Essay: Edward Rice

EDWARD RICE 

by Wim Roefs

Ed Rice has been painting part of a barn lately, many times, seen from the front, in the same flat, symmetrical composition. The roofline and pitch are the same, the structure’s extremes are cut off left and right by the edge of the canvas, and its one gaping yawn of an opening sits in the same spot, dead center, dark but never black. The band of flat, vertical space in front – or, rather, beneath – the barn has the same width in each version. The air space penetrated by the roof keeps the same shape and size. 

But the colors and tone differ in each painting. The barn itself goes from the softest pure red Rice could muster without getting orange to various kinds of dirty reds, pink and purples that at times suggest though never provide brown. The lower band has many variations of green and yellow mixtures, sometimes with reds thrown in. The sky goes from a robust deep blue to a rich, softer, even pale one and to hints of gray. 

“The paintings are just about color,” Rice says. “Establishing a basic motif allowed me to focus on color and tone and on creating a composition with only the essential elements. I wanted to experiment with the basic shape of the building, simplifying it to its basic form.” 

The barns, painted much looser than most of Rice’s work, lack details such as bricks and planks that are typical of his architectural paintings. As a result, these are not paintings of a particular building in a particular place in a particular light, as Rice’s previous structures have been. 

As a result also, the scale of the repeated scene is ambiguous, giving the viewer little sense of the barns’ sizes. The paintings show about 80 percent of the imaginary barn but read as a detail, like the at times life-size, meticulously rendered architectural details Rice is known for.

The new work takes Rice further from painting traditional Southern buildings rather traditionally to a modern, even contemporary approach. It’s not just the repetition. The barn images top the minimalism of his architectural-detail paintings. The paint application is juicy. He looks more at contemporary art these days, Rice says, mentioning exhibitions by Luc Tuymans, Peter Doig, Howard Hodgkin and Lucian Freud.

“Sometimes my work looks so old-fashioned to me that I feel out of step or something,” Rice says. “I also try to be less illustrative. These paintings are more about memory than a specific thing. Memory of a sky that was bright, of a vague shape that was dark, of a color that seemed orange. I have all these visual files in my mind and try to realize them on the canvas.”

Essay: Edward Rice

ED RICE

By Wim Roefs

“Houses were the first great works of art I saw as a child,” Edward Rice says. He saw them in Augusta, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., and began to draw them, forming a habit. After decades of painting traditional Southern buildings in meticulous fashion, often employing centuries-old techniques, Rice turns out to be somewhat of a modernist. His mature paintings “are precisely what they appear to be, yet also indefinably something else,” curator David Houston wrote in 1997. 

Rice’s buildings have personality beyond their architectural characteristics. They have a human quality and are in your face, staring at the viewer – the dormer and tower paintings even staring the viewer down. “I look for a certain quality in a building,” Rice says. “It’s hard to define, but I know it when I see it. It looks back at you, grabs you.”

Whatever modernist impulse Rice had at first was rooted in pre-World War II American paintings of, for instance, Edward Hopper and Charles Sheeler. He combined Hopper’s sensibilities with the precision and techniques of Italian Renaissance architectural painting, creating work that was about light or, rather, a specific feeling about light. 

Rice’s paintings were about shape, too, increasingly so in the 1990s, when he zoomed in on fragments of his subjects, eliminating much of their surroundings. For 1996’s Pendant, his first life-size architectural painting, Rice zoomed in so much that his subject came close to being an object. The more recent Cornice With Brick Façade, also life-size, is a set of horizontal bands of bricks and wood in which the only context, a strip of blue sky, provides just another band. In these paintings, as in Gable With Bracket I and II, Rice turns high realism into a stark minimalist geometry linked to the post-war abstract modernism of, say, Elsworth Kelly, Donald Judd and Frank Stella. That he uses traditional Southern buildings to do so gives the work a twist of Postmodern irony. And to paint paint and use painted wood to depict painted wood, as Rice does in Cornice With Brick Façade, a painting on panel, is not just clever but conceptual to boot.

