KATHERINE HATTAM’s Exhibition “Desire First” opens at Deakin University Australia

Desire first: Exhibition surveys work of Katherine Hattam

18 September 2015

The doctor’s dilemma, 2007. Book pages, fabric, charcoal and mixed media on paper. 130 x 120 cm image. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy the artist and Daine Singer. Photography: Clare Rae

The career of Melbourne-based artist, Katherine Hattam, is surveyed in the latest Deakin University Art Gallery exhibition.

Katherine Hattam: Desire first: 1978–2015 showcases works from Hattam’s entire career to date, including paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture.

In a practice that has extended over five decades, Hattam has developed a distinctive register of recurring motifs, in particular the chair and other domestic objects, which she combines with references to literature, feminism, art history and modern psychoanalysis in the creation of beguiling and personally symbolic works. A psychological charge is manifest in much of Hattam’s work, as anthropomorphic chairs stand in for a range of family members and a strong presence of the artist herself is evident in the spaces she depicts.

Deakin University Art Gallery Manager Leanne Willis said it was an honour to present the survey exhibition.

“Katherine Hattam is a contemporary Australian artist of great merit and has been a valuable contributor to the Melbourne visual culture since the late 1970s,” Ms Willis said.

“Deakin University has a long relationship with Katherine as she completed her PhD here in 2003, so it seems fitting that we are the venue to present a survey of her work.”

Exhibition curator Emma Busowsky Cox said Hattam’s work “tantalises with suggestive references”.

“Hattam uses personally symbolic materials, such as deconstructed Penguin classics from her late mother’s collection, or unfinished paintings by her artist father, alongside references to family politics, art history and psychoanalysis which hint at hidden meanings and unresolved relationships,” Ms Busowsky Cox said.

Supporting the exhibition is a catalogue including an essay by exhibition curator Emma Busowsky Cox, with a preface by Patrick McCaughey.

Hattam has exhibited widely throughout Australia. Her work is included in numerous major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, the Bendigo Art Gallery and Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. She is represented by Daine Singer, Melbourne and Morton Fine Art, Washington, DC.

Katherine Hattam: Desire first 1978–2015runs to 16 October at the Deakin University Art Gallery, Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Tuesday to Friday between 10am and 4pm, or by appointment on Monday for groups over 10. Entry is free.

Free floor talks with the artist and exhibition curator will be held on Wednesday 30 September at 12.30pm and Friday 16 October at 12.30pm.

Visit Morton Fine Art for available work by KATHERINE HATTAM.

Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009

(202) 628-2787, mortonfineart@gmail.com

http://www.mortonfineart.com

 

Interview with CHARLES WILLIAMS about his solo exhibition “Swim” at Morton Fine Art

Charles Williams Interview Questions

 

Charles Williams, Lost and Found 4, 72″x96″, oil on canvas

Inspiration for Concept

 

Q: You have mentioned that not only the experience of something traumatic, but also the way it is handled, can shape a person’s identity; how have your fears and your steps to overcome them shaped your personal life and artistic career? 

 

CW: My fear of the water has been both a blessing and a curse. Because of it, I have realized how lucky I am to have survived these accidental drownings. Being aware of my good fortune brings a gratefulness into my everyday living. I also appreciate that my traumatic water experiences have allowed me to become a conduit for others’ fears. I understand fear to be something that is universal. Even if your fear is not drowning or swimming, most everyone has something in their life of which they are afraid. In my art, I explore these ideas of fear in the hopes that others looking at my work will have to confront their own personal fears and realize that hope and overcoming is possible.

 

Q: Was it the traumatic experience of almost drowning that created this fear or was there already something about the deep dark ocean that frighten you as a child? 

 

CW: Growing up, I was always afraid of the dark. There is something about the murky and unknown depths of large bodies of water that evoke that same fear that I experienced as a young boy in a pitch black room. But my accidental drownings certainly created a fear of water that I did not necessarily have. My inability to swim was impacted by the racist dialogue that surrounds swimming the South. Continually hearing that “black people don’t swim” made me aware that there was potentially something wrong with me that would prevent me from swimming.

