Laura Spong

Contemporary Carolina Abstraction I

2012-01-24T11:22:00.002-05:00

New Paintings

2012-01-20T17:47:00.002-05:00

Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., $2,350

Catch, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., $3,100

Ice the Burn, 2011, oil on canvas
24 x 36 in., $2,275

Strike Three, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.
$3,100

Just Before Spring, 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
$1,600

Minotaur Ouch, 2011, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.
$1,100

Fickle Weather, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
$3,350

Get Off the Couch, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.
$4,400

Hop on Board, 2011, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in., $3,350

Is It Yesterday or Today?, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.
$7,000

Memorable Memento, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.
$7,000

Theseus-Gotcha, 2011, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., $1,100

Pale Combat, 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in., $2,275

What's At the Bottom, 2008-11, oil on canvas
24 x 24 in., $1,600

LAURA SPONG: The Drop Dead Diva Paintings @ Rosso Trattoria Restaurant

2011-12-05T18:54:00.001-05:00

if ART Gallery & Rosso Trattoria Restaurant present

LAURA SPONG

The Drop Dead Diva & Other Paintings

An Ongoing Exhibition At Rosso Trattoria Restaurant

Trenholm Plaza

4840 Forest Drive

Columbia, S.C. 29206

(803)-787-3949

info@rossocolumbia.com

www.rossocolumbia.com

Artist's Reception: January 2012, TBA

To see Laura Spong's DROP DEAD DIVA paintings, CLICK HERE.

To see other works by Laura Spong, CLICK HERE.

For three seasons, from 2009 – 2011, a dozen of Columbia artist Laura Spong's paintings featured prominently on the Lifetime TV series Drop Dead Diva. In the series, the Spong paintings added to the contemporary feel of the law offices where the program's main character worked. Recently, Spong's Drop Dead Dive paintings returned to Columbia, and now several of them are on view at Rosso Trattoria Restaurant in Trenholm Plaza in Columbia. In addition to the DDD paintings, newer work by Spong is on view, too, at the restaurant.

Still Screaming, 2007, oil on canvas

58 x 48 in, $6,750

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART Gallery: wroefs@sc.rr.com or (803) 238-2351

2011 PAINTINGS BY LAURA SPONG

2011-05-10T15:37:00.009-04:00

Hop On Board, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

A Garden Party, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. , $2,350

July 4th, 2011, oil on canvas
60 x 48 in., $7,000

Women Who Pay Their Own Rent Don't Have To Be Nice
2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in., $7,000

Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

Refocus, 2011, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in.
$3,100

Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in., $7,000

Ere Now, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

Acclimated, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., $625

As It May Be, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., $2,350

Blithe, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., $625

Blue Domain, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., $625

I've Lost My Green, 2011, oil on canvas
36 x 48 in., $4,400

Colorado Snow, 2011, oil on canvas
48 x 30 in., $3,700

Contrived, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., $625

An Energetic Enigma, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
$3,350

Would You Rather Be Bored Or Scared?, 2011
Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in., $7,000

Dancing To An Unnamed Tune, 2011, oil on canvas
36 x 48 in., $4,400/SOLD

A Wave Of Relief, 2011, oil on canvas
48 x 36 in., $4,400

I've Always Been Thirsty, 2011, oil on canvas
60 x 48 in., $7,000

Pomegranate And Seeds, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
$3,350

Red Rover, Red Rover, Won't You Come Over?, 2011
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

Prelude To Spring, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

Put On-Scrape Off, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in. , $625

You Can't Fall Off The Floor, 2011, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in., $3,350

Take Refuge, 2011, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in., $625

A Degree Of Freedom, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.
$4,400

Ambiguity Is Important, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.
$4,400

Are You Ready For A Change, 2011
Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in., $4,400

Floating Up, 2011, oil on canvas
30 x 48 in., $3,700

Get Off The Couch, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in., $4,400

The Key To The Puzzle, 2011
Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in., $4,400

Resurrected, 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350

Laura Spong 2006-2011: Age As An Administrative Device

2011-01-25T17:14:00.035-05:00

LAURA SPONG 2006-2010
Age As An Administrative Device

February 11-22, 2011
An if ART Gallery Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, Columbia, SC.
CATALOGUE SIGNING: Sunday, February 20, 1-3 pm.

The exhibition celebrates Laura Spong's 85th birthday and is accompanied by a exhibition catalogue with essays by artist and art critic Mary Bentz Gilkerson and if ART's Wim Roefs.

For a PREVIEW of the exhibition, CLICK HERE.
For images of the exhibition installation, CLICK HERE.
For Wim Roefs' exhibition catalogue essay, CLICK HERE.
For Mary Bentz Gilkerson's exhibition catalogue essay, CLICK HERE.
For a CHRONOLOGY of Spong's life and career, CLICK HERE.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF LAURA SPONG'S 85th BIRTHDAY EXHIBITION:
For an article in The State newspaper, Columbia, SC, CLICK HERE.

For an article in Free Times, Columbia, SC, CLICK HERE.

For an article in the Carolina Reporter, Columbia, SC, CLICK HERE.

NEW LARGE TRIPTYCH BY LAURA SPONG

2010-05-24T20:31:00.003-04:00

if ART artist Laura Spong has recently completed a large triptych called Once In A Green Moon. The painting measures 40 x 90 inches. The image is below, as is an image of Spong hanging the painting to be photographed.

Once In A Green Moon, 2010
Oil on canvas
40 x 90 in.
$8,000

2010-02-17T16:51:00.001-05:00

ANNA REDWINE:Frauenau

LAURA SPONG:Renovations

@ Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, Columbia, SC

Feb. 19 – March 2, 2010

Artists' Reception: Friday, Friday, Feb. 19, 5 – 9 pm

For a PREVIEW of Anna Redwine's Frauenau paintings, CLICK HERE.

For a PREVIEW of Laura Spong's Renovations paintings, CLICK HERE.

For more information, call (803) 238-2351.

For an ESSAY on Anna Redwine's Frauenau paintings, CLICK HERE.

For an ESSAY on Laura Spong's Renovations, CLICK HERE.

HOURS: Mo-Fri, 11-7; Sat, 11-5; Su, 1-5.

Top left: Anna Redwine, Predator, 2004, watercolor stick and gesso on paper, 24 x 17 in.

Top right: Laura Spong, Restored, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

LAURA Spong: Renovations

2010-02-08T10:36:00.003-05:00

LAURA SPONG: Renovations By Wim Roefs

The mood in Laura Spong’s paintings often reflects the things that preoccupy her. That can be a book she’s reading, music she’s listening to, art she’s looking at, people who annoy or delight her, a TV program, medical issues or the house she’s renovating. Home improvements kept her busy for long stretches in the past year.

Preparing for the days when climbing the stairs to the bedroom might delight her no more, Spong (b. 1926) added a room downstairs, among other renovations. That process wasn’t without complications, frustrations and anxieties. “It’s so draining and it has taken so much of my attention,” Spong says. “I suppose my retreat has been coming here to my studio.”

“After I had decided to call this exhibition ‘Renovations,’ I wanted to change it to ‘Discombobulated,’ which is another word for ‘state of confusion.’ But the invitation was already printed.”

