Two Jasper Events for Artista Vista - Friday April 19th - Big Tiny Gallery at Richland Library & Group Show with Archie, Archie, Krajewski, Tolen & Carpenter at Coal Powered Filmworks

Front Stoop by Kevin Archie

In addition to the closing reception for A Big Tiny Gallery, our collaborative exhibition with Richland Library, Friday night, April19 from 6:30 – 8:30 at the Main branch on Assembly Street, Jasper has another visual arts treat to contribute to this weekend’s Artista Vista celebration.

We’re delighted to welcome artists Laurel Steckel Archie, Kevin Archie, Michael Krajewski, Keith Tolen, and Kimber Carpenter for a group show at Coal Powered Filmworks, 1217 Lincoln Street (across from Blue Marlin) from 6 – 9 pm.

The Bath by Laurel Archie — This piece and more of Archie’s work is currently on display at Motor Supply Company Bistro on Gervais Street.

Corona by Michael Krajewski

Wild West by Keith Tolen

The Surprise by Kimber Carpenter

Please join us to check out these lovely artists’ work, grab a copy of Jasper Magazine, have a little nibble, and visit with us for a while. We’re happy to see you all, and we want to issue a special welcome to other artists from all disciplines to chat with each other as well as patrons and fill us in on what’s coming up in the arts for you. We’ll have a dry erase board set up for you to add any upcoming events you may have going on.

Please also visit our neighbors at Mike Brown Contemporary Gallery, Soulhaus Art next door!

Book Launch and Celebration for DeLana Dameron's REDWOOD COURT

FEBRUARY 9TH 6:30 - 9 PM

MIKE BROWN CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

122 LINCOLN STREET - IN THE VISTA

From our friends at Mike Brown Contemporary …

A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s Columbia, SC.

"A beautiful exploration of a family . . . deeply moving." Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.”

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court . The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.

With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.

Jasper Recommended Last Minute Local Gifts for the Most Favored People on your Christmas List!

Why send your money to strangers when your gift purchases can help support local artists?

Jasper intern Liz Stalker has put together a list of gift suggestions she gleaned from researching the local market of arts presents and here are a few of her hot finds!

Prints, Stickers, and Paintings from Malik Greene!

Visit Red Bubble to find everything from paintings to t-shirts to shower curtains by Columbia artist and muralist, Ija Charles!

Let Zoo Valdes hook you up with a

Marius Valdes original coffee mug or tote bag!

Represent Columbia Music with a t-shirt, sticker, or button from

Death Ray Robin!

Cafe Press can hook you up with Root Doctors shirts and merch from

lots of other local bands!

Pick up a copy of Ed Madden’s Story of the City,

Carla Damron’s Justice Be Done,

Cassie Premo Steele’s Beaver Girl,

Claudia Smith Brinson’s Stories of Struggle,

Aida Rogers’ State of the Heart,

Jim Sonnefeld’s Swimming with the Blowfish,

and works by any number of local authors at

All Good Books Bookstore!

Visual Art makes for some of the most intimate of presents.

Check out Mike Brown Contemporary for work by

more than 30 local South Carolina artists including

David Yaghjian (above), Aggie Zed, Cedric Umoja, Jeff Donovan, Mark Flowers, and Lori Starnes!

Visit Sound Bites Eatery or any of the other

Jasper Galleries for original art by local artists!

Also pick up lunch for a friend

or a Sound Bites gift card!

Celebrate the art of a fine meal with gift cards from food artists like

Eddie Wales and Wesley Fulmer

and their restaurants that also support the local art by hanging and showing local art on their walls!

Motor Supply Bistro is currently showing the work of Jasper board member Laura Garner Hine.

Visit Bandcamp

and search for your favorite local artists to

give the gift of home-grown tunes this Christmas!

And the SC Philharmonic makes it easy to give the

gift of classical music with their

Holiday Gift Guide created just for you!

