Upstate Gallery On Main will feauture ‘POP’ encaustic paintings by Jeff Shaller

Upstate Gallery on Main, sponsored by the University of South Carolina Upstate, announced “POP,” recent paintings in encaustic by Jeff Schaller. The exhibition opens on Sept. 3 and runs through Nov. 2. An artist reception will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, during Spartanburg ArtWalk.

Effervescent and playful, Jeff Schaller’s works celebrate both the sensuality of paint and our collective memory. Drawing upon references from popular culture and reflective of our contemporary, media-saturated, symbol-laden social environment, Schaller counterpoints our current “pop” sensibility with the use of the ancient, time-honored medium of encaustic painting.

Encaustic is a beeswax-based medium mixed with pigment and applied to panel while molten, and being worked and reheated with torches and heat guns. A highly durable process that is impervious to moisture, the word encaustic comes from the Greek meaning to “burn in,” which refers to the process of fusing the paint. It was used in the 5th century B.C. for weathering boats and coloring marble. Lost for centuries, the process of encaustic painting was revisted in the 19th century, but gained notable attention after the 1960s. Jasper Johns is one of several highly recognized artists using the process, and seen in his Flag series created in the late 1950s. Modern tools and especially electric heating elements have made the encaustic painting more popular for creating luscious surfaces that allow light to pass through and reflect the translucent layers of the medium.

“This show is a continuation of an idea I had 8 years ago when I first created ‘Pop,’” Schaller said. “I saw an ad for a Sony radio where the woman held it in her hand and appeared to be whispering to it. Her profile was captured perfectly against the red background. Her pursed lips looked as if they were blowing a bubble. So I cropped out the radio, painted her profile and put a simple pink dot an inch away from her lips and called it ‘Pop.’ Using lost and found images, words and language, my goals are to paint with a precision and intricacy not normally found in encaustic paintings.”

Born in 1970 in Manchester, Conn., Jeff Schaller earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the City of London Polytechnic in 1991. He studied at Arcadia University in Glenside, Penn., in 1992. Schaller’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and is frequently published in periodicals and selected for special projects, commissions and murals. In 1998, Schaller was the recipient of the prestigious Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award. His work was used as a prop for NBC’s hit sitcom “Friends.” He received a highly coveted fellowship from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2002. Schaller lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and three children.

University gallery director Jane Nodine is very familiar with encaustic painting, having spent the past 12 years working almost exclusively with the process.

About USC Upstate

The University of South Carolina Upstate is a regional comprehensive university offering more than 40 undergraduate and graduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business administration, nursing, and education. Located along the I-85 corridor in Spartanburg between Greenville and Charlotte, USC Upstate is ranked by U.S. News & World Report at #2 among Top Public Schools. It serves as a major talent producer for the region, with more than 6,000 students, approximately 1,300 new graduates a year, and nearly 30,000 alumni, many of whom live and work in the state. The USC Upstate Spartans compete in 17 NCAA Division 1 sports as a member of the Big South Conference. For more information, visit www.uscupstate.edu.