Biography: Edward Rice

            EDWARD RICE (American, b. 1953)

            North Augusta, S.C., native Edward Rice (b. 1953), is one of the Southeast’s most prominent contemporary painters. Rice’s 2011 museum solo exhibition Preservation of Place: The Art of Edward Ricewas at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga.. The exhibition was accompanied by an extensive catalogue. Other museum solo exhibitions include another one at the Morris Museum and those at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C.; the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art; the Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum in La Grange, Ga.; and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Rice also was represented in The Story of the South: Art and Culture, 1890 – 2003, the inaugural group exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. 

            Rice has had solo exhibitions in numerous commercial and institutional galleries, including if ART Gallery in Columbia, S.C.; the Charlotte & Philip Hanes Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, N.C.; Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, Ga.; Marguerite Oestreicher Fine Arts in New Orleans, La.; Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, N.C.; and Summit One Gallery in Highlands, N.C. His work was, among others, in group exhibitions at Babcock Galleries, New York; Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Spalding Nix Fine Art, Heath Gallery and Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta; the Sumter County (S.C.) Gallery of Art; 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, S.C.; the Gibbes Museum; the Greenville County Museum; and Vanguard Gallery in Cork, Ireland.

Rice’s paintings are included in museums and corporate and private collections throughout the Southeast. They include those of the Columbia (S.C.) Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum, the Gibbes Museum, the Greenville County Museum, the Morris Museum, the Georgia Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum.

            Aside from scores of group exhibition catalogues, Rice has been the subject of several solo exhibition catalogues. The McKissick Museum in 1987 published Edward Rice: Paintings and Drawings.  Edward Rice: Architectural Works, 1978-1998was published by the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta. The same venue also published Edward Rice: Tree Paintingsin 1990. Edward Rice: Recent Monotypeswas published by the Morris Museum of Art in 2003. If ART Gallery in Columbia, S.C., in 2008 published the catalogue Edward Rice: Paintings 1996 – 2008; in 2014, the gallery published Edward Rice: Fortress Series. In 2011, Rice was included in E. Ashley Rooney, 100 Southern Artists.

            Rice has been the recipient of several South Carolina Arts Commission awards, including a SCAC Fellowship. In 2014, he received the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts, the state of South Carolina’s highest recognition in the arts. Earlier this year, Rice’s work was included in SC.Fellows Part I, the first part of the SCAC’s 50^thanniversary retrospective of its visual arts fellows, at 701 Center for Contemporary Art.

Resume: Edward Rice

Edward Rice, b.1953 is a past recipient of a South Carolina Arts Commission Artist Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts / Southern Arts Federation Regional Fellowship. His paintings have been included in exhibitions at Babcock Galleries, New York, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, Heath Gallery, Atlanta, among others. His work is included in the collections of the Gibbes Museum of Art, the Columbia Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum, the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Georgia Museum of Art, the Morris Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

"The architectural paintings of Edward Rice are carefully rendered evocations of place, born of close familiarity and intense study. Informed by the continued absorption of outside influences, yet following his own self motivated path, Rice's work matured during the reemergence of a vigorous school of American realist painting. Although the development of the new realism made the critical climate more receptive to realist painting, Rice's anachronistic realism was largely untouched by the conceptual element of late modern art; it also lacked the irony, revivalism and media conciousness associated with Postmodernism."
- David Houston, Chief Curator, The Ogdon Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2005 Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
Barbara Archer Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2004 Marguerite Oestreicher Fine Arts, New Orleans, LA
Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Summit One Gallery, Highlands, NC
Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC

2003 Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

2002 Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
The Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head, SC
Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC

2001 Summer House Gallery, Highlands, NC

2000 Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC
Summer House Gallery, Highlands, NC
Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA

1999 Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA

1998 Rudolph E. Lee Gallery, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC

1996 Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC

1993 Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, La Grange, GA

1992 Hampton III Gallery, Greenville, SC
Morris Gallery, Columbia, SC

1990 Heath Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA

1987 McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

1978 Dock Street Theater, Charleston, SC

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 Savannah and the Islands, Horne and Thistle Gallery, Savannah, GA
State Art Collection, 1987 – 2006, The Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
Painterly Prints: Works from King Snake Press 1998-2006, Upstairs Gallery,
Tryon, NC
South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, City Gallery at Waterfront
Park Charleston, SC

2005 Construction Crew, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
Remix, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Face to Face: Artist’s Self Portraits, Peligro Gallery, New Orleans, LA
The Bin Show, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA

