The Jasper Project Presents PETER LENZO: A RETROSPECTIVE AND REMEMBRANCE

STORMWATER STUDIOS

OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 3 — 6 - 9 PM

Jasper Guild Members are Invited to Join Us at 5 pm for Early Entrance

The Jasper Project is honored to present PETER LENZO: A RETROSPECTIVE AND REMEMBRANCE at Stormwater Studios, April 3 – 12, 2026. In addition to exhibiting more than 30 rarely shown facejugs and reliquaries created by the late Peter Lenzo, the project also features the launch of a new commemorative publication entitled PETER LENZO: IN MEMORY OF HIS MEMORY and the premiere screening of an accompanying film by Columbia, SC filmmaker, Wade Sellers. 

The Jasper Project worked closely with Lenzo’s daughter, Roxy Lenzo Douthit, to curate this exhibition, which includes ceramic pieces from the last few decades of her father’s life, as well as intimate family reliquaries in which the artist preserved and annotated treasured artifacts and keepsakes going back to the artist’s family of origin. For Lenzo, his facejugs were a homage both to traditional Southern pottery practices and to the friends and family who inspired the work he so lovingly created. Lenzo, who suffered a head injury early in life that resulted in seizures, epilepsy, and ultimately dementia, used his art as a way of channeling his despair as well as his elation.  

The photographs of Lenzo’s face jugs and reliquaries reproduced in the new publication, PETER LENZO: IN MEMORY OF HIS MEMORY, many of which on the reverse side also bear the artist’s notated perceptions of the work itself, have been intimately annotated by his daughter. Lenzo Douthit also wrote an enlightening introduction and acknowledgments for this book which contains a foreword by the SC State Museum’s Paul Matheny and an essay by the late Wim Roefs. Peter Lenzo: In Memory of his Memory was published in April 2026 by the Jasper Project, which has an imprint via Muddy Ford Press, and is available for pre-order here.

PETER LENZO: A RETROSPECTIVE AND REMEMBRANCE opens at Stormwater Studios (413 Pendleton Street, Columbia, SC) on Friday April 3rd with an opening reception from 6 – 8:30 (early admission for Jasper Project Guild members at 5 pm).  

The film, In Memory of his Memory, will be screened on Friday, April 10th at 7 pm.  

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, feel free to contact the above individuals or consult The Jasper Project or Stormwater Studios. 

About the Jasper Project – The Jasper Project is a project-oriented, multidisciplinary arts facilitator serving the greater Columbia and South Carolina communities by providing collaborative arts engineering and community-wide arts communication. The Jasper Project is committed to four integrated priorities: Process – illuminating the unique processes endemic to all art forms in order to provide a greater level of understanding and respect for that discipline; Community/Collaboration – nurturing community both within and between arts disciplines; Narrative – creating a more positive and progressive understanding of SC culture; and Economy – being efficient stewards of arts funding committed to creating more with less. For more information or to support the Jasper Project please visit JasperProject.org.

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The SC State Museum is Showing the Arts Some LOVE -- Art Day at the SC State Museum!

The South Carolina State Museum will be celebrating South Carolina visual art and artists by presenting a day of hands-on activities, artist demonstrations, behind-the-scenes tours of the art collection and much more at Art Day on Saturday, March 1 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

According to Anna Kate Twitty, PR manager at the museum, "Art Day offers a unique look into South Carolina [visual] art and artists with activities for all ages.  The event will feature hands-on 'creation stations' from University of South Carolina’s Art Education Department, which will focus on South Carolina art from the State Museum’s collection. Guests will have the opportunity to interact with and see demonstrations by South Carolina artists, Paul Moore (pottery), Gene Speer (printmaking), Brian Rego (painting), Alicia Leeke (painting), Herman Thompson (sculpture) and Rick Wells (painting)." 

South Carolina art and artists, like Paul Moore (pictured), will be featured.  Photo courtesy of the S.C. State Museum

We also hear that there will be live music along with special guided "behind-the-scenes" tours of the museum’s art storage areas, (which, by the way, contain over 4,000 works of art!)

“South Carolina has an incredible representation of visual culture across the state, spanning over 300 years,” says Paul Matheny, chief art curator, S.C. State Museum. “This rich cultural diversity is easily overlooked.  Art Day at the State Museum brings our visual culture to life for our statewide community and beyond.”

For the aspiring or emerging artists, the museum is also sponsoring their inaugural College Art Day on Friday, Feb. 28 from 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. According to Twitty, student artists are invited to explore South Carolina colleges and university art departments, meet current students and faculty from colleges from across the state, including Coker, Lander, Winthrop, Furman,  and Francis Marion universities as well as Columbia College, Spartanburg Methodist, and USC - Beaufort, and hear from alumni applying their art degrees in their professions.

“We’re looking forward to hosting College Art Day, which will offer a forum for middle and high school students to discover the vast educational and professional art opportunities that are available in our state,” says Matheny.

(Event guests at Art Day and College Art Day will have the opportunity to explore the museum’s permanent galleries and the temporary exhibition, This Just In, which features highlights of recently acquired artifacts representing art, history, natural history and science/technology.  Both events are included with museum general admission or membership. Visit scmuseum.org to learn more.)