Spotlight on Jasper's FIRST THURSDAY Featured Artists in the Jasper Alley at Tapp's: Emily Moffitt, Cam Moore, & Kate Timbes with Special Guest Andrew Phillips

Jasper has an exciting show coming up on for our next First Thursday gallery opening on September 3rd as we welcome three singular artists into the Jasper Alley at Tapp's: Emily Moffitt, Cam Moore, and Kate Timbes, each bringing a distinct voice to the space, from illustration to upcycled collage to ecological sculpture. Joining them will be Andrew Phillips, a special guest artist who is showing his work for the very first time.

Color Has Other Plans by Andrw Phillips - 24x24 $400

Guest Artist - Andrew Phillips

Phillips paints the way he lives—boldly, on his own terms, and without waiting for anyone's permission to take up space. He communicates using an AAC device and gets around by wheelchair, but neither has ever slowed down his imagination; if anything, painting gives him a language all his own, one that doesn't require words to say exactly what he means. Working in acrylic paint with an adapted paintbrush created for him by fellow featured artist and camp art director, Cam Moore, Phillips is drawn to bold color and rich texture, which is no surprise from an artist who's also an active member of the Inclusive Theatre Company of South Carolina and brings a bit of flair to everything he touches.

The piece in this show is his first painting. Moore recalls the moment Phillips first took hold of the brush himself: "It was his first time painting, and his reaction was pure joy. He had this huge smile, and you could see the curiosity and pride on his face." Andrew started with simple strokes and was soon experimenting on his own, moving between dotting and longer brushstrokes to see what he could do.

"I paint because I have something to say," Phillips writes in his artist statement, "that life is full of color and excitement, that it takes unexpected turns, and that dreams get fulfilled. This piece is my proof."

Artist - Cam Moore

Featured Artist – Cam Moore

Cam Moore is a multidisciplinary artist and art educator whose work turns what most people throw away, thin cardboard and packing paper, into mosaic-styled collage pieces detailed with charcoal. "There's usually a moment where the viewer realizes that what they're actually looking at wasn't meant to be beautiful in the first place," Moore says, "and that surprise is a big part of what I'm going for." His work has been shown at Richland Library Main and at Stormwater Studios via Jasper’s Degenerate Arts Project Part II, where it won the Artists’ Choice Award.

Beyond the studio, Moore is the Art Lead at Camp Cole's Camp Rise Above program, he founded the community art series The Sessions, and is currently building The Source Columbia, a creative studio space aimed at underserved neighborhoods. He's been showing publicly since early 2025 and moving fast ever since.

Artist - Emily Moffitt

Featured Artist – Emily Moffitt

Emily Moffitt is an illustrator based right here in Columbia, and a familiar face in Jasper's world. She serves as Secretary on the Jasper Board of Directors and as Visual Arts Editor for Jasper Magazine, alongside her day job as Gallery Curator for the Koger Center for the Arts. A graduate of USC's School of Visual Art and Design, Emily has exhibited at the Driggers Center for the Arts in Greer, at Stormwater Studios for Jasper's inaugural Degenerate Art Project, and at the Richland Library. She's spent her post-grad years deep in the Columbia arts scene and says helping build exhibits for fellow artists keeps pulling her back toward her own studio practice.

Artist - Kate Timbes

Featured Artist – Kate Timbes

Kate Timbes is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting, and digital media, weaving paint, seeds, handmade paper, and other materials into pieces that make us think hard about where our resources come from. Her practice, as she describes it, searches for "a finish that borders raw, vaguely familiar, and other worldly all at once." Timbes has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Koger Center, The Morgan Paper Conservatory, Visalia Arts Center, and the DIS Student Hub in Copenhagen, and she teaches papermaking workshops across the Carolinas. She runs Woven Studios, holds a BA in Studio Art from Wofford College, completed a Work-Study Fellowship at Arrowmont School of Craft, and is a member of Zero Space Collective. Originally from South Carolina, she is currently based in Charlotte.

Come shop, have a drink, and hang out with all the cool kids in the alley. We have DJ Saiteron scheduled to keep us dancing throughout the evening, as well as the featured artists aboce and Jasper Board members on site to chat about the work and what’s next for Jasper.

This Thursday, September 3, 6–8:30 pm at Tapp's, 1642 Main Street.

Announcing the Winners of Jasper's Degenerate Art Project Artist's Awards

Jasper’s Degenerate Art Project II is a wrap!

Janet Kozachek - Pufferfish

Jasper is excited to officially announce the winners of the Degenerate Art Project Artist’s Awards presented Saturday, February 28th at the exhibition’s Closing Party at Stormwater Studios in Columbia.

In a night that included verboten swing dance demonstrations and lessons by Columbia’s Richard Durlach and Breedlove, the launch of Ed Madden’s new book, I Asked Him What He Needed, with a sweet little surprise chapbook titled, My Students Want to Talk About Ice: Political Poems, the reading of a banned children’s book by our favorite Drag King Marty McGuy, freshly spun tunes from Scotty Tempo, and an amazing menu by MidiMarc, the presentation of the awards was an appropriate addition to the fun.

Ivan Segura with Untitled

Congratulations to Ivan Segura for winning the Jasper Degenerate Art Project II ZEITGEIST AWARD for his painting Untitled, presented to the artist whose work best exemplified the socio-political spirit of the times while also exhibiting proficiency in execution, originality, and strong engagement with the viewer.

The Adjudicators for the Zeitgeist Award included Peter Chametzky, Harriett Greene, and Xavier Blake.

Cam Moore with Heavy

Congratulations to Cam Moore for winning the Jasper Degenerate Art Project II ARTISTS’ CHOICE AWARD for his painting HEAVY. The winner of the Artists’ Choice Award was determined by the participating artists, each of whom cast a single vote for their favorite contribution to the show.

In addition to framed certificates the winning artists also received cash prizes made possible by the generosity of our sponsors Bill Schmidt and Muddy Ford Press.

Nolan Wright - Resilient Standing Strong

Ginny Merrett - 100 Worry Dolls

Stephen White - No More Closets

Kirstin Dow - Artist

Janet Kozachek - Liberty Snakes

Thank you to everyone who came out for the Degenerate Art Project II, and thanks to Maya Smith and the welcoming artists at Stormwater Studios for hosting us. Thanks to Curiosity Coffee for keeping our thirsts at bay and to MidiMarc for feeding us so well and to WeCo Bottle & Biergarten for donating the bubbles we used to celebrate our opening night.

Thank you to our Zeitgeist judges: Xavier Blake, Harriett Greene, and Peter Chametzsky.

Sadly, it is highly likely that we will need to do this again in 2027, so please be thinking about ways to make the third iteration different and unique unto itself while still engaging with artists from all disciplines and their patrons.

WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR IDEAS!

Hit us up at info@jasperproject.org