2004 South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter,
SC
Places and Spaces: Landscapes and Genre Scenes in the South, Gibbes Museum of
Art, Charleston, SC
The Story of the South: Art and Culture, 1890 – 2003, The Ogden Museum of
Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

2003 The Story of the South: Art and Culture, 1890 – 2003, The Ogden Museum of
Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
From the Collection, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Expanding the Scope: Art from the Permanent Collection, South Carolina State
Museum, Columbia, SC
Art in America: A Southern Perspective I, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston,
SC

2002 Realism in the South: After 1960, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
San Francisco International Art Exposition, San Francisco, CA
Art in the South: Recent Acquisitions and Projects, The Ogden Museum of
Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Vistas and Plateaus, Summit One Gallery, Highlands, NC
Contemporary Mix, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Twentieth Century in Review, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

2001 Holiday Exhibition, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
Still Life: The Object, Hampton III, Greenville, SC
Southern Landscape Painting, Charles B. Goddard Center for Visual Arts,
Ardmore, OK
Reconstructing Eden, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Director’s Choice: Continuation of Twentieth Century in Review, Gibbes Museum
of Art, Charleston, SC

2000 Eighteen for 2001, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
Gallery Artists, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
US Artists: The American Art Exposition, 33rd St. Armory, Philadelphia, PA
Personal Circumstances: Georgia Artists at the End of the Century, Spruill
Center Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Contemporary Southern Painting: Selections from the Permanent Collection,
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

1999 100 Years/100 Artists: Views of the Twentieth Century in South Carolina Art,
South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
U.S. Artists: The American Art Exposition, 33rd Street Armory, Philadelphia,
PA
Gallery Artists, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Visionaries, The Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head, SC

1998 Triennial 98, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
Celebrating the Art of the South: A Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, Morris
Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Gibbes Museum of Art,
Charleston, SC

1997 Gallery Artists, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Selections from the South Carolina Arts Commission State Art Collection:
1988-1995, Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach,
SC
Celebrating Sixty Years, The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art,Augusta, GA
Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus
Christi, TX
Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

1996 Signs of Contemporary Art, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
Fish Swim in the Lake: Artists Use the Nude, Winthrop University Galleries,
Rock Hill, SC
Survivals, Revivals, and Arrivals, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art,
Augusta, GA
Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe,
NM
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Looking at the Contemporary Southern Artist, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta,
GA

1994 Oil on Canvas: Looking at the Artist’s Process, Morris Museum of Art,
Augusta, GA
A Sense of Place, Zone One Gallery, Asheville, NC
Vividly Told, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Lure of Lowcountry, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

1993 The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, Babcock Galleries, New York,
NY
Middleberg College Museum of Art, Middleberg, VT
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY
Owensboro Museum of Art, Owensboro, KY
Maryland College of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Discerning Spirit, The Government House, Augusta, GA
The Eye’s Momentum, Meteor Gallery, Columbia, SC

1992 South Carolina/Kentucky Exchange, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
South Carolina Expressions, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC

1991 South Carolina Contemporary Images, Owensboro Museum of Art, Owensboro, KY
Gallery Artists, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
LaGrange National XVI, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LA Grange, GA
Preview: Art and Design in Winthrop Galleries, Winthrop University, Rock
Hill, SC
Southern Landscapes: Past and Present, Jean Spedden Gallery, Charleston, SC

1990 Artists in Georgia, Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA
Selections from the State Art Collection of South Carolina,Gibbes Museum of
Art, Charleston, SC
The Cow Show, Madison Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA
South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship Retrospective, South Carolina State
Museum, Columbia, SC

1989 Southern Arts Federation/ National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship
Exhibition, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA
Louisiana Arts Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA
Shelby Gallery, Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, FL
South Carolina Arts Commission Exhibition, South Carolina State Museum,
Columbia, SC

1988 A Realistic View, Davenport Gallery, Greenville, SC
Mint Museum Biennial, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Somewhere in Between, Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury, NC

1987 Small Scale,Heath Gallery, Atlanta, GA
South Carolina Realism, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

1986 Dealer’s Choice,Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Mid America Biennial,Owensboro Museum of Art, Owensboro, KY
South Carolina: The State of the Arts, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Visual Arts: The Southeast, One Securities Center, Atlanta, GA