 

Charles Williams, Nighttime Study 12, 12″x12″, oil on panel

 

Q: Did you know how to swim before this incident, do you know how to swim now?  Did this fear of the ocean spread to all large bodies of water like lakes, rivers, pools? 

 

CW: While one of my accidental drownings took place the ocean, the second happened in the deep end of the pool. I would say that my fear extends to all bodies of water that are large enough for me to be submerged in. At this point in time, I still do not know how to swim.

 

Q: Do you find creating the oceanscapes and other related pieces within this body of work to be therapeutic?  It seems as though you are not only in the belly of the beast but you are recreating the beast with every painting, your fear and attraction of the water go hand in hand, as if you are longing for something dangerously beautiful.

 

CW: Yes. The water has human-like qualities to it that are alluring, attractive and calming, but also frightening, intimidating and fear-inducing. With these various components, you have to respect the ocean just like you respect a fellow person.

 

Q: Although images of the ocean are in the forefront, the conversation is more about your relationship with the water than the water itself.  How else are you connecting human emotions to the natural environment? What made you want to tackle this subject matter?  

 

CW: The water is able to provoke in me a variety of emotions ranging from serenity to panic. In every aspect of these paintings’ creation and their display I am thinking of the moment when emotions overwhelming me and seem to engulf me. Despite these emotions taking over me, I refuse to let them define who I am. I want others who look at my work to see that struggle of having emotions engulf you, but not letting it determine who you are.

 

Ultimately I am interested in the idea of a progress, of continually working to overcome and to get better. This idea of progress and of continually getting better is an idea that I have heard since I was a child in my life.

 

Q: It seems that you have used your personal experiences and fears as a stepping off point to discuss a more cultural, psychological dilemma.  What do you want the wider conversation to address and confront? 

 

A: Pejorative race talk surrounds swimming in the South. Having grown up with these stereotypes ringing in my ear, I want my work to at once address the universality of fear and of confronting your fears but also raise awareness of the conversations that we, as southerners, are having about race and swimming.

 

Self Portraits

 

Charles Williams, Self Portrait with Goggles 3, 10″x8″, oil on mylar

 

Q: What is the meaning of the omissions, parts of your face are missing? 

 

CW: Parts of my face are missing because I am incomplete. The missing piece refers to the missing piece of me. When I go to the beach and see others’ interaction with the water be so organic and genuine, I long to experience the same liberating freedom of just enjoying the water without fear. Until that time, I will feel incomplete.

 

Q: Why did you choose to include certain articles of clothing like the hoodie and goggles? What do they represent? 

 

CW: I like the dichotomy that including these items create. In draping the towel over my head in the paintings I am referencing the hoodie, which in recent years has become associated with gangster-culture and the supposed-danger of black men.  As much as the hoodie has become a symbol of danger, personally it is also an element of comfort. I feel a connection to the character Linus in Charlie Brown who carries a blanket with him for comfort. When I woke up after my accidental drownings I was wrapped in a towel. Growing up, Charlie Brown was a pillar in my life. Throughout my childhood I watched it as often as I could and feel an affinity with Linus.

 

Alternatively, the googles are a symbol of innocence. In choosing to wear them I am referencing the child-like innocence of swimming. Childlike swim gear in general are the tangible items that represent my longing. I long to be in the water, swimming carefree, like the people I see at the beach.

 

Charles Williams painting “Swim”

 

Q: It appears that you age and add weight to yourself in some of the self-portraits.  Do you deliberately do this, if so why? Is there a correlation between your past, present and future selves?

 

CW: When I create these portraits, I do so freehand. I don’t use measuring tools such as a grid or ruler. I am painting simply what I see. I want to capture the mood more so than my physical attributes. My skin tone alters slightly in each of the paintings but this is done to enhance the mood I want the painting to convey.

