if ART Gallery presents LAURA SPONG AT 90 – Six Decades In Painting

@

if ART Gallery & Gallery 80808/Vista Studios
1223 Lincoln St. & 808 Lady St., Columbia, SC
February 4 – 29, 2016

Artist’s Reception: Thu., Feb. 4, 6:00 – 9:00 pm @ both locations

Panel Discussion: Laura Spong: Six Decades in Painting, Sun., Feb. 14, 2 pm @ if ART Gallery

Laura Spong Birthday Party: Thu., Feb. 18, Third Thursday/Vista Nights, 5-8 pm @ Vista Studios

Laura Spong Gallery Talk: Sun., Feb. 28, 2 pm @ if ART Gallery

if ART Gallery’s February exhibition Laura Spong At 90: Six Decades In Painting celebrates the career of one of South Carolina’s most prominent painters, Columbia artist Laura Spong. Spong will turn 90 in February. The exhibition will take place at two venues in Columbia, S.C.: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, where Spong maintains her studio. The exhibition will present some 120 paintings from six decades of Spong’s production, from the mid-1950s until 2016, and will run from February 4 – 29, 2016.

With several events accompanying the exhibition, February 2016 will be Laura Spong Month. Aside from the exhibition’s opening reception on Thursday February 4, 6 – 9 p.m., at both if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, there will several other events. There will be a panel discussion about Spong’s career, a birthday party for Spong to which the public is invited and a gallery talk by Spong. For places and times, please see above.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 28-page catalogue with essays by if ART Gallery owner Wim Roefs and artist Mark Flowers, a bio of Spong, Spong’s artist’s statement and dozens of color images of her work from the 1950s until now. The essays by Roefs and Flowers and Spong’s bio and statement are attached with this release along with a photo of Spong and images of four of her paintings. More images are available at your request.

“Laura Spong’s career is remarkable,” if ART Gallery’s Roefs says. “While raising six children, in part as a widow, Spong began to carve out a career for herself when she was in her early 30s. Even though producing art during several periods until the late 1980s had to take a back seat to raising children and other complications in her life, Spong stuck with it, until in the late 1980s she decided she was going to be a full-time artist. She was in her sixties then. Since then her career has developed steadily, really taking off after her wildly successful 80^th birthday exhibition ten years ago. Late in life, Spong managed to become one of South Carolina’s most prominent painters.”

Gallery Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.;

& by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – [email protected]