1985 Artists in Georgia, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

1983 Biennial Exhibition of Piedmont Painting and Sculpture, Mint Museum,
Charlotte, NC

1981 Art and Georgia Exhibition,Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA
Watercolor Southeast, Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Bellair, FL
Freeman Schoolcraft, Paul Vincent, and Edward Rice, Cheatham Gallery,
Thomson, GA

1979 Gallery Artists, Exhibitors Gallery, Charleston, SC
Augusta Art Association Exhibition, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art,
Augusta, GA

1978 Seibels Bruce Watercolor Competition, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC

AWARDS
1994 South Carolina Arts Commission Grant
1993 South Carolina Arts Commission Grant
1992 Greater Augusta Arts Council Artist Award
1991 South Carolina Arts Commission Grant
Merit Award, La Grange National, Chattahoochee Art Museum, La Grange, GA
1990 Porter Fleming Foundation Grant
South Carolina Arts Commission Grant
1988 South Carolina Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellowship
Southern Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship
Merit Award, Mint Museum Biennial, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
1986 South Carolina Arts Commission Grant
1984 Best of Show Purchase Award, Springs Exhibition, Lancaster, SC

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, FL
South Carolina Arts Commission State Art Collection, Columbia, SC
South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Carolina First, Greenville, SC
Kennedy, Covington, Lobdell, and Hickman, L. L. P., Charlotte, NC
NationsBank, Charlotte, NC
Northern Telecom Corporation, Atlanta, GA
Springs Industries, New York, NY
SunTrust Bank, Augusta, GA
Troutman Sanders, Atlanta, GA
John Weiland Homes, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Wornble, Carlyle, Sandridge, and Rice, L.L.P, Winston Salem, NC

EXHIBITION CATALOGUES & BOOKS
New Orleans, Louisiana, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Art of the South:
1890-2003. J. Richard Gruber and David Houston, University of New
Orleans/Goldring-Wooldenberg Institute for the Advancement of Southern Art
and Culture on Association with Scala Publishers, 2004.
Augusta, Georgia, Morris Museum of Art. A Decade in Review 1992- 2002. 2002.
Estill Curtis Pennington.
Augusta, Georgia, Morris Museum of Art. Wolf Kahn: Painting the South.1999(mention,
photo) J. Richard Gruber.
Augusta, Georgia, Morris Museum of Art. Celebrating the Art of the South: A Fifth
Anniversary Exhibition. 1998. J. Richard Gruber.
Augusta, Georgia, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art. Edward Rice: Architectural
Works, 1978-1998. 1998. David Houston.
Columbia, South Carolina, South Carolina State Museum. Triennial 98. 1998.
Polly T. Laffitte.
Augusta, Georgia, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art. Survivals, Revivals, and
Arrivals. 1996. David Houston.
Rock Hill, South Carolina, Winthrop University Galleries. Fish Swim in the Lake:
Artists Use The Nude. 1996. Tom Stanley.
Sante Fe, New Mexico, Gerald Peters Gallery. Rediscovering the Landscape of the
Americas. 1996. Alan Gussow.
Augusta, Georgia, Morris Museum of Art. Vividly Told. 1994.
Estill Curtis Pennington.
New York, New York, Babcock Galleries. The Artist as Native. 1993. Alan Gussow.
Augusta, Georgia, Morris Museum of Art. A Southern Collection. 1992.
Estill Curtis Pennington.
Columbia, South Carolina, Morris Gallery. Edward Rice: Unshown Works. 1992.
David Houston.
Albany, Georgia, Albany Museum of Art. Artists in Georgia. 1990.
Peter Doroshenko.
Atlanta, Georgia, Heath Gallery. Edward Rice: Tree Paintings. 1990. Jon Meyer.
Columbia, South Carolina, South Carolina State Museum. Visual Arts and Crafts
Fellows Retrospective. 1990. David Houston.
Madison, Georgia, Madison Morgan Cultural Center. The Cow Show. 1990.
Gail Andrews Trechsel.
Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta College of Art. Southern Arts Federation/National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Exhibition. 1989. David Houston.
Salisbury, North Carolina, Waterworks Arts Center. Somewhere in Between. 1989.
Patrick White.
Charlotte, North Carolina, Mint Museum. Mint Museum Biennale. 1988.
John Perreault.
Columbia, South Carolina, McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina. Edward
Rice: Paintings and Drawings. 1987. Lynn Robertson Meyers and Peter Morrin.
Athens, Georgia, Georgia Museum of Art. Artists in Georgia. 1985. William Agee.
Rock Hill, South Carolina, Rutledge Gallery, Winthrop University. Springs Traveling
Art Show. 1984. Nicolai Cikovsky.