 

Oceanscapes

 

Charles Williams, Day 41 Study, 10″x8″, oil on mylar

 

Q: How do you source your images?  Do you create these realistic oceanscapes from memory or do you use a camera to capture the images and then recreate them? If you use a camera where are you positioned, on the shore or in the water?

 

CW: I am in the water when I take these images. I typically wade into the ocean until I’m waist height. I have with me a camera and a flashlight. Standing in the water, I take pictures of the ocean swells around me and point the flashlight to illuminate the waves for my camera. Once I am back in the studio, I work from those images. This is part of what makes my art experiential. These works were not created from a daydreamed image, but from my real life experience of going into the ocean. Often times, I am risking my life and mental health to take these images and create this art. But without the true experience of wading and standing in the water that so nearly killed me before, I don’t believe I could convey the same amount of fear that my canvases currently display.

 

Going into the ocean at night, you don’t get perfect shots. The photos are often shaky because of the moving water around me, but also because I am having a panic attack while being in the water. This process and the art that results from conveys the unexpectedness of life.

 

Charles Williams, Unseen I, 8″x8″, oil on panel

 

Q: Many of your oceanscapes are set at night, does this speak to another fear of the dark?  

 

CW: Yes. Although I am recently painting daytime oceanscapes as well. I am interested in the emotive contrast that the different times of day provoke. Many associate the daytime with safety, there is safety in light.

 

While the oceanscapes are at night, I have a flashlight with me. That flashlight serves as a metaphor for a childhood safety net, a tool for exploring and seeing troubling illusions in the dark – the monster in the closet. Observing the ocean as it exists in darkness with a flashlight allows me to not only study the water at night, but to confront my monster in the dark and subdue the fears that consume me both physically and mentally.

 

Q: Your In Seconds #1- #4, when viewed together appear to speak on the notion that our lives can change in a split second. One second you are safely treading water and the next you are pulled under by a rip tide or strong wave.  Was this your intention?

 

CW: Yes, this was my intention. It also mimics my first accident when I was eleven and I was pulled under by a current. Before I went under, I was jumping waves with my cousin.

 

“Written all over your face” by Martina Dodd examines six basic human emotions depicted in figurative artwork

Written all over your face

by Martina Dodd

I am fascinated by the way people communicate their feelings, ideas and thoughts.  Through written word, visual art and spoken language information can be shared by one person and interrupted by another.  Our emotional state can also be expressed in a variety of ways but the most universality recognized form is through our facial expressions.   Our body language speaks volumes even when we choose not to vocalize our feelings; from facial expressions to hand gestures, the body is consistently talking.

According to American psychologist, Dr. Paul Ekman, the six most basic emotions which can be easily understood regardless of culture and language are: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. With help from some of the artists represented by Morton Fine Art, let’s see what these emotions look like off the flesh and on the canvas.

Happiness:

Kesha Bruce. That they might be lovely, archival pigment print, 7/15. 12″x9″

Sadness:

 

Rosemary Feit Covey. Self Conscious 141103_1, mixed media 33″x28″

Fear:

 

Laurel Hausler. Blue Beards Place, 2009 oil on canvas with xrays. 40”x30”

 

Anger:

 

Billy Colbert. King County, 2009 mixed media on paper. 29”x22”

 

 

Surprise:

 

Ethan Diehl. Vigilance, oil on canvas. 36”x60”

 

 

Disgust: 

 

Rosemary Feit Covey, Red Handed, dimensions variable

 

Although these emotions are seen as universal, cultural practices and norms can play a role in how emotions are revealed and concealed between different members of the community. For example, the indigenous West African system of writing known as nsibidi employs graphic signs to code and convey concepts. The meaning of these symbols are traditionally restricted to members of all male associations but in Victor Ekpuks’ Asian Ubaoikpa (Hip Sista) series the artist not only creates his own symbols in the same style of  the ancient script, but also situated women in the center of the conversation.  The color and texture evoke a visceral reaction within the viewer rather than illustrating a singular emotion or revealing the meaning of his symbols.