Her year has been like that, discombobulated, the Columbia, S.C., resident says. “I am sure it shows in my work, though I am not always sure I can see it. I keep revising certain paintings – keep revisiting them because I am not satisfied. But, of course, I’ve done that for as long as I’ve been painting.”

So how did last year’s state of confusion work itself into her work? “Can I just say like Jasper Johns that that is too private to talk about?”

Preferably not.

“I feel like the paintings have been jittery. Some of the ones I thought I was satisfied with seemed jittery when I pulled them out again. But I don’t want to sound negative. Eleanor Byrne once said she felt she was getting somewhere when she could see what was wrong with a painting and knew how to fix it. I feel that I am there now, too, so I feel I am progressing.”

Spong’s home renovation is part of an attempt to simplify her life, she says, and that very intent might eventually translate into more simplified paintings, too. She points at the recent Bridge Of No Regrets. Unlike her intricate all-over compositions, the painting hinges on several strongly worked and defined areas that stand out against wide-open fields of negative space. “Paintings like that seem to be the ones that are kind of speaking to me right now.”

Wim Roefs, February, 2010

Laura Spong: Renovations

2010-02-05T18:16:00.019-05:00

For prices see Works of Art: Laura Spong on the right side of this page.

Pay Attention To The Birds, 2010

Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in., SOLD

Untitled, 2009

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Whirligig, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in., SOLD

Waltz To The Door,2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

SOLD

Refreshing As Lemonade, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

SOLD

The Pumpkin Speak One Time Only, 2009, oil on canvas

30 x 30 in.

Spring Undercurrent, 2007 – 2009

Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., SOLD

Sunless Riddle, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

And Don't Come Back, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Speak For Myself, 2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

Shake And Pour, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Send For The Clowns, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Restored, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Refreshed, 2010, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.

Reclaimed, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

Overhaul, 2010, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in., SOLD

Just Before Spring, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Redo, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Equal Goby, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Bridge Of No Regrets, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
SOLD

At The Banquet The Skull Grins, 2009, oil on canvas

36 x 36 in.

Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

LAURA SPONG GOES HOLLYWOOD in Lifetime's DROP DEAD DIVA

2009-07-23T14:56:00.002-04:00

if ART Gallery artist Laura Spong is part of the Lifetime cable network's new series Drop Dead Diva, but she's feeling fine, thank you very much. Spong's paintings are on view prominently on the show, for instance in the law offices where the series' main character works. The show's producers have rented several paintings by Spong for the series' sets.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

Laura Spong on ETV

2009-04-03T15:49:00.002-04:00

To see Laura Spong on ETV click here. Then click on "Click here to watch." The segment on Laura begins at approximately the 2 minute and 20 seconds mark.

Essay: Laura Spong: It Was A Good Year

2009-02-03T15:36:00.001-05:00

LAURA SPONG
It Was A Good Year, 2008
Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 inches
presented by if ART Gallery, Columbia, S.C.,
is on view at
Gallery 80808/Vista Studios
808 Lady Street, Columbia, S.C.
February 5 – 17, 2009

It Was A Good Year refers to 2008, when Laura Spong painted the 12 square canvases that make up this new composite painting of 80” x 60”. She painted them in similar fashion as 2007’s Good Report, Bad Report, No Report, a 100” x 80” work consisting of 25 rectangular pieces. In both cases, Spong created the individual canvases independently of each other, not considering any of the completed parts while painting the next one.

Spong didn’t decide on either painting’s final size, form and composition until all the individual canvases were completed. For both paintings, she painted more canvases than ultimately the composition required, given her extra choices as she put together the whole.

It Was A Good Year, consisting of 20” x 20” squares, turned out smaller than Good Report, which is a five-by-five grid of 20” x 16” rectangular verticals. This was not by design but the result of Spong searching for the painting in the parts. The work’s square individual canvases created a rather different dynamic than the rectangular parts of Good Report had a year ago. After exploring a five-by-four and five-by-three grid of 20 and 15 canvases respectively, Spong decided on the smaller grid of four-by-three.

Both It Was and Good Report came about because of Spong’s desire to create larger compositions than she typically does. The diminutive artist, 82 years old, comfortably handles canvases up to about 60” x 50” but wanted to go beyond that. The composite form offers that possibility.

Laura Spong (b. 1926) is among South Carolina’s most prominent non-objective painters. Among her many solo exhibitions in the past three years was a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. In addition to South Carolina’s State Art Collection, Spong’s work was purchased recently by the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art and the South Carolina State Museum.

by Wim Roefs
February 2009

Laura Spong: Still Screaming & Leo Twiggs: Targeted Man, February 5-17, 2009

2009-01-28T15:21:00.002-05:00

For exhibition installation images, click here.

For essay on Leo Twiggs, click here.

For preview of Leo Twiggs: Targeted Man, click here.

For essay on Laura Spong, click here.

For preview of Laura Spong: Still Screaming, click here.

if ART Gallery

presents at

GALLERY 80808/VISTA STUDIOS

808 Lady St., Columbia, SC

LAURA SPONG: Still Screaming

LEO TWIGGS: Targeted Man

Reception: Friday, February 6, 5 – 9 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its February 2009 exhibition, if ART presents Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., two solo exhibitions by some of South Carolina most prominent veteran artists, Columbia’s Laura Spong and Orangeburg’s Leo Twiggs.

Both artists will present new work. Spong will show her trademark Abstract Expressionist oil paintings. Twiggs will exhibit a new series of batik paintings around the theme of “targeted man,” featuring figures adorned with a bull’s eye or target.

Laura Spong (b. 1926) is among South Carolina’s most prominent non-objective painters. In the past three years, Spong has further increased her reputation with several solo exhibitions, including a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. For her 2006 exhibition, Laura Spong at 80, Columbia’s if ART published a 32-page catalogue. In addition to the S.C. State Art Collection, Spong’s work was purchased recently by the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art and the S.C. State Museum. Three of her paintings also are in the Contemporary Carolina Collection, which was established in 2008 at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Ashley River Tower in Charleston. Spong maintains a studio at Vista Studios in Columbia.

Leo Twiggs (b. 1934) is a native of St. Stephen, S.C., who lives in Orangeburg, S.C., where he taught art at South Carolina State University from 1964 until 1998 and established a museum. Twiggs is widely seen as one of the most important South Carolina artists since the 1960s. His career retrospective, Myths and Metaphors: The Art Of Leo Twiggs, organized by the Georgia Museum of Art and accompanied by a catalogue, completed a two-year tour at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia in April 2006. Twiggs has had dozens of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in the Southeast and beyond, including the Studio Museum in Harlem. In 1964, he received a graduate degree in art from New York University and in 1970 was the first African American to receive an Ed.D. in art education from the University of Georgia. In 1981, he was the first to receive as an individual South Carolina’s highest art award, the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts.

Salon III: January 15- February 4, 2009

2009-01-07T13:35:00.008-05:00

For exhibition preview, click here.

For installation images, click here.

For printmaking demonstration schedule, click here.

if ART Gallery

presents

SALON III: The Print Exhibition

January 15 – February 4, 2009

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. 29205

Reception: Thursday, Jan. 15, 5 – 10 p.m.