SELECTED ARTICLES & RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Mack, Tom. “Augusta gallery features two person exhibition,” Aiken Standard, Sept.
30, 2005.
Kloer, Phil. “Pieces build a strong sense of wholeness,” The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 12, 2005.
Day, Jeffrey. “Art Appreciation,” The State, Jan. 30, 2004.
Day, Jeffrey. “One of a Kind,” The State, Dec. 5, 2003.
Mack, Tom. “Artist finds new way to revisit familiar images,” Aiken Standard, Nov.
23, 2003.
Starland, Tom. “Hodges Taylor Gallery Features Solo Exhibitions…,” Carolina Arts,
Jan. 2002.
Wellard, Nancy K. “Landscape, Architecture Spark Ethereal Images, The Island Packet,
March 2000.
Swisher, Amy. “Care Takers,” Creative Loafing Charlotte, January 16, 2002.
Neill, Brian. “Starting Over From the Top,” The Metropolitan Spirit, January 11,
2001.
“Edward Rice: Selected Paintings 1995 – 2000,” Art and Antiques. 2000.(advertisement)
“Arts and Sport,” The Wall Street Journal. November 21,2000 (mention)
Allsbrook, Luke. “Life as Content in Painting,” American Artist, July 2000.
(mention)
Uhles, Steven. “Augusta Artist Will Showcase Fascination with Light Effects,”
Augusta Chronicle, April 2000.
Mack, Tom. “Augusta Gallery Hosts New Works By Noted Artist,” The Aiken Standard,
May 2000.
Art Now Gallery Guide Southeast. January 1999. (photo)
Kimes, Kent. “Creative Admiration,” The Augusta Chronicle, March 21, 1999.
Gilkerson, Mary Bentz. “Carolina Place,” The State, January 1999.
Britt, Phylliss. “Profile..Ed Rice,” The Star, March 11, 1999.
Wall, Donna Dorian. “Regional Color,” Art and Antiques, Summer 1999. (mention)
Mack, Tom. “100 Years of Art…,” The Aiken Standard, November 21, 1999.
Martin, Frank. “Architectural Artworks Energetic,” The Post and Courier, February
21, 1999.
Mack, Tom. “Museum Hosts Retrospective…,” The Aiken Standard, March 28, 1999.
Day, Jeffrey. “A Look at Our Art,” The State, June 21, 1998.
_________. “Morris Museum Makes its Mark,” The State, January 4, 1998.
Roth, Katherine. “House Painter,” The Greenville News, August 30, 1998.
Lawrence, Jennifer. “Art of the Land,” Southern Accents, January/February, 1997.
Mann, James. “Edward Rice’s Paintings…,” Creative Loafing, May 11, 1996.
__________ . “Find Your Alternate Niche,” Creative Loafing, July 27, 1996.
Darke, Jayne. “Portrait of an Artist,” Artifacts, July/August, 1996.
Cohen, Katya. “Two Strong Shows,” South Carolina Arts, June, 1996.
Houston, David. “Edward Rice,” Art Now Gallery Guide Southeast, May, 1996.
McCorkle, Ben. “Ed Rice,” The Metropolitan Spirit, August 22, 1996.
Sturrock, Staci. “Artist Canvasses the Neighborhood,” The Greenville News, April
26, 1996.
Art Now Gallery Guide Southeast. May 1996. (cover story)
Claussen, Keith. “Two New Works,” Southern Art Newsletter, January/February, 1995.
Cullum, Jerry. “Vividly Told,” Art Papers, November/December, 1994.
Day, Jeffrey. “Lowcountry,” The State, February 13, 1994.
Fox, Catherine. “Tales of the South,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 17,
1994.
Neal, Dale. “The Lay of the Land,” Asheville Citizen Times, November 6, 1994.
Shuter, Marty. “Southern Style,” The Savannah News Press, June 26, 1994.
Charlotte, North Carolina, The Magazine of the Junior League, The Crier. June 1993.
(cover)
Day, Jeffrey. “Resurrecting the Mundane,” The State, March 1, 1992.
__________. “A Real Home,” The State, February 17, 1991.
Cameron, Dan E. “Obscure References,” Creative Loafing, February 3, 1990.
Day, Jeffrey. “Artists’ Growth Put On Display,” The State, February 23, 1990.
_________. “Rice’s Tree Paintings,” The State, June 10, 1990.
Cullum, Jerry, “Down-home Art Opens Door…” Atlanta Journal-Constutution, November 14,
1990.
Rosen, James. “Edward Rice: Tree Paintings,” Art Papers, May/June, 1990.
Fox, Catherine. “Fellowship Winners Show Individualism,” The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, June 14, 1989.
Houston, David. “Edward Rice,” New Art Examiner, October, 1989.
Twardy, Charles A. “Paint It Contemporary,” The State, March, 1989.
Szakas, Dennis. “Mint Stints Local Initiative in Biennial,” New Art Examiner,
Summer, 1988.
Tudor, Martha Anne. “Art Fellowship Awarded To Rice,” The Augusta Chronicle
(Carolina Extra), May 26, 1988
Claussen, Keith. “Personal Vision,” Augusta Magazine, May/June, 1987.
Berry, Marty. “Museum Puts State Artists in Spotlight,” The Greeneville News, June
18, 1987.
Meyers, Lynn Robertson. “Common Places,” Artifacts, April/June, 1987.
Moore, Deb Richardson. “Landscapes,” The Greenville Piedmont, June 8, 1987.
Lieberman, Laura. “The Southern Artist: Edward Rice,” Southern Accents,
March/April, 1987.
Tomlinson, Janis A. “Edward Rice,” Art Papers, July/August, 1987.
Twardy, Charles A. “At Home Painting Houses,” The State, May 10, 1987.
Genders, Richard A. “Museum Shows Interesting,” Asheville Citizen Times, February
24, 1985.
Howell, Peter. “At the Georgia Museum,” The Athens Observer, September 19, 1985.
Smith, Virginia Warren. “Spring Traveling Art Show,” The Arts Journal, May, 1985.
Maschal, Richard. “S. C. Painting Best of Springs Art Show,” The Charlotte
Observer, September 19, 1984.
Shivers, Louise. “Talking with Ed Rice,” Augusta Magazine, December, 1981.
Schoolcraft, Faye. “Edward Rice,” Art Voices South, March/April, 1980.