Annual Winter Exhibition Featuring Chesley, Yaghjian, Williams and Friends - February 15-March 23

One of the most exciting visual art shows of the year opened on Thursday February 16th at the new Mike Williams art studio in Columbia’s historic Vista and will continue until March 23 with a reception on Saturday, February 25th from 2-5.

Anyone who follows local art closely has come to anticipate the yearly group show that always features Stephen Chesley, David Yaghjian, Mike Williams, usually includes Edward Wimberly, and as of late, has often included Ellen Emerson Yaghjian and Guy Allison. This year, the gang is all present at 1221 Lincoln Street for an extended period.

With the loss of the late Wim Roefs, Mike Williams and Michaela Pilar Brown, former ED of 701 CCA, divided Wim’s renown If Art gallery into two distinctive studio/galleries. For the past few months, with spaces have been quietly building their presence with Michaela Pilar Brown’s Mike Brown Contemporary Art opening the upstairs  of her multi-level space to a number of community-oriented events and gatherings of artists.

The Mike Williams Gallery operates similarly. While the Williams/Chesley/Yaghjian gang typically offers their annual group exhibition at Stormwater Studios, after having staged the exhibit for years at the former gallery collection know as 80808 on Lady Street, this year Williams is moving the group show to his new home on Lincoln Street.

About the Artists:

Columbia, S.C., native and resident David Yaghjian has exhibited across the Carolinas, including Blue Spiral I Gallery in Asheville, N.C., the Florence (S.C.) Museum of Art, Gallery 80808 and Morris Gallery in Columbia and Hampton III Gallery in Greenville, S.C. In Atlanta, where he used to live, Yaghjian has shown in the Spruill Center Gallery, the Right Brain Gallery, and other venues. He also painted two murals in the Georgia capital. Yaghjian holds a BA from Massachusetts’ Amherst College and studied in New York City at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Art. Among his instructors were Fairfield Porter, Leonard Baskin, Will Barnett and Chaim Koppelman.

David Yaghjian

Stephen Chesley was born in Schenectady New York in 1952. He exhibited a natural proclivity for drawing and art almost as soon as he could hold pastel and pencil which were often Christmas gifts from his family. Growing up in Virginia Beach in the late 1950’s he was exposed to the ‘Beat Generation’ of musicians, artist, and writers when Virginia Beach was still a seasonal seaside resort. Self-motivated, he continued with his drawing and small paintings along with exposure to local artist. Throughout elementary and high school the art spirit continued. Collegiate exposure led to a meld of art and science with degrees in Urban Studies and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning in 1980 from the school of Architecture at Clemson University. Graduating in a deep national economic recession Chesley turned back to his art. Spending 5 years on rivers and sea islands to explore his aesthetic, subject matter, influential painters, and styles, Chesley’s paintings and art work began to move to the fore.

Recognized in 1981 by the Columbia Museum of Art as an emerging talent he went on to win top 100 in the first National Parks competition of 1987,exhibiting at the Smithsonian, and in 1996 a National Endowment for the Arts, Southeast Regional Fellowship, Southeast Center for Contemporary Art. Chesley has continued his work, characterized as poetic realism, along with welded and carved sculptural pieces in addition to joint works illustrating Archibald Rutledge short stories and WS Merwin’s poem, “Palm” for the Thomas Cooper Society’s Thomas Cooper Medal for WS Merwin in 2012. Stephen Chesley continues his creative journey with an art spirit in Columbia, South Carolina.

Stephen Chesley

Mike Williams, born 1963 in Sumter, South Carolina, received his BFA from the University of South Carolina in 1990.  In 1988 he began his professional career as a fine artist and sign painter while finishing his degree.  He has been prolific throughout the past three decades creating more than 4000 works.  

He’s maintained a steady presence in galleries and has had his work exhibited in the South Carolina State Museum, the Columbia Museum of Art, the Lake County Museum, Chicago, Ill., the Carillon Building in Charlotte, NC, the Sun Trust Plaza in Atlanta, GA, and the Volksbank in Kaiserslautern, Germany.