Printmaking Demonstrations:

Sunday, Jan. 18, 3 – 5 p.m., Marcelo Novo, Print Gocco

Sunday, Jan. 25, 3 – 5 p.m., Phil Garrett, Monotype

Saturday, Jan. 31, 3 – 5 p.m., H. Brown Thornton, Photo Transfer

Sunday, Feb. 1, 3 – 5 p.m., Steven Chapp, Linocut & Photopolymer Prints

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its January 2009 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents Salon III, an exhibition of prints by gallery artists at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C. The opening reception will be Thursday, January 15, 2009, 5 – 10 p.m. The exhibition will be installed salon-style at the gallery’s first floor and continues if ART’s salon-style exhibitions; in December 2008, Salon I & II took place simultaneously at the gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia.

Among the printmaking techniques represented in the exhibition are etchings, dry points, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, photopolymer prints, embossings, monotypes, silkscreens and photo transfers.

During the exhibition, gallery artists Steven Chapp of Easley, S.C., Phil Garrett of Greenville, S.C., Brown Thornton of Aiken, S.C., and Marcelo Novo of Columbia will give demonstrations of various printmaking techniques. For times and demonstrated techniques, see above.

Artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, John Hultberg, Richard Hunt, Sjaak Korsten, Lucebert, Reiner Mährlein, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Joan Mitchell, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Hannes Postma, Edward Rice, Anton Rooskens, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Brown Thornton, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, David Yaghjian and Paul Yanko.

if ARTwalk: Salon I & II: December 11- 24, 2008

2008-11-30T16:12:00.001-05:00

For exhibition installation images, click here.

THE SALON I & II

Dec. 11 – 24, 2008

an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations:

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln Street

Reception and ifART Walk: Thursday, Dec. 11, 5 – 10 p.m.

at and between both locations

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its December 2008 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents The Salon I & II, an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 5 – 10 p.m., if ART will hold opening receptions at both locations. The ifART Walk will be on Lady and Lincoln Streets, between both locations, which are around the corner from each other.

The exhibitions will present art by if ART Gallery artists, installed salon-style at both Gallery 80808 and if ART. Artists in the exhibitions include two new additions to if ART Gallery, Columbia ceramic artist Renee Rouillier and the prominent African-American collage and mixed-media artist Sam Middleton, an 81-year-old expatriate who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s.

Other artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Aaron Baldwin, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Stephen Chesley, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, Jerry Harris, Bill Jackson, Sjaak Korsten, Peter Lenzo, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Matt Overend, Anna Redwine, Paul Reed, Edward Rice, Silvia Rudolf, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, Mike Williams, David Yaghjian, Paul Yanko and Don Zurlo.

Statement on Painting: Laura Spong

2008-07-06T14:26:00.002-04:00

I paint because I love the process of painting. To me, it’s exciting to throw a lot of paint on a clean canvas and then seek to solve the problem of creating order out of chaos. I like it that with non-objective work, nothing is decided for you – no color, no design, no subject matter; the search is wide open.

-Laura Spong

Resume: Laura Spong

2008-07-05T11:04:00.001-04:00

Karel's Green Apples I, 2007

Oil on canvas

12 x 12 in

$400

Public Collections

Greenville County Museum of Art

Corporate Collections

Spring Mills, Lancaster, SC

Sowell, Gray, Stepp and Laffitte, Cola., SC

Prime South, Charleston, SC

The Schneider Company, Greenville, SC

Dunbar, Cola., SC

Womble, Carlysle, Sandridge and Rice, Greensboro,NC

Midlands Technical College, Cola., SC

State Bank & Trust, Cola., SC

Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

Solo Exhibitions

2007

Laura Spong: The Early Works, if ART Gallery Exhibition, Columbia, SC

2006

Laura Spong At 80: Warming the Chill Wind with Celebration, an if ART Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, Columbia, SC

Carol Saunders Gallery, Columbia, SC

Laura Spong: 80th Year Celebration, Hampton III Gallery, Taylors, SC

In Retrospect: Laura Spong, 1950-2006, USC’s McMaster Gallery, Columbia, SC

2004

Conn Gallery, Landrum, SC

2001

Dream Fragment at Sarratt Gallery, Vanderbilt Univ.

2000

USC at Sumter, Sumter, SC

Carol Saunders Gallery, Columbia, SC

1997

USC at Lancaster, Lancaster, SC

Carol Saunders Gallery, Columbia, SC

1996

Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC

1995

Richland County Library, Columbia, SC

1993

Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

1990

Bachman Gallery, Columbia, SC

1989

Cumberland Art Center, Cookville, TN

Group Exhibitions

2008

Abstracted In Nature: Mahrlein, Rudolph, Spong, if ART Gallery Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, Columbia, SC

2007

Abstract In Nature: Reed, Spong, Walker, Williams, if ART Gallery Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, Columbia, SC

The Fame Factor, if ART Gallery Exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, Columbia, SC

Group 07, upstairs artspace, Tryon, SC

2006

Ruth Franklin & Laura Spong: A Two Woman Show of Paintings, Vinson Gallery, Decatur, GA

Fish or Cut Bait Gallery, Edisto, SC

2003

Papier – Paper – Papyrus, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

2002

Fish or Cut Bait Gallery, Edisto, SC

Women in Black, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

8 at 80808, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

Against the Grain, Blue Pony Gallery, Charlotte, NC

3 x 6, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

1999

Against the Grain

-USC at Lancaster, Lancaster, SC

- Francis Marion University, Florence, SC

- Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

- USC at Aiken, Aiken, SC

- Women’s Views, Wake Forest University,Winston-Salem

1998

Art for NOW, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

1995

Women’s Commitment to Art, Columbia College, Columbia, SC

Six Women Beyond Tara, Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC

Juried Shows

2005 1st Place NBSC Oil Painters Invitational & Traveling Show

2004 NBSC Oil Painters Invitational Honorable Mention &Traveling Show

1987-2000 SC State Fair, Columbia, SC

1999-2000 State Fair Traveling Show

1994-2000 Southern National Florence, SC

1993-2004 NBSC Oil Painters Invitational, Sumter, SC

1994-1995 Hilton Head Art League Show, Hilton Head, SC

1994 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Show Charleston, SC

Gallery Representation

if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC

Karel's Green Apples II, 2007

Oil on canvas

12 x 12 in

$400

Karel's Green Apples III, 2007

Oil on canvas

12 x 12 in

$400

Artist's Statement: Laura Spong

2008-07-04T11:06:00.000-04:00

Entry To The Unknown, 2008

Oil on canvas

40 x 50 in

$4,500

I play.
I am like a child on the floor with blocks.
Arranging, rearranging,
Adding, subtracting,
Delighting in the shapes,
forms,
textures,
colors,
Until the components fall into place
And create a pleasing visual pattern.

I use ancient symbols and phosphenes
To connect with the world in time.
I use bits of forms and shapes I see around me
To connect with the world in space.
But, mostly I play with color.

First of all …

… I like to paint; it is my passion.

My goal …

… is to portray visually, in a non-objective manner, my own inner journey as I
search for meaning and purpose in life.

My hope …

… is through my work a connection will be made between me and those on a similar journey.

One of my tools …

… is the use of symbols because of their universality, both ancient and modern. I like to use them in an attempt to make “the unknown known.” Circles, triangles, spirals, crosses, Xs, and forms from nature have been in used for decorative and symbolic purposes since the earliest times of humankind.