The Inventory: February 15-26, 2008

Icon, 2008

Oil on canvas

14 x 14 in

$3,500

if ART

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

THE INVENTORY:

A Group Show of if ART artists

Feb. 15 – 26, 2008

Artists’ Reception: Friday, Feb. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

For its February exhibition, if ART presents The Inventory, a group exhibition of artists from if ART Gallery. The show will consist of many new works by if ART artists as well as older pieces from the gallery’s inventory.

Included in the show will be work by Columbia artists Jeff Donovan, Mary Gilkerson, Marcelo Novo, Anna Redwine and David Yaghjian. Other South Carolina artists include Carl Blair, Jeri Burdick, Phil Garrett, Bill Jackson, Peter Lenzo, Dorothy Netherland, Matt Overend, Edward Rice, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, H. Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Katie Walker and Paul Yanko. Furthermore, the show will present work by former South Carolina residents Tonya Gregg, Eric Miller and Andy Moon. Also included are California collage artist Jerry Harris, Dutch painter Kees Salentijn and German artists Roland Albert, Klaus Hartmann and Silvia Rudolf.

Construction Crew III: December 7- 18, 2007

if ART presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

C o n s t r u c t i o n C r e w III:

STEVEN CHAPP – JEFF DONOVAN

JANET ORSELLI – EDWARD RICE

Dec. 7 – 18, 2007

Artists’ Reception: Friday, Dec. 7, 5 – 10 p.m.