 

 

Victor Ekpuk. Asian Ubaoikpa (Hip Sista) #11. Acrylic on canvas, 60”x48”

 

 

“Overcoming Depths” Essay on CHARLES WILLIAMS exhibition “Swim”

_{Overcoming Depths}  

_{By Martina Dodd for Morton Fine Art}

_{Charles Williams’ oceanscapes capture the dangerous beauty of the sea while simultaneously addressing his most personal and private fears.  His large-scale oil paintings of foam covered oceans are dimpled with waves and movement that submerge the viewer under a wave of intensity and serenity.   By actively examining his emotional response to the dark and murky abyss conveyed on canvas, viewers are urged to do the same with their own fears.}

_{With shallow breaths, a quickened heartbeat and trembling hands, Williams, wading waist high in the water, snaps photos of waves as the ocean swells around his body. Once out of the ocean and back in his studio, he works from these images, which are often shaky and imperfect, to recreate them on canvas. The shakiness of the photographs do not take away from his hyperrealist paintings but symbolize his relationship with the sea. Williams recalls always having a fear of the dark, and the unknown depths of the sea seemed to be the darkest place of them all.  This phobia intensified at the age of eleven when he nearly drowned while playing in the ocean with his cousins. By forcing himself to wade in the water, the relived fear of his youth vividly translates through his camera and then again through his paintbrush.}

_{This new body of work for his solo exhibition Swim at Morton Fine Art includes several figurative pieces – literally placing the artist within the artwork.  Unlike his large oceanscape paintings, which are meticulously detailed and based off of actual images, his self-portraits are created freehand and intuitively from his mind’s eye. Releasing himself from the restraints of measuring tools like grids and rulers, Williams’ intent is to capture his state of being rather than his physical attributes. His self-portraits purposefully omit parts of his face and vary in skin tone dependent on his mood. Williams longs to experience what he describes somewhat romantically as, the “liberating freedom of enjoying the water without fear”.  But his anxiety associated with the ocean coupled with the racial rhetoric surrounding swimming in the South has left a profound impact on Williams’ life and art.}  

_{His aesthetically rich paintings span psychological and cultural realms by referencing contemporary and historic events in his life.  As a child Williams was taught that he could do anything he put his mind to, but after Williams’ close call with a watery death, he started to doubt this mantra and began to internalize the stereotypes he heard from his peers claiming that black people could not swim.  Growing up in South Carolina and hearing limiting and oppressive phrases like this led Williams to believe that there was something inherently wrong with him (and those of his complexion)  that prevented him from swimming.  With these thoughts still lingering in his mind, Williams’ work challenges the pejorative talk he once heard in his youth and still occasionally hears in his head today. Both therapeutic in nature and rebellious in spirit, his paintings address the universality of fear and analyze the origins and implications of racially motivated negative stereotypes.}

_{As much as Williams strides to overcome his aquaphobia, his work is still very much based in and derived from his deep seated fear of water and the dark.  Nighttime study, along with his Lost and Found series, depict the ocean as it exists in darkness.   These pieces allow Williams to not only study the water at night, but to confront the monsters hidden under each wave.  In Nighttime Study, Williams represents the waves through texture by making both the ocean and the backdrop black. Akin to being blindfolded and having to read through touch, the waves are distinguishable only by the heavy impasto strokes of his paintbrush. Finding interest in the emotive contrast that different variations of light provoke, Williams uses the natural light of the moon in Lost and Found to reveal the water as it reaches the shore.  With flashlight in tow, Williams provides his own light when needed to explore troubling illusions in the dark.  The light, whether from the moon or his flashlight, serves as a tool of protection helping him subdue the fears that consume him both physically and mentally.}

_{Although his insecurities surrounding the water may seem to overwhelm him and dominate his work, Williams has never allowed the fear to overpower him or dictate his life.  By revealing fear and exploring the idea of painful experiences within his paintings he hopes others will find the inspiration to confront their own personal fears as well.  Like the light that reflects off the ocean, Williams’ near death experiences are reflected off of each of his paintings- divulging his past to discover his future.} 