My vision …

... is that everything is connected. All is part of the whole. From a magnificent landscape to a few blades of grass, each is part of the whole and is equally important. My artworks are fragments of that whole that catch my eye, emotions, or imagination.

Pan's Dance, 2007

Oil on canvas

20 x 20 in

$875

Essay: Laura Spong: The Making of An Artist

2008-07-03T12:26:00.000-04:00

Countdown to 10, 2008

Oil on canvas

36 x 36 in

$3,000

Laura Spong : The Making Of An Artist

by Wim Roefs, 2006

“Here is a brief ‘catch-up’ on me,” Laura Spong wrote in 1990 to an old acquaintance in Nashville, Tenn., where Spong was born. “After graduating from Vanderbilt, I married Ernest Spong from Columbia, South Carolina, and moved here. We had six children, and I was a housewife and mother until Ernest died in 1973. I went to work as an arts and crafts instructor with the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department for ten years. Then the children grew up and left, the dog died, so I sold the house and resigned my job. I took several nice trips and looked around for what to do next.

“I teamed up with a friend, and she wrote and I illustrated a children’s activity book on South Carolina. Another friend and I tried the antique business. Neither venture proved to be very lucrative for me, so I decided that if I was going to starve, I would starve doing what I had always wanted to do. Be an artist! I went back to school and took some art classes and proceeded to paint full time.”

Spong’s own summary of her life until 1990 confirms the impression many have of her career as an artist – that she didn’t begin to paint until late in life, sometime in the 1980s, not long before she got a studio in 1991 at Vista Studios in downtown Columbia. But already in 1957, just after she had joined the Columbia Artists’ Guild, Spong won with J. Bardin and George W. Gunther the guild’s annual exhibition. As a novice painter in her early thirties, her lacquer-on-masonite painting Three Figures beat out the work of local, even regional mainstays such as Gil Petroff, Catherine Rembert, and Dorothy and Edmund Yaghjian. The prize was a three-person show with Bardin and Gunther at the Columbia Museum of Art.

“I couldn’t believe that I was in the show, that I got recognition,” Spong says now, “but I didn’t realize, looking back, how unusual it would have been to be in a show like that with university professors and professional artists.” Spong also made juror Lamar Dodd’s cut for that year’s Guild of South Carolina Artists exhibition. There she was in more heady company that included Sigmund Abeles, Carl Blair, William Halsey, Willard Hirsch, David Van Hook, Nell Lafaye and Corrie McCallum.

Three years later, she won an award at the state guild show, the Artists Guild of Columbia Award. Other winners were Bardin, Blair, Robert Courtright, Robert Hunter, Van Hook, John Waddill and Ed Yaghjian. In 1961, Spong was with Lafaye and George Horn once again a Columbia Artists’ Guild winner, this time with Composition No. 10, earning another Columbia Museum show. “But I didn’t know enough to be impressed with the company I was keeping,” she says.

These early successes and Spong’s inability to recognize them as such are a telling part of her life long quest to become an artist, both as an occupation and a matter of identity. From the late 1940s, when she took a few art courses as an English major at Vanderbilt University, until the late 1980s, Spong’s art production came in fits and starts. Early on, the rigors of a family with eventually six young children prevented a consistent art career. She took classes at the Richland Art School at the Columbia Museum, mostly with Petroff, and at times entered competitions. But she primarily lived her life as a mother, wife, reluctant Junior Leaguer and “good little girl,” as she puts it.

During most of the 1960s, Spong didn’t paint much. She had teenage kids to take care of. Her decision in the early 1970s to make a go of it again as an artist led to a busy exhibition schedule in 1973, despite personal upheaval. In January of that year, her husband died. Several months later, Spong was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy that prevented a recurrence. “They might not have done a radical mastectomy today,” she says. “But what they did to my body was the least of my worries. I was wondering, what are my children going to do?” After her husband’s death, she had taken the Parks and Recreation job, which she would keep until 1983.

It wasn’t until 1978 that Spong exhibit again. In 1979 she had a solo exhibition at the Little Corner Gallery in Columbia. She also made the cut of a combined, juried exhibition of several Columbia area artists’ guilds.

In 1983, Spong resigned from her job. She had gotten bored with it, didn’t see eye-to-eye with her new supervisor and thought she was going to get married. She had already sold her house, which had become big with the kids gone and a financial burden, and had planned to join the Peace Corps. Instead, she went to Vienna, Austria, were the man who had proposed lived. But the marriage never happened. “It was obviously not going to work,” she says. “I think he had no idea that I would actually come to Vienna. So I had a lovely European honeymoon all by myself.”

Back in Columbia, Spong ventured out professionally – sort of. As a paint store clerk, figuring out how much wallpaper was needed for a certain size room was an obstacle. Her aversion against selling expensive clothes for small children didn’t help in a children’s clothing store. As an antique dealer, her inability to remember what she paid for things interfered with profits. Illustrating two activity books for kids didn’t bring in the big bucks, either. And so Spong decided to be a full-time artist.

But she didn’t really think of herself as an artist. “I can’t tell you how long it took me to fill out ‘artist’ on a form,” Spong says. “I just said I was a painter.” It was not just a reluctance to acknowledge that what she painted was art. “First I thought, ‘I am a housewife and mother’, and then perhaps that I was an artist, too. It took me years to say ‘Laura Spong’ instead of ‘Mrs. Ernest Spong Jr’. I don’t have another identity now but being an artist, except perhaps being a grandmother.”

Her initial participation in Columbia’s art scene had not forged an identity as an artist. For one, Spong didn’t hang with the other artists in town. “I didn’t even know any. I was busy. And what I liked was doing it.”

She was and would be for decades between worlds, one the arts, the other, domestic, not a full or fully committed participant in either. “My place was made for me when Ernest brought me over here, but I just didn’t fit in well.” Raised a Methodist, Spong had become an Episcopalian to please the Spongs – she wasn’t planning to go to church a lot anyway, although she did “to take the kids, help them with their morals.” She joined the Junior League only at her mother’s and mother-in-law’s urging, leaving the organization in 1964, a month after the mothers died. “I don’t play bridge, I don’t play golf, I am not big on doing lunch, but it never bothered me that I didn’t fit in.”

Solitary life came natural. Spong, was shy and timid as a child. “Sixteen years through school without saying anything,” she says. And all her life she wondered about the world, the universe, and how things are connected, spiritually and otherwise. “Even as a child, when I scraped my knee, I would study my knee and thought that maybe in my knee cap there’s a little girl studying her knee, and I wondered whether we all were in a giant’s knee, thinking of those possible connections, how everything in life is connected.”

In her late teens, Spong signed up with a Bahai’i group but didn’t participate in anything for fear her parents would find out. In college, she took courses in philosophy, religion, literature, Greek and Latin. She thought the one science course a dead end. “They were telling you how the leaves turn. Well, that doesn’t tell you anything.”

Spong’s art reflected her introspective and reflective nature from day one. At Vanderbilt, seeing images of Van Gogh’s and Gauguin’s work had gotten her fired up. In the early 1950s, a modern art exhibition at the Columbia Museum changed her life, she says. “It certainly seemed like the kind of work I wanted to do, and it came from all over the country. It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen.”

