturday, October 20 at 7:30pm. 

Call the Box Office at 843.661.1365 between 1-5pm Mon-Fri for Theatre seating availability.  Francis Marion University is located at 4822 East Palmetto Street in Florence.