Charles Williams, Swim, 30″x30″, oil on panel

Charles Williams, Self Portrait with Goggles 4, 10″x8″, oil on mylar

Charles Williams, Self Portrait with Goggles 3, 10″x8″, oil on mylar

Charles Williams, Nighttime Study 13, 12″x12″, oil on panel

Charles Williams, Nighttime Study 12, 12″x12″, oil on panel

Charles Williams, Lost and Found 1, 72″x96″, oil on canvas

Charles Williams, Day 41 Study, 10″x8″, oil on mylar

CHARLES WILLIAMS solo exhibition “Swim” debuts at Morton Fine Art 9/25/15

Swim A solo exhibition of oil paintings by CHARLES WILLIAMS Friday, September 25th – October 13th, 2015 OPENING RECEPTION  Friday, September 25th 6pm-8pm The artist will be in attendance. Lost and Found 4, 72″x96″, oil on canvas EXHIBITION LOCATION Morton Fine Art (MFA) 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts) Washington, DC 20009 HOURS Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm Sunday 12pm-5pm Swim, 30″x30″, oil on panel

About Swim In Swim, his debut solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art, North Carolina based painter, CHARLES WILLIAMS explores deeply personal themes of aquaphobia and stereotypes of swimming and African Americans in the South. Swim expands on his solo Swim : An Artist’s Journey recently on view at The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chaplin Art Museum. Charles Williams‘ oceanscapes capture the dangerous beauty of the sea while simultaneously addressing his most personal and private fears stemming from nearly drowning at age 11.  To create seascape nocturnes for Swim, Williams forced himself to wade in the water, reliving the profound fear of his youth, to snap photos of waves with trembling hands and quickened heartbeat. Once out of the ocean and back in his studio, he worked from these source images, which are often shaky and imperfect, to recreate them on canvas. As a child Williams was taught that he could do anything he put his mind to, but after his close call with a watery death, he started to doubt this mantra and began to internalize the stereotypes he heard from his peers claiming that black people could not swim.  Growing up in South Carolina and hearing limiting and oppressive phrases like this led Williams to believe that there was something inherently wrong with him (and those of his complexion) that prevented him from swimming.  In Swim, Williams also explores self portraits, created freehand and intuitively in contrast to his oceanscapes (which are drafted with measuring tools like grids and rulers) with the intent of capturing his state of being rather than his physical attributes. “How we handle traumatic experiences both shapes and molds our identities. As an artist, I am deeply inspired to humbly respond to those experiences by orchestrating new viewpoints of the fears associated with them – in this case, the fear of water. It is my hope that the psychological and physical elements found in my work, which aim to acknowledge fear as a stepping-off point for overcoming it, elicit hope and compassion in its viewers. These paintings serve as a personal testimony of my decision to begin a journey toward freedom.” -CHARLES WILLIAMS About CHARLES WILLIAMS   Charles Williams is a contemporary realist painter from Georgetown, South Carolina and a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. He is currently earning his MFA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Recent achievements and awards include a Hudson River Landscape Fellowship, featured work in the Artists Magazines 28th Annual Art Competition, honorable mention from Southwest Art Magazines 21 Emerging Under 31 competition, 2012 Winner of the Fine Art Category from Creative Quarterly, 2013 selected artist for 28th Positive Negative juried art exhibition at East Tennessee State University, juror/curated by Michael Ray Charles from PBS Ar21.Williams‘ works has been shown in American Art Collector, Empty Magazine, Charleston Magazine, Grand Strand, Studio Visit, Bluecanvas and other national publications. He was recently interviewed and broadcast on ETV/ NPR station, entitled: Nature through the Eyes of an Artist. His contemporary landscapes have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in galleries in Washington, DC, New York, Vermont, California, Georgia, South Carolina and several other southeastern states.   CHARLES WILLIAMS painting Swim in his North Carolina studio   About Morton Fine Art Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services. For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton: mortonfineart@gmail.com Exhibition catalogs available upon request. ###

 

VICTOR EKPUK’s Manuscript Series in the permanent collection of the Newark Museum

 

“Should the Moon Meet Us Apart, May the Sun Find Us Together”, 2000.