Most of what she knew about modern art, though, including Abstract Expressionism, was by osmosis, and it wasn’t much. But she knew she had no interest in making representational art or communicating the literal. “I have always painted abstract. I have four flower paintings. But then, perhaps the way I paint was my way of staying hidden, of not letting people know what I was thinking.”

“The three main forces in my life,” Spong says, “were my family, taking care of them, later in life my love for art, and all my life the search for God or a spiritual force, artistic energy.” In her early sixties, Spong at last managed to structure her life around making art and, consequently, pursuing existential questions through her art. She had been taking art classes again since the mid-1980s, ditched her pursuit of jobs she didn’t want, bought a house after renting for years, and began to paint. In 1989 and 1990 she had solo shows in Columbia and Tennessee. She married a man who was supportive of her art but not, it turned out, a good fit otherwise, and separated after a year. In 1991, she got a studio at Vista Studios, which for the first time put her in the thick of Columbia’s art scene.

“I was painting by myself in my house, and I felt that wasn’t all that good for me,” Spong says. “I needed interaction with people.” At Vista Studios, she found artists willing to share expertise. Mike Williams told her which brushes to use and introduced her to liquin, which decreases the drying time of oil paint. Bill Jackson showed her how to build good stretchers. Anne Bjork was helpful, too, Spong says, and Heidi Darr-Hope initiated her 1993 solo exhibition at Vista Studio’s gallery space, Gallery 80808.

Getting the studio was a breakthrough. Being around other artists kept Spong informed about exhibition opportunities and led to group-show invitations. And simply being at an art hub gave her more exposure than ever. And so her life as a working artist, and an increasingly renowned one, took off. Spong became a regular at statewide and regional art exhibitions, frequently winning awards. Local media paid attention to her, favorably. She had solo exhibitions in Columbia and elsewhere in South Carolina and at Vanderbilt University. When a local artists’ group, Osmosis, asked her to join and exhibit with them, it gave Spong a real boost of confidence. So did Columbia’s Carol Saunders Gallery’s invitation to show there. Other galleries in South Carolina, Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta followed.

Some thirty five years after her first successful but brief burst onto the Columbia art scene as a novice among some of the area’s most legendary artists, Spong’s halting career came to bloom among artists many decades younger than her. And life as an artist made Spong more at ease and fit in better. “I think that as I have grown older and have been willing to share more with people, I have felt more connected. I am not so worried anymore about what people think about what I think. Now I am older and I want to have a voice.”

Wim Roefs is a free-lance writer, independent curator, and owner of if ART, International Fine Art Services, in Columbia, S.C.

Chronology: Laura Spong

2008-07-02T12:35:00.000-04:00

Antoni, 2007

Oil on canvas

24 x 24 in

$1,300

LAURA SPONG: A CHRONOLOGY Compiled by Wim Roefs

1926

Born in Nashville, Tenn., as Laura Miles on Feb. 20

1946/47

Takes a studio art class at Vanderbilt University, audits another one, and takes an art history class

1948

Graduates cum laude from Vanderbilt University as an English major.

Marries Ernest Maye Spong Jr., on June 4, 1948, and moves to his hometown, Columbia, S.C. Her husband was a general contractor, working first for his father’s company, then for another one.

1949

Gives birth to twin sons Bennett Jared and Blakeney DuBose

1951

Give birth to daughter Mary Katherine

1952

Gives birth to son Ernest Maye III, “Trey”

1954

Gives birth to son Thomas Miles

Mid-1950s

Takes art classes at the Richland Art School at the Columbia Museum of Art on and off until the early 1960s, primarily with Gilmer Petroff but also with J. Bardin and Jean McWorther

1956/57

Joins Columbia Artists’ Guild at Gil Petroff’s urging and will do three stints as the organization’s secretary

1957

In May is with J. Bardin and George W. Gunther one of three award winners at the Columbia Artists’ Guild Spring Exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art. Spong’s winning painting is Three Figures, lacquer on masonite, priced at $75.

Has one work selected for the Guild of S.C. Artists’ 7th Annual Jury Show in November at the Columbia Museum of Art, juried by Lamar Dodd. Among others included were Sigmund Abeles, J. Bardin, Carl Blair, William Halsey, Willard Hirsch, David Van Hook, Nell Lafaye, Corrie McCallum, Gil Petroff, Catherine Rembert, Dorothy Yaghjian and Edmund Yaghjian.

1958

In February is in a three-person exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art with the two other 1957 Columbia Guild Exhibition winners. “Ms. Spong is the surprise member of the trio,” The State (Columbia, S.C.) wrote, “with remarkable paint and structural quality plus a sensitive palette of beautifully harmonious color appeal.”

Has two pieces in a Columbia Artists’ Guild Spring Show at the Columbia Museum of Art: “Mobile Abstract,” priced at $100, and “Spring,” $75, both lacquer on masonite.

Exhibits with J. Bardin at the Nashville Centennial Club. Nashville reviewer Louise LeQuire wrote that Spong was developing a personal style, applying “a somber palette leaning toward grays in a way which adds a dimension of tautness and restraint” in contrast to Bardin’s “extensive use of blues and greens juxtaposed.” Spong’s “technique of lacquer on masonite adds an unifying textural effect to her work. There is a sameness in all the paintings which might become an inhibiting factor. The artist has completed all of her three paintings within the past year, so that perhaps a style has been completely exploited. It will be interesting to see further developments in her work.”

1959

Gives birth to son Joseph Kershaw, “Kerk”

1960

Wins Artist Guild of Columbia Award with Abstract I, lacquer on masonite, priced at $100, at the Guild of S.C. Artists’ 10th Annual Juried Exhibition in November, juried by the former director of the Guggenheim Museum, James Johnson Sweeney. Also had Abstract III ($45) and Abstract VI ($75) in the show. Other prizewinners included J. Bardin (Alt-Lee and Blossom Shop Award), Carl Blair (Carolina Ceramics Award), Robert Courtright (Webb-Rawls Art Center Award), Robert Hunter (Windsor Newton Prize), Merida Frederick (Columbia College Purchase Prize), George Owen (Belk Department Store Award), David Van Hook (Columbia Museum Purchase Award), John M. Waddill (Clemson College Purchase Award) and Edmund Yaghjian (Rose Talbert Paint Company Award).

1961

Wins with George Horn and Nell Lafaye the Columbia Artists’ Guild Spring exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art with Composition No. 10, lacquer on masonite, priced at $150

In October has three-person show with the other two Columbia Guild winners at the Columbia Museum of Art

1960s

Takes care of her family; is a club scout den mother; is a Sunday school and Christian education teacher at Columbia’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral; works most summers for two to eight weeks at Camp Country Lad for boys in Monterey, Tenn., mostly running errands, taking care of sick kids, supervising the dining hall and helping in the kitchen, which she runs in 1968 and 1972. She also volunteers as a docent at the Columbia Museum of Art.

1969

In July takes a job at the S.C. Department of Archives and History, restoring and laminating old documents. Works there for 18 months

1972

Has paintings accepted to the Springs Mills, Guild of S.C. Artists and Columbia Artists’ Guild exhibitions

1973

In January her husband dies.

