In 2021, Tiny Gallery hosted 15 artists in a vast variety of styles and mediums. In 2022, we’re featuring an even greater array of mediums with a collection of wonderful local talent. Learn more about each artist below and be sure to mark your calendars for your favorite shows. All shows begin the first of the month and end on the final day of the month, accessible 24/7 to peruse and purchase via Jasper’s virtual gallery.
January: Gina Langston Brewer
Though unconventional in guise and approach, Brewer is a teacher first, having been formally educated at Winthrop University in Rock Hill and later securing a master’s in divergent learning from Columbia College. She has the requisite ‘book-learning’” but is much more interested in life-learning and sharing with others the lush explorations that beckon each and every day in libraries, forests, farmer’s markets, junk yards, and roadside poppy fields. All are creative spaces in her eyes.
After marrying her best friend, Kevin Brewer, in 2008, she assumed the nomadic life of a military wife, moving from post to post and home-schooling their son, George. During that time, she operated two art studios, one in Columbus and the other in Augusta. Brewer also has two grown sons by previous relationships, Nathan and Dylan. The Brewer family moved back to Columbia in 2018, and Gina recently opened a studio in downtown Columbia, away from the interruptions, distractions, and demands of family and household.
Though she works in many mediums, Brewer is best known locally for her lushly colored, abstract paintings that, to many people, are reminiscent of (to select well-known artists for reference) Picasso or Klimt. The subjects she paints are alternately curvy and geometric, simple and lavish. She has had solo exhibitions at multiple venues, including Tapp’s Art Center in Columbia and the University of South Carolina-Beaufort art space.
February: Adam Corbett
Adam is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lexington, South Carolina. After releasing numerous records, helping to produce a musical, and taking a break from his career as a music teacher, Adam branched out into visual art as a way to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown. Throughout this period, he has experimented with various mediums in a variety of formats focusing always on exploration, play, and following his muse.
March: Fairoozan Art
Ms. Fairoozan is a paper artist and illustrator. She has been interested in various forms of papercraft since her school years, it took her quite a while to find her own way of bringing together her love of paper with her experience in painting.
She has actually discovered a new way of using the basic paper technique as she is drawing with paper instead of on it, at that time point she has no idea it was called (Paper Quilling) and she made the quilling process interesting and modern.
These paper artworks can take from a few days to a few weeks or even longer – it all depends on the level of details, size and design, the largest paper artwork she ever made took her around 6 weeks.
A former art teacher with more than 15 years of experience, she finished a bachelor's degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad, in Bagdad, Iraq.
Her artworks have been shown in many exhibitions in various countries around the world and in different states all over the USA.
April: Valerie Lamott
Valerie Lamott is a Columbia, SC, based jewelry artisan, but can rarely be found there. She's more likely to be hiking or camping or kayaking in any one of America's state parks. She uses these places as inspiration for her artwork and hopes it inspires others to play outside too.
May: Lucy Bailey
Lucy Bailey’s ceramic sculpture centers around the figure, with liberal use of layered textures and mixed media elements. Additional work explores combinations of ceramics and wood or wire, and earthenware altar boxes that create narratives through assemblages of found objects.
In 2021 one of her sculptures was exhibited at ArtFields in Lake City, SC. Her work was awarded the Best in Show distinction in exhibitions by the Annual Artist’s Guild of Spartanburg (SC) Juried Show and the Arts Council of York County (SC) Annual Juried Competition. Bailey’s work has twice been selected for the 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s South Carolina Biennial show. Her work was published in Lark Books’ 500 Figures in Clay-2.
Follow Lucy Bailey’s work on Instagram @lucybaileyclay
June: Cindy Saad
Cindy Saad considers herself to be a multimedia artist creating art in various mediums that include painting, photography and jewelry making with jewelry being her main form of artistic expression. Whether sculpting a necklace or painting on canvas, she likes to work spontaneously, creating pieces that evoke the senses.