Acrylic and copper wire on prayer boards.

Gift of Prof. Simon Ottenberg to the permanent collection of Newark Museum.

 

About The Manuscript Series:

My continuous search for indigenous codes and forms to tell visual stories led me to the discovery of Islamic prayer boards (walaha). The first idea to use walaha as an art medium first struck me in 1995, at a market in Jos, Nigeria, where I saw unused boards on display for sale.

I was attracted to their unique shapes, I was also fascinated by the ingenuity of African aesthetics and how it added meaning to Arabic scripts; I began to see how these boards could tell other stories and bear other meanings. My vision of the potential of the board as a bearer of two important elements of African spirituality and literacy was so strong that, I could not get it out of my head until it was realized. Works in this series are called “Manuscript Series”

“Manuscript Series”, though executed on walaha do not make statements about Islam; rather they are an intercultural marriage of form and script. Instead of Arabic scripts, I employ Nsibidi signs and my own script-like drawings to make compositions with themes that center  on the human conditions of joy, pain and hope.

I try to manipulate the materials so the mystical essence of the board and that of Nsibidi signs are retained. The goal being to create contemporary sacred tablets whose verses tell our stories, hold our prayers and perhaps provide healing and inspiration to us.

-Victor Ekpuk

Visit Morton Fine Art for available artworks by VICTOR EKPUK.

http://www.mortonfineart.com

Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009

(202) 628-2787

mortonfineart@gmail.com

 

KATHERINE HATTAM: DESIRE FIRST 1978–2015 at Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Deakin University Art Gallery warmly invites you to the official opening of KATHERINE HATTAM: DESIRE FIRST 1978–2015 To be opened by Judith Brett, political historian and Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University Thursday 17 September 6.00 pm for 6.20 pm speeches Function will conclude at 8.00 pm Free floor talks with the artist and exhibition curator Wednesday 30 September at 12.30pm and Friday 16 October at 12.30pm RSVP essential by Friday 11 September via http://engage.deakin.edu.au/katherinehattam This exhibition surveys the work of Melbourne-based artist Katherine Hattam, from the early drawings of her first exhibition at the Ewing & George Paton Galleries at The University of Melbourne in 1978 through an evolving practice that also encompasses collage, printmaking and sculpture. In a practice that has extended over five decades, Hattam has developed a distinctive register of recurring motifs, in particular the chair and other domestic objects, which she combines with references to literature, feminism, family politics, art history and modern psychoanalysis in the creation of beguiling and personally symbolic works. The exhibition catalogue includes an essay by curator Emma Busowsky Cox and is prefaced by Patrick McCaughey. Cover image: The doctor’s dilemma, 2007 (detail) Book pages, fabric, charcoal and mixed media on paper, 130 x 120 cm. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Daine Singer. Photography: Simon Peter Fox Exhibition dates: 9 September to 16 October 2015 Deakin University Art Gallery, Deakin University Melbourne Burwood Campus 221 Burwood Highway Burwood 3125 Melways Ref 61 B5 T :03 9244 5344 F :03 9244 5254 E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au Hours Tuesday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm Free Entry Please visit deakin.edu.au/art-collection for more details. For information about parking on campus, please visit deakin.edu.au/parking.