In February-March is part of exhibition of six Georgia and South Carolina artists at Bailie’s Gallery in Augusta, Ga.

In March takes a job as a recreation specialist at the Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation, first part-time, then full-time. She’ll keep the job until 1983. She is responsible for arts and crafts programs in Columbia city parks, supervising two to four other recreation employees. She also produces special events such as the Earlewood Park Mini-Festival, Christmas Crafts Shows, Halloween Hullaboos and other park festivities and demonstrates crafts mediums at workshops and festivals such as May Fest, Hootenanny and City Fiesta. As a frequent guest for six years on “Columbia A.M.” a local television program, she demonstrates arts and crafts ideas to publicize her department’s programs. In 1979, as the city’s “Employee of the Month,” she receives two passes to the Irwin-Fuller Theatre of her choice and tickets to Hiers Dinner Theatre on Main Street. During her employment with Parks and Recreation, she occasionally takes art classes at the University of South Carolina, including an oil painting class with Jim Steven and ceramics with Bruce Schultze.

Enters painting in Springs Mills annual art competition

In March-April has paintings in the Columbia Artists’ Guild Spring show with, among others, Roy Drasites, Mana Cochran Hewitt, Eva Carter, Suzy Farrell, Harry Hansen, Guy Lipscomb, Jean McWorther, Philip Mullen, John O’Neil, Boyd Saunders, Truman Teed, and Candy Yaghjian. Spong’s lacquer painting Yellow Suspended was priced at $150.

In May donates three paintings to a Heathwood Hall Guild fundraiser that she prices at $30, $100 and $150. She continues to contribute paintings to fundraisers throughout her career, not in the least because, she says, she would “feel so honored that they asked me.”

In July, two weeks after her job became full-time and health insurance kicked in, is diagnosed with breast cancer and has a radical mastectomy

1976

As a crafts specialist is involved with the Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation’s easy-to-make Christmas decorations program

1978

In November enters two paintings in the South Carolina National Bank’s oil painters’ competition

Has an exhibition at the Little Corner Gallery, Rose Talbert Paint Co., at Forest Drive in Columbia. Her 25 paintings ranged in price from $90 to $400, the majority being priced at less than $200. Sells five paintings for a total of $765, $255 of which goes to the gallery. Local reviewer Martha Beaver called the compositions “well thought-out and coordinated” and detected a pattern in one painting that kept her eye “moving from one point to another with excitement.” Spong, the reviewer wrote, “makes cubism easy to understand and a delight for everyone…”

1979

Is selected for the Columbia Museum of Art’s first Guilds Juried Exhibition that includes work from members of the Artists’ Guild of Columbia, the Trenholm Artists Guild, the Dutch Fork Art Association and the Artists Resource Forum. Juror Roy Slade, president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., was unimpressed with many of the submissions, which, he wrote, “showed lack of genuine ability and, too often, (were) derivative in subject matter, technique or style of expression.” He lamented the virtual lack of sculpture, ceramics, fiber and other media as well the many cases of “insensitive presentation” through “over-elaborate or overpowering” frames. Others who made the cut included Nancy Albertson, Angela Bradburn, Eleanor Brown, Eva Carter, Ray Davenport, Toni Elkins, Steve Hewitt, David Lackey, Nell Lafaye, Meg McClean and Wendyth Thomas.

1981

In a Dec. 17 article in The State newspaper, Spong and Rann Ackerman are featured as crafts teachers at the Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation for making nativity scene figures from bottles, bowling pins and other discarded day-to-day items.

1982

Creates an edible mosaic for the Artists’ Guild of Columbia’s supper party on Friday, Jan. 22, at the Columbia Museum of Art. Others creating food art included Mana Hewitt, who created two blue fish from pound-cake, and Meg McClean and Leslie Alexander, who created a food train of beef stick, olives, carrots, oranges, mushrooms, egg yokes and other food items that won best in show.

1983

Resigns from her job at the Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation

1984

Sells her house and rents living space until she buys a new house in 1989

1985

Produces with Margaret Jones Gibbs an Educational Activities Book, a coloring book for children about South Carolina, published by The Greenville (S.C.) News-Piedmont. The next year, Spong and Gibbs produce a similar book for North Carolina, published by Unique Ideas, Inc., in Charlotte, N.C. In the 1980s, Spong also works in a paint store and has a short stint in antiques.

1980s, second half

Takes drawing classes at Columbia College with Steve Nevitt and art classes at the University of South Carolina with Harry Hansen

Paints portraits to generate income, using photos and a projector.

1989

Has an exhibition on the fourth floor of the Seibels Bruce building on Lady Street in Columbia that local reviewer Jeffrey Day said was “worth the trip.” The oil-on-canvas paintings in the show ranged in price from $150 to $850.

1990

In February marries David Johnson; separates from him the next year; divorces in 1993

In July has a solo exhibition at the Cookeville Art Gallery, Cookeville, Tenn., sponsored by the Cumberland Art Society. Prices for her oil-on-canvas paintings ranged from $200 to $800.

1991

Gets a studio at Vista Studios, which was established in 1990 in Columbia’s downtown Vista district. Others working there included Mike Williams, Heidi Darr-Hope, Frances Perkins, Lyn Bell Rose, Robert Kennedy and Anne Bjork.

In the summer returns to Camp Country Lad for boys in Monterey, Tenn., now to be the crafts supervisor. She continues to do so each summer throughout the 1990s.

In September, during Columbia’s Artista Vista art walk, is part of a group show at Vista Studios of artists associated with Trinity Cathedral’s Environmental Task Force. Others in the show included Jim Steven and Eleanor Byrne. Artists showing at other Vista venues, including Meteor Gallery on Lincoln Street, included J. Bardin, Edward Wimberly, Gunar Strazdins and Kim Keats.

1993

Is selected for the annual NBSC Oil Painters’ Open Invitational Exhibition, which opened in March at the Sumter (S.C.) Gallery of Art. Others included were Stephen Chesley, Suzy Farrell and Mildred White.

Has a solo exhibition at Vista Studios during April’s Artista Vista. Her prices ranged from $125 to $900.

Has a solo exhibition of works on paper at the Beckman Art Gallery on Calhoun Street in Columbia

In October is included in the annual Springs Industries Art Show, held at the National Guard Armory in Lancaster. Best of show went to Mike Williams. Other artists included were Stephen Chesley, Jack Gerstner and Scott Hoffman.

1994

Shows at Vista Studios during Vista Lights in November with other Vista Studio artists including Mike Williams, Carol Barks, Bill Jackson, Brent Wahl, Brooks Myers, Janette Grassi, Ruben Gambrell, Robert Kennedy and Brent Davenport

1995

Is part of “Concepts of Drawing,” a January exhibition of Vista Studio artists at the venue’s Gallery 80808. Others in the show included Ethel Brody, Ruben Gambrell and Brent Wahl.

In September–October has an exhibition at the main branch of the Richland County Public Library in Columbia. Prices for oils on canvas varied from $1,200 for a 36” x 36”painting to $450 for 16” x 20”; Spong sold one painting of 24” x 30” for $700.