A native of Sumter, SC, Saad has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of South Carolina and is mainly a self-taught artist. She has exhibited throughout the Carolinas in numerous juried art shows and exhibitions and is currently represented by the City Art Gallery in Columbia and the SC Visitor’s Center in Walterboro.
www.cindysaad.com
Instagram @cindysaadart
July: Thomas Washington
Perhaps the most important pursuit of an artist is the facilitation of Escapism. Perhaps each project is the equivalent of a Narnian door…or that lamppost beyond, coaxing a wanderer into another realm.
Thomas Washington Jr. (thomas the younger) functions on that premise. Since his childhood, he has produced multitudinous works in this vein—from being hired (out of high school) to illustrate in a local graphic anthology, he has subsequently striven to bring stories in every medium; to breathe life into the fantastical by imbuing it with the familiar…and, of course, to find fun and fulfillment along the way.
As a result, it required the birth of his children to make him care about money. (He still struggles with this.) –For years, he was perfectly fine living as a Bohemian: he laid his head in strange places among strangers, eventually becoming a pleasant strain of strange in the process. He thus entertains all sorts of bizarre notions—the importance of world peace, an unshakeable belief in fundamental similarities that make Humanity one big family, intense opinions on interstellar travel, and so-forth.
Recently, he took the leap of emerging in his local scene. He has sat on panels, joined the instructor roster for community arts centers, partaken in various shows, (finally!) founded a website, and essentially joined the dialogue of Art’s Place in Society.
August: Chilly Waters
Chilly Waters has a high level of creativity and a passion for art. He channels his creativity into creating one of kind clay sculptures that often include reclaimed mixed media materials. These sculptures are 3D representations of his imagination in action and allow him to empty his mind of all the additives that collect in there. They are his imagination coming to life.
His goal is to make things that invoke feelings of joy or curiosity. Well, that and to become a space cowboy or a Marvel superhero - whichever comes first. He sees “junk” or discarded items as components of art that have yet to reach their full potential.
Chilly has been working as a clay artist for 5 years (after retiring from a long-term career) and is predominately self-taught, having molded his skills and style through various workshops and networking with other artists. He is a member of the Midlands Clay Art Society, and his work has been shown in galleries in Aiken and Columbia, SC as well as various arts festivals in South Carolina and Delaware.
He finds inspiration in listening to people, observing what they say or do. Often times when he hears a work or a phrase, he visualizes it in his mind and has to create a 3D image of it. He also sees discarded “junk" and wonders what it could be if it had a second chance. Once an idea is realized, he grabs a chunk of clay and starts to create.
September: Amber Machado
Amber Machado is a painter from Columbia, SC. She began painting as a teenager, hoping to emulate her sister and father who have always been her biggest artistic role models. It took nearly a decade of painting sporadically before her personal relationship with art began. At the onset of being diagnosed with Lupus, she began to paint more frequently, and what began as a welcome distraction, has now become her full-time job. More importantly though, she credits painting to being her primary means of coping with a chronic illness.
Over the last three years her aim has been to develop new skills and grow as an artist. Her main area of focus is landscapes, primarily watercolor. She is greatly inspired by nature, natural light, and color. When she’s not painting, she is usually dancing with her cats or pestering her spouse.
**materials from https://www.ambermachado.com
October: Maya Smith
South Carolina based artist, Maya Smith, has been honing her skills as a freelance artist for the past fourteen years. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 with a BFA in Illustration.
Her work celebrates people of color and women with shape. Using pencils and paint to create imagery that counters negative stereotypes and provokes conversation.
Maya’s work has been commissioned by Oscar Award winning director, Steve McQueen for the film, Widows. Her work is part of the New York Public Library archives through the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY.
November: Sean Rayford
Sean Rayford is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer in Columbia, SC, where he works with Getty Images, The New York Times, The Associated Press and many others. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of South Carolina. His work was recently featured in the Hindsight 20/20 exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art and as part of Time Magazine's Best Photos of 2021.
December: Ornament Show
Last year, we did our first ever Tiny Gallery Ornament show, which was a great success thanks to our ever-wonderful patrons. In 2022, we’ll be showcasing new artists for another ornament show. These artists have yet to be selected, so stay tuned for another announcement later on!
We are grateful to the artists and patrons who come together to make Tiny Gallery possible, and we look forward to our 2022 journey together. To ensure you don’t miss out on further gallery announcements, sign up for Sundays with Jasper!