Photog Caleb Brown of Saucewithspoons Photo-Documents Jasper's 1st House Show - October 2022

Cindi Boiter October 25, 2022

Last Saturday, Jasper board member and local arts leader Bekah Rice hosted a house show at the One Columbia co-op as a fundraiser for the upcoming issue of Jasper Magazine. Featured bands included Death Ray Robin, Opus and the Frequencies, and Joseph Hunter Duncan, all of whom blew the crowd away. And by the way, let’s send out one more happy birthday to Joseph Hunter Duncan and thank him for spending his special day on our stage.

Featured artists included Gina Langston Brewer, David Dohan, Adam Corbett, Emily Moffitt, and Olivia Pope, who showed their work pop-up style inside the house at 1013 Duke Avenue, the old Indie Grits homeplace. This is the same place where Al Black hosts his monthly Front Porch Swing Sunday afternoon concert series as well as his once-a-month Jasper’s Tuesday night Poetry Salon.

By the way, Gina Langston Brewer is Jasper’s featured artist-in-residence at the Jasper First Thursday Gallery at Sound Bites in November — and David will be in residence in January 2023.

The bands were sponsored by board members Libby Campbell and Paul Leo with Eric Tucker, the wine and popcorn by Coal Powered Filmworks, and the beer by Muddy Ford Press. We also had a boat load of new helpers, most of whom were friends and family of Bekah. We can’t thank all of these sponsors and volunteers enough. You all rock!

But we were also lucky enough to be visited by local photographer Caleb Brown of Saucewithspoons who grabbed some pretty fabulous shots of the night. Caleb shared some of these shots with us; now we happily share them with you.

Gina Langston Brewer is the First Thursday Artist in Residence at Sound Bites in November

Cindi Boiter October 18, 2022

First Thursday

November 3rd @ 6 pm

Sound Bites Eatery

The Jasper Project is excited to announce that Gina Langston Brewer will be the November artist-i-residence at the Sound Bites First Thursday Gallery, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 3rd, beginning at 6 pm.

According to Langston Brewer, “Much of my art is inspired by the community of strong women all around me, women who lift one another up every day, who are constantly present, like the air, providing currents of nurturing support and love. My images celebrate our curves, our colors, our joys, and our sorrows — all that gives us dimension and hope and fire in this world.”

Langston Brewer’s show will be up throughout the month of November, but the artist will be in house on the night of the 3rd to meet patrons and answer questions.

Sound Bites Eatery has a full menu of sandwiches, salads, and more plus beer, wine, and other beverages.

This Month in the Jasper Project's Tiny Gallery -- Welcome Back GINA LANGSTON BREWER!

Cindi Boiter January 7, 2022

After a nearly sold-out show in 2019, Gina Langston Brewer returns to Tiny Gallery with a new, intimate show.

The Columbia-based artist has created nearly her whole life and has been painting in our city since returning in 2018. Though proficient in multiple mediums and styles, she is known for her abstract paintings.

This collection of 10 paintings homes in on Brewer’s belief system that inspiration and creativity can be found everywhere. From a stain-glassed face with eyed closed as they bathe in the light refracted on them to a white cat, curious and intent, as it prances across the canvas to a woman donned in blue, sitting tilted forward on a chair, beckoning, each piece is as mystical as it is real.

The pieces are all acrylic on either canvas or wooden board, save for one acrylic mixed media piece, and range from $30 - $75. 3 of 10 have already sold, and the show will remain up until the evening of January 31st. View the show at Jasper’s virtual gallery.

Gina Langston Brewer Expands Her Popular Tiny Gallery Show Incohesive, A Collection Rife With the Importance of Creation

Cindi Boiter November 17, 2020

“Mostly I create out of a need to process my emotions about the world around me.”

Tiny Gallery Featured Artist Gina Langston Brewer

We are halfway through our November Tiny Gallery with Gina Langston Brewer, a local multi-media artist. We’ve been overwhelmed by the love towards the show so far—in just the first 24 hours, nearly 50% of her show, Incohesive, sold out.

Brewer was a self-proclaimed “army brat” towards the beginning of her life, but she spent most of her formative years in West Columbia. Her family home was filled with art, but the idea of having a career as an artist never presented itself as an option.

Regardless, Brewer found herself continually inspired by her Grandmother Langston, a multi-media artist herself, who worked with themes surrounding nature, flowers, and the ocean.

“She made art out of everything. My dad was a contractor and brought her scraps of wood, that he beveled, to paint on,” Brewer recalls, “She gave me a love and appreciation for art, nature, and using what you have available to you.”

However, when Brewer first ventured to Winthrop University, she wasn’t planning on going down the same path–her eyes instead set on teaching. Then, she started taking art classes as electives, and before long, she graduated with a B.A. in Art.

“Though I have taken college courses, I feel somewhere between a fine and a folk artist,” Brewer ruminates, “Mostly I create out of a need to process my emotions about the world around me.”

Like her grandmother, Brewer works with the materials that are closest to her in the moment. “I will, can, and have worked in most mediums, yet I mostly work with acrylic paints,” Brewer shares, “I have also been working on several copper wire sculptures, recycled lightbulb/cork insects, wood assemblages, and altered books.”

Within these various creations, Brewer seems to often return to one dominant theme: the female form. “Mother and child, Life, the creators of life,” Brewer intimates, “I have always painted voluptuous women, body positive, having always been quite zaftig, myself.”

Brewer also reflects on how her art is a powerful tool of distraction in the time of COVID and worrisome news updates pervasive across multiple channels. This collection stems from both Brewer’s standing loves and these new emotions.

“I told a friend when I had my next show it would be called Incohesive, because my work has just been all over the place,” Brewer remarks, “I've chosen mostly smaller recent works and a few pieces just to show the spectrum of what I've been up to.”

Two of Brewer’s pieces are COVID Collaborations that she started with Kristine Hartvigsen just before lockdown, who wrote Brewer’s artist bio and statement for the show. Brewer also has featured a handful of her new recycled insect experiments, and ruminations on the female pervade the show.

As mentioned earlier, the show has been largely popular, and upon bathing in her gratefulness, Brewer has made an exciting decision: she will be adding a handful of new pieces to the show.

“Being a part of [this show] has, in a way, reinvigorated my interest in being a part of the art ‘world,’” Brewer admits, “The past four years, I have shut down with my engagement and the art community—I'm very thankful for this opportunity and for the patrons of this incredible venue.”

Throughout this week, on the Jasper Project social medias, we will be announcing and showing some of the new pieces Brewer has chosen to add to her gallery. While an inconhesion, all these pieces come together to tell a story: about femininity, about life, and about survival.

“I never really plan what I am about to create. All that I know is that I must.”

Gina Langston Brewer’s Tiny Gallery show runs through November 30th on the Jasper website and is the perfect opportunity to support local art and get your special someone an irreplaceable gift for the holidays.

Be sure to follow Brewer’s Instagram @metamorphosisters for updates on her art during and after the show.

By Christina Xan