In October is part of “Six Women Beyond Tara” at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia with Carol Barks, Ethel Brody, Cindi Giddings, Janette Grassi and Frances Perkins

1996

In February has a solo show at the Sumter (S.C.) Gallery of Art. The 22 paintings ranged in price from $300 to $1,400

In March wins third place and $350 in the NBSC Annual Oil Painters Open Invitational Exhibition at the Sumter Gallery of Art, judged by Rick Gruber, then of the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga. Second place winner was Carol Jones White of Sumter, and first place, Lindsay O’Neil of Columbia. Others in the show included Aldwyth, Eva Carter, Stephen Chesley, Ray Davenport, West Fraser, Colin Quashie and Mike Williams. The Sumter Item reviewer called Spong’s awarded painting “clearly the work of a very talented artist.” Spong herself said the painting was “a testament to my willingness and desire to spend large amounts of time arranging the formal elements of painting into an engaging design.”

1997

Wins $75 and an honorable mention in the 19th BB&T–Florence (S.C.) Museum State-Wide Art Competition Exhibition in February. Others in the show included Marcelo Novo, Margaret Carter, Suzy Farrell, Al Beyer and Angela Bradburn.

In April–May has a solo show at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster. Prices ranged from $700 to $1,500.

In April–May has an exhibition with Eddie Bryan at Carol Saunders Gallery in Columbia, which Spong had recently joined

The Schneider Company in Greenville, S.C., adds two of Spong’s paintings to its collection.

1998

In January is included in the 20th BB&T–Florence Museum State-Wide Art Competition Exhibition, won by Mary Bentz Gilkerson. Others in the exhibition included Bryan Hiveley, Ethel Brody, Pat Callahan, Janette Grassi, Dee Hansen, Harry Hansen, Guy Lipscomb, Rose Metz, Marcelo Novo, Carol Pittman, Edward Shmunes and Mike Williams.

In February–March is in “Art for Now,” a group show at Vista Studios with seven other women, including Margaret Carter, Suzy Farrell and Angela Blackburn.

In February–March is part of “Woman Art: A Woman’s Commitment To Art,” a group show at Columbia College in Columbia that also included Cass Brucker, Deborah Lengel, Frances Perkins, Lindsay O’Neil and Janette Grassi.

In March wins third place and $350 in the NBSC 17th Annual Oil Painters’ Open Invitational Exhibition at the Sumter Gallery of Art. First place winner was Ann Anrrich. Other winners were Jennifer Lynn Smith, Stephen Chesley, James Innes and Frances Perkins.

A March article in the Free Times weekly in Columbia by Teri Tynes calls Spong “one of the Midland’s hottest painters” because of the flurry of exhibitions she’s in. The exhibitions show Spong’s “numerous talents,” Tynes wrote. “In most of her work a family of colors dominates the canvas… The end result is a sophisticated and complicated visual image.”

In the spring joins Hodges-Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, N.C.

Forms the artists’ group Osmosis with Eileen Blyth, Michael Dickens, Jeff Donovan, J. Christopher MatyJasik and Tom Ogburn

1999

Is selected for the Florence Museum’s 21st State-Wide Art Competition Exhibition, won by Mary Bentz Gilkerson. Others in the show included Deane Ackerman, Pat Callahan, Tom Flowers, Janette Grassi, Steven Jordan, Rose Metz and Boyd Saunders.

Is part of “Ninefold Journey: Women’s Views – The Winter Exhibit” at Wake Forest University with Susan B. Bidwell, Carol Weisberg Burgess, Maggie Clark, Lynn B. Hutchins, Dottie Moore, Marianne Mylet, Elsie Dinsmore Popkin and B.F. Reed. Prices of Spong’s oil-on-canvas paintings ranged from $800 to $3,000.

In March has an exhibition with Osmosis at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia. In “Against the Grain,” the group shows woodcut prints, a new medium to many of the participants, including Spong, who told reviewer Teri Tynes that at first “she fussed, kicked and screamed through the whole thing.” Tynes in Free Times wrote that Spong’s pieces “evoke the respect for the fragments found in nature and the imagination.” The exhibition traveled to the University of South Carolina Lancaster in September–October.

In October has one painting accepted for “Fall for the Arts,” an exhibition organized by the Sumter County (S.C.) Cultural Commission

Is selected for the juried traveling exhibition of the South Carolina State Fair Juried Art Exhibition, which traveled to six venues from November 1999 through August 2000.

2000

In January–February has a solo show, “Fragments of the Whole,” at the University of South Carolina Sumter. The prices of her work range from $800 to $3,500.

In March is part of “Eight at 80808,” a group show of work by women artists, at Gallery 80808 in Columbia. Others in the show are Suzy Farrell, Angela Bradburn, Frances Nelson, Margaret Carter, Laura Dickson, Anna Kay Singley, and Bev. T. Williams.

In February–March is selected for the Florence Museum of Art’s 22nd “State-Wide Art Competition Exhibition.” Others selected included Deanne Ackerman, Pat Callahan, Toni Elkins, Mary Gilkerson, Steven Jordan, Guy Lipscomb, Rose Metz, Alex Powers, Boyd Saunders and Edward Shmunes.

In April–May shows with Osmosis in the Blue Pony Gallery in Charlotte, N.C., with the exhibition “Against the Grain”

In August–December is part of the “Expressions Art Exhibit” at Davidson County Community College in Lexington, N.C. Other artists in the show included Teresa Prater, Eileen Blyth, Eleanor Craig and Jeff Donovan.

In September–October has an exhibition with basketmaker Clay Burnette at Carol Saunders Gallery in Columbia

In October–November is part of Osmosis’ second group exhibition, “3 x 6”, a show of triptychs at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. The show traveled to Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, in August–October 2001.

Is selected for the juried traveling exhibition of the South Carolina State Fair Art Exhibition, which in December starts a tour of six venues. Others selected include Will Barnes, Betty Bramlett, Chris Robinson and Alvin Staley.

2001

In May joins the new Fish or Cut Bait Gallery in Edisto, S.C.

In May–June has a solo exhibition in the Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., her alma mater. Prices for her oil on canvas ranged from $900 for 24” x 30” to $5,000 for 48” x 58”.

In September is the guest artist of the Guild of Charlotte (N.C.) artists, where she presents a slide presentation

In the fall joins I. Pinckney Simons Gallery in Beaufort, S.C.

2002

In March is part of another “Eight at 80808” show of women artists at Gallery 80808 in Columbia

Is selected for the 21st NBSC Annual Oil Painters’ Open Invitational Exhibition, which opens in February at the Sumter Gallery of Art and travels to half a dozen other venues. First place winner was Alvin Staley. Others in show included Al Beyer, Ray Davenport, Colin Dodd, Jon Nelson and Kizzi Alicia Staley.

2003

Is among the artists whose work is purchased for Midlands Technical College’s new Center of Excellence for Technology in Columbia. Phil Moody, Philip Mullen and Mike Williams were the others.

In September is part of an art sale benefit for the S.C. Philharmonic at Vista Studios in Columbia. Others artist involved included David Yaghjian, Liisa Salosaari Jasinski, Mike Williams and Susan Dingman.

In September is part of “Papier – Paper – Papyrus,” a group show at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia with Lynne Burgess, Richard Conn, Jeff Donovan, Liis Salosaari Jasinski, Gene Speer and Mike Williams.