Opening Hours:

Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and by appointment

For its holiday exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., if ART presents Construction Crew III, a group exhibition with work by South Carolina artists Steven Chapp, Jeff Donovan, Janet Orselli and Edward Rice. Like the first two if ART Construction Crew exhibitions in December 2005 and 2006, the show consists of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art that has strong constructional or architectural characteristics. The exhibition opens Friday, Dec. 7, with a reception from 5 –10 p.m. and runs through Dec. 18. Opening hours are weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Sundays 1 ­ – 5 p.m. Chapp, Donovan, Orselli and Rice are represented by if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln St., (803) 238-2351, where additional works of art by all four artists will be on view.

Chapp will be showing monotypes, intaglio prints, drawings and paintings from the 1980s through last week. Donovan will present several major new ceramic sculptures. Orselli will show reconstructed and reconfigured old baby-carriages-turned-art-objects. Among the paintings Rice will be showing is a new series of barn paintings, in which the same barn structure is painted a dozen times in different colors.

Easley, S.C., native Steven Chapp (b. 1952) is a native of Kansas City, MO. He holds an MFA in printmaking and drawing from Clemson University and a BFA from Appalachian State University. He has shown in galleries and museums throughout the region, including the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art, the Burroughs and Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and the Pickens County (S.C.) Museum of Art and History. He worked on two projects with artists Christo and Jean Claude, in Kansas City in 1978 and Key Biscayne, Fla., in 1983.

Jeff Donovan (b. 1957) has been a fixture on the Columbia, S.C., art scene for many years. The painter and ceramic sculptor was born in Millford, Del., and studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla., and the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, N.C. Donovan has exhibited widely throughout South and North Carolina. He is represented in the Mark B. Coplan Collection of South Carolina Art, the prominent ceramic sculpture collection of Ron Porter and Joe Price in Columbia and in the collection of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. Donovan also works as an art conservator with ReNewell Fine Art Conservation in Columbia.

Janet Orselli (b. 1954) was born in Columbia, S.C., where she lived until November 2007, when she moved to Mill Spring, N.C. In 1976, she graduated from Clemson Unversity with a degree in psychology. In the 1990s she gradually switched careers from the field of mental health to art. While establishing herself as an artist, she earned an M.F.A. from Clemson in 2001. She was selected for the 2001 and 2004 South Carolina Triennial exhibitions as well as the 2004 traveling exhibition “South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition.” Earlier this year, Orselli has a solo show at O.K. Harris Gallery in New York City. Orselli has done large installations at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, S.C., the Burroughs & Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. Orselli has received several residencies and fellowships, including at Anderson Ranch in Colorado and in Kaiserslautern, Germany. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship.

North Augusta, S.C., native Edward Rice (b. 1953) lives in Augusta, Ga. He is one of the Southeast’s most prominent contemporary painters. Rice’s solo exhibitions include those at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C., the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art, the Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum in La Grange, Ga., and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Rice also was represented in The Story of the South: Art and Culture, 1890 – 2003, the inaugural exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. “Edward Rice: Architectural Works, 1978-1998” was published by the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Ga., and “Edward Rice: Recent Monotypes,” by the Morris Museum of Art in 2003.

For more information, please contact if ART Gallery owner, Wim Roefs at (803) 238-2351 or wroefs@sc.rr.com

The Fame Factor: September 7-18, 2007

if ART PRESENTS AT GALLERY 80808/VISTA STUDIOS:

THE FAME FACTOR

Featuring art by:

Benny Andrews (American, 1930-2006) – Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006) – Lynn Chadwick (British, 1914-2003) – Corneille (Dutch, b. 1922) – Jacques Doucet (French, 1924-1994) – John Hultberg (American, 1922-2005) – Richard Hunt (American, b. 1935) – Wilfredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982) – Ibram Lassaw (American, 1913-2003) – Ger Lataster (Dutch, b. 1920) – Lucebert (Dutch, 1924-1994) – Sam Middleton (American, b. 1927) ¬– Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1992) – Hannes Postma (Dutch, b. 1933) – Reinhoud (Belgian, 1928-2007) – Paul Reed (American, b. 1919) – Edward Rice (American, b. 1953) – Kees Salentijn (Dutch, b. 1947) – Virginia Scotchie (American, b. 1959) – Leo Twiggs (American, b. 1934) – Bram van Velde (Dutch, 1895-1981)

September 7 – 18, 2007

Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 7, 2007, 5:00 – 10:00 PM

Opening Hours: Weekdays, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM; Sat., 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM;

Sun, 1:00 – 5:00 PM

In September, work by world-famous artists such as Joan Mitchell, Karel Appel, Lynn Chadwick, Wilfredo Lam and Bram van Velde will be in The Fame Factor, a group show at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia organized by if ART Gallery. The exhibition also will include if ART Gallery artists Leo Twiggs, Edward Rice, Kees Salentijn,Virginia Scotchie, Laura Spong and Paul Reed. The Fame Factor will explore the concept of fame, especially the relativity of fame.