CHARLES WILLIAMS solo exhibition “Swim” opens 9/25/15 at Morton Fine Art

Swim A solo exhibition of oil paintings by CHARLES WILLIAMS Friday, September 25th – October 13th, 2015 OPENING RECEPTION  Friday, September 25th 6pm-8pm The artist will be in attendance. Lost and Found 4, 72″x96″, oil on canvas EXHIBITION LOCATION Morton Fine Art (MFA) 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts) Washington, DC 20009 HOURS Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm Sunday 12pm-5pm Swim, 30″x30″, oil on panel   About Swim In Swim, his debut solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art, North Carolina based painter, CHARLES WILLIAMS explores deeply personal themes of aquaphobia and stereotypes of swimming and African Americans in the South. Swim expands on his solo Swim : An Artist’s Journeyrecently on view at The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chaplin Art Museum. Charles Williams’ oceanscapes capture the dangerous beauty of the sea while simultaneously addressing his most personal and private fears stemming from nearly drowning at age 11.  To create seascape nocturnes for Swim, Williams forced himself to wade in the water, reliving the profound fear of his youth, to snap photos of waves with trembling hands and quickened heartbeat. Once out of the ocean and back in his studio, he worked from these source images, which are often shaky and imperfect, to recreate them on canvas. As a child Williams was taught that he could do anything he put his mind to, but after his close call with a watery death, he started to doubt this mantra and began to internalize the stereotypes he heard from his peers claiming that black people could not swim.  Growing up in South Carolina and hearing limiting and oppressive phrases like this led Williams to believe that there was something inherently wrong with him (and those of his complexion) that prevented him from swimming.  In Swim, Williams also explores self portraits, created freehand and intuitively in contrast to his oceanscapes (which are drafted with measuring tools like grids and rulers) with the intent of capturing his state of being rather than his physical attributes. “How we handle traumatic experiences both shapes and molds our identities. As an artist, I am deeply inspired to humbly respond to those experiences by orchestrating new viewpoints of the fears associated with them – in this case, the fear of water. It is my hope that the psychological and physical elements found in my work, which aim to acknowledge fear as a stepping-off point for overcoming it, elicit hope and compassion in its viewers. These paintings serve as a personal testimony of my decision to begin a journey toward freedom.” -CHARLES WILLIAMS About CHARLES WILLIAMS   Charles Williams is a contemporary realist painter from Georgetown, South Carolina and a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. He is currently earning his MFA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Recent achievements and awards include a Hudson River Landscape Fellowship, featured work in the Artists Magazines 28th Annual Art Competition, honorable mention from Southwest Art Magazines 21 Emerging Under 31 competition, 2012 Winner of the Fine Art Category from Creative Quarterly, 2013 selected artist for 28th Positive Negative juried art exhibition at East Tennessee State University, juror/curated by Michael Ray Charles from PBS Ar21. Williams’ works has been shown in American Art Collector, Empty Magazine, Charleston Magazine, Grand Strand, Studio Visit, Bluecanvas and other national publications. He was recently interviewed and broadcast on ETV/ NPR station, entitled: Nature through the Eyes of an Artist. His contemporary landscapes have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in galleries in Washington, DC, New York, Vermont, California, Georgia, South Carolina and several other southeastern states.   CHARLES WILLIAMS painting Swim in his North Carolina studio   About Morton Fine Art Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services. For further information and images, please contact Amy Morton: mortonfineart@gmail.com Exhibition catalogs available upon request. ### Morton Fine Art Artwork of CHARLES WILLIAMS  Contact Information (202) 628-2787 mortonfineart@gmail.com www.mortonfineart.com

GA GARDNER, GETTHRU in The Guardian Trinidad & Tobago

Helping T&T artists GETTHRU

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Curator and artist GA Gardner with artworks by Sarah Knights of T&T, Behzad Mahmoudpour of Iran, Judith Ganz of Germany and Beata Obst of Poland. Images courtesy Getthru.org

Lisa Allen-Agostini interviews T&T artist GA Gardner about his Internet-based arts collective GETTHRU

Q: Tell me about the name GETTHRU. Is it what it sounds like in T&T parlance?
A: “Get thru” is a really commonly used local term here in T&T, but I wanted to narrow this meaning and focus on art. How can one “get thru” via the arts? What are the options for a broader dialog? I wanted to play on this common term and define it in the context of fine arts. When I came back home a few years ago, after over 25 years working in the US, as a professor, artist, book publisher and educational consultant, I brought with me a commitment to art education, especially focused on contemporary art.