The exhibition opens September 7 with a reception from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. and runs through September 18. Opening hours for Gallery 80808/Vista Studios will be expanded during the if ART exhibition. They will be weekdays, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.; Sat., 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sun, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Other American artists with national and even international reputations in the show are Richard Hunt, Benny Andrews, Ibram Lassaw, Paul Reed, John Hultberg and Sam Middleton, an American artist who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s. Dutch artists with international fame in addition to Appel and Van Velde will be Corneille, Ger Lataster, Hannes Postma, Kees Salentijn and Lucebert. Furthermore, the show will present French artist Jacques Doucet and Belgian artist Reinhoud.

Reinhoud and Doucet both were part of the legendary CoBrA group of Northern European artists from the late 1940s and 1950s, which also included Appel, Corneille and Lucebert. “CoBrA” stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, the cities or origin of most of the major figures in the group. Another artist in the show, Wilfredo Lam, a Cuban artist who had a vast international reach, exhibited once with CoBrA, in the early 1950s, though he was not a member. All of these artists are in the collections of major American museums. Dutchman Salentijn works in a post-CoBrA style.

Hunt, Lassaw, Chadwick and Reinhoud are sculptors. All will be represented in the exhibition with limited-edition lithographs. Hunt, from Chicago, is one of the country’s most famous living sculptors, in part for his many public sculptures. Lassaw was one of the main sculptors in the New York School and a core figure on the city’s 1940s-1950s Abstract Expressionist scene. Chadwick is one of the most prominent figures among British sculptors of the generation of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Sam Middleton, born in Harlem, NY, but living in the Netherlands, is known for his collages inspired by jazz; the exhibition will show some of his silkscreens. Lataster is one of the Netherlands’ most prominent Abstract-Expressionist painters; his work is in several major American museums. Postma established a big reputation in Europe in the 1960s with his etchings and aquatints, some of which will be in the show. Bram van Velde, who spent most of life and career in Paris, is a legendary figure among mid-20th-century European abstractionists.

Hultberg was part of the New York School scene but subsequently moved to California. Andrews was from Georgia but built his career in New York City, becoming one of the country’s most prominent African-American artists, who increasingly gained traction in the wider art community. Reed was with Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis and Gene Davis among the original Washington Color Field painters of the 1960s. Mitchell is simply one of the most famous Abstract-Expressionist painters.

Twiggs, from Orangeburg, S.C., most likely is the country’s most prominent pioneer with batik as a contemporary art medium. Scotchie is a ceramist with an international reputation who teaches at the University of South Carolina. Rice, from North Augusta, S.C., is represented in many museums in the Southeast. Spong’s reputation has grown by leaps in recent years and is now among South Carolina’s best-known abstract painters.

“The idea of the show is to explore how relative fame is,” if ART Wim Roefs said. “Several feet worth of books and catalogues on Appel, and a few feet on Mitchell, don’t change the fact that among people attending this show, Laura Spong is probably better known – and she makes do with a single 32-page catalogue. Leo Twiggs also is better known here than Appel and Mitchell. Someone like Van Velde is legendary in Europe. Though he had New York gallery shows in the United States, and though his work is in many major American museums, he is at best obscure around here. In general, of course, a lot of famous European artists aren’t well-known in the United States.”

“Lassaw really was one of the major sculptors among Abstract Expressionists, but, of course, sculptors, except for David Smith, played third fiddle in the movement compared to the painters. Reed was one of six artists in the first nationally traveling exhibition of Washington Color Field painters, with Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis, and he makes the art-history books. Still, he’s mainly known among art insiders, though the renewed recent appreciation of color-field painting has giving him new exposure, too.”