I wanted to continue to use art as a tool that can help educate and bridge economic gaps. I wanted to be involved with art activism in countries often under-serviced on the international stage, when it comes to art.  So I founded GETTHRU, a T&T-based non-profit arts organisation.

This organisation creates projects that serve to educate cultures through the arts. It uses art as a teaching tool. The organisation’s first project Thru Contemporary, for example, houses and maintains a permanent juried collection of contemporary fine arts. This project is a collaboration of global artists, writers and curators.

Our mission is to acquire and promote the artworks of prominent contemporary artists from all over the world and share their works with communities who often don’t get a variety of international contemporary art on their home soil. We provide access to these works and create programmes to educate and inform about the collection and its relationship to the local cultures.

In addition we are interested in publishing materials and reaching out to general communities. Through exhibitions we make the collection available to the general public and we are constantly building relationships with galleries, museums and arts spaces around the world to exhibit various complements of this growing collection.

Who are the T&T artists involved in the project and who does what in its organisational structure?
We are constantly reviewing works from artists who submit pieces from around the world, but I must admit that most of the artists I have been following for years, so it was not difficult to begin this selection process. As an artist, I have donated works to the organisation. Additionally we have works from other locals, Adele Todd and Sarah Knights.

We are open to new relationships with established and upcoming artists. I was at a local furniture store on the Avenue and while testing out a chair I looked up and saw the work of Sarah Knights. I liked her work at first sight and two days later was at her home to see more of her art. In the case of Adele Todd I had known her and followed her work for years.  It varies.  These local artists are included in the permanent collection, but are generally not involved in the management of the organisation.

What are the benefits of working as an arts collective, especially in the way you’ve set up GETTHRU as an online collective?
The benefit is access. By working together we are able to move together as one, we are unified in a central belief about art and its importance in influencing cultural and social change. Together the group is stronger. With this strength we have greater access to exhibition spaces globally, as well as funding and possibilities to educate through the arts.

Most of the works in the collection are represented by galleries and are well established but this effort does not take away from the access they have already created with their audience. It simply extends the reach of their message while providing examples that can serve to broaden the definition of art to viewers.

What are some of the goals you have for the organisation? And have you achieved any of them so far?
Beyond the goal to educate through the arts, I would like to be able to work more with local contemporary artists and to continue to build a collection that shakes up the mind of even the most creative person and challenges them to do more and take risks with their art. I would also like to do more in the way of publishing books and catalogs about the collection and do more outreach with the art schools here and abroad.

In addition, I’d like to create more programmes to teach contemporary forms of art in underserved communities. We are also open to partnering with businesses and other organisations to expand our reach and fulfill our mission.

We are on our way. About six months ago we got started with the first ongoing project, Thru Contemporary Arts. Today we have exhibited in Germany, St Croix, and here in T&T, with future exhibitions planned for France and the USA. Our collection is very diverse in medium, from photography to paintings and mixed media. We have contemporary artworks from France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, USA, Poland, Hong Kong, Iran and T&T.

What are your thoughts on the T&T contemporary arts scene? Who have you been watching—both in and out of your collective?
We are very talented here in T&T and setting our sights on contemporary art will help to enrich that area. Currently there are only a few collectors that are interested and few national grants available, so there are limited ways for the artists to make a living locally in the contemporary art scene.

Contemporary artists in other countries are often subsidised by the government through grants or stipends. In Berlin, Germany, for an example, contemporary artists survive on art grants and seldom create works for sale to the general public. This art is used to inform and educate or simply to create an experience for the public.

There are galleries and art spaces in T&T that are trying to promote and educate about the depth of contemporary art but without government interest or with limited access to grants, art collectors will determine the success of this movement in T&T and around the world.

More info

www.getthru.org