2004

Has a solo show at the Conn Gallery in Landrum, S.C., January through early March

Wins $100 for an Honorable Mention in NBSC’s 22nd Annual Oil Painters’ Open Invitational Exhibition, which opens at the Sumter Gallery of Art in February and travels to four more venues. Other winners are Dennis Snell, Kaytee Esser, Nancy Davidson, Alvin Staley and John Nelson. Spong’s work is one of the few abstracts in the show.

Is among the artists whose work is acquired for the new Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Others artists included were Mike Williams, Virginia Scotchie, David J.P. Hooker, Peter Lenzo, Tyrone Geter, Jean McWorther, Blue Sky and the One Eared Cow glass blowers.

2005

Wins first place and $800 in NBSC’s 23rd Annual Oil Painters’ Open Invitational Exhibition, which opens at the Sumter Gallery of Art in February and travels to four more venues. Other winners were Deborah Tidwell-Holzcheiter, Al Beyer, Jim Finch, Barbara Alston Yongue and Alvin Staley.

Is selected for the April exhibition “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a juried exhibition to raise funds for the S.C. Philharmonic, at Vista Studios in Columbia. Others in the show included Jason Amick, Jill Allen & Andrew Hayes, Stephen Chesley, Pat Gilmartin, Susan Lenz and David Yaghjian.

In October joins Gallery 5 in Rock Hill, S.C.

2006

In February is in an exhibition with Ruth Franklin at Vinson Gallery in Decatur, Ga.

In February has her 80th birthday celebration exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, organized by if ART, International Fine Art Services of Columbia. Simultaneously, she has an exhibition at Carol Saunders Gallery in Columbia.

In May–June is part of a group exhibition at Fish or Cut Bait Gallery in Edisto, S.C., with the group of women painters from Columbia that she has exhibited with regularly

In July has a retrospective exhibition at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery, curated by gallery director Mana Hewitt

Biography: Laura Spong

2008-07-01T18:31:00.003-04:00

LAURA SPONG (American, b. 1926)

Laura Spong (American, b. 1926) is among South Carolina's best non-objective painters. Except for a few urban landscape scenes, still lifes and figurative paintings, mostly done as art-class assignments in the 1950s, Spong has always produced non-representational, Abstract Expressionist paintings. In the last few years, Spong has dramatically increased her reputation in her state and beyond with a series of solo exhibitions and several group shows, including a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. Her 80th-birthday exhibition in 2006, organized by if ART Gallery in Columbia, S.C., came with a 32-page catalogue, Laura Spong at 80: Warming the Chill Wind with Celebration. In 2007, a dozen of Spong’s paintings were in a group exhibition at the Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art, which bought one of her works. That same year, the South Carolina State Museum purchases two of Spong paintings, one recent and one from the 1950s In 2006, the South Carolina State Art Collection had also purchased two of her paintings, including one from the 1950s. Spong’s recent leap forward in acclaim has renewed interest in her work from the 1950s and 1960s both among private collectors and in the museum world. In 2007, if ART Gallery organized an exhibition of Spong's early works.

Abstracted in Nature: March 21-April 1, 2008

2008-03-10T19:03:00.001-04:00

if ART

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

ABSTRACTED IN NATURE:

Reiner Mährlein – Silvia Rudolf – Laura Spong

March 21 – April 1, 2008

Artists’ Reception: Friday, March 21, 5 – 10 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its March exhibition, if ART presents at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios Abstracted In Nature, featuring Columbia artist Laura Spong and German artists Reiner Mährlein and Silvia Rudolf. Spong will present a new series of her non-objective paintings. The work includes Good Report, Bad Report, No Report, a 2007 composite painting of 100 x 80 inches, consisting of 25 paintings of 20 x 16 inches each, arranged in a five-by-five grid. Rudolf will show non-objective and abstracted, figurative paintings and drawings. Mährlein will show large and small metal-and-granite sculptures as well as one-of-a-kind rust prints and embossings.

Mährlein (German, b. 1959) is a widely acclaimed artist in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. He is part of a regular exchange between artists from Columbia and its German sister city, Kaiserslautern. Mährlein studied art in Nuremberg and at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieur de Beaux-Arts in Paris. He has created large, public sculptures throughout his home region and has exhibited widely throughout Europe. The medium for both of Mährlein’s art forms is granite and steel. Mährlein creates the prints by pressing rusty steel plates against paper and paper against granite surfaces. This results in abstract works with a rich and rough, three-dimensional and architectural feel.

Rudolf (German, b. 1957), who received her art education in Kaiserslautern, lived in Argentina between 1994 and 2000. There, she founded the artist group “transit.” In the past two years, she has lived in New York. Her work has been in solo and group exhibitions in Germany, the United States, Argentina and several other European and Latin American countries. Group shows include the first Biennale of Modern Art at the Museo de las Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her solo shows include one at the Museos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Columbia, S.C., artist Laura Spong (b. 1926) is among South Carolina’s most prominent non-objective painters. In the past two years, Spong has further increased her reputation with four solo exhibitions, including a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. For her 2006 exhibition, Laura Spong at 80, Columbia’s if ART published a 32-page catalogue. In addition to the S.C. State Art Collection, Spong’s work was purchased recently by the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art and the S.C. State Museum. Three of her paintings also are in the Contemporary Carolina Collection, which was established in 2008 at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Ashley River Tower in Charleston.

DROP DEAD DIVA PAINTINGS

2008-03-05T17:55:00.000-05:00

Works by Laura Spong that were featured on the set of the Lifetime Network show Drop Dead Diva

My Wave Length, 2006
Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., $ 3,100

Duality Of The Heart, 1996, oil on canvas
58 x 96 in. (triptych)
Two outside panels: 58 x 24 in. each
Center panel: 58 x 48 in., $ 13, 500

Beyond Bias, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $ 3,350

8 Squared, 2008, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., $ 2,350

Countdown to 10, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in, $3,350

Murky Entrance, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $ 3,350

Obscure Lamentation, 2007, oil on canvas
40 x 30 in., $ 3,100

Wind On The Highway, 2003
Oil on canvas, 58 x 48 in., $ 6,750

Still Screaming, 2007, oil on canvas
58 x 48 in, $6,750

Dispelling The Gloom, 2007, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in. $ 3,350

Almost Over, 2008, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in., $ 900

Essay: Laura Spong: Good Report, Bad Report, No Report

2008-03-03T15:30:00.002-05:00

LAURA SPONG
By Wim Roefs
March 2008

Laura Spong’s painting Good Report, Bad Report, No Report shows an artist in the prime of her artistic life – at age 82. The painting measures 100 x 80 inches and consists of a vertical grid of 25 paintings, hung in five rows of five. The painting shows the breadth of Spong’s artistic language, incorporating different pallets, forms, compositions and a wide range of marks. In the process, it also shows both the aesthetic variety and consistency in the painter’s work.

While Spong was working on the 25 paintings, she never thought about making them fit together, even though she meant for them to become one composite work. Yet, the pieces hang together beautifully, as if each was painted with the others in mind. The painting is evidence of a mature painter with a consistent, personal language that comes across regardless of her approach to individual pieces. This is true for Spong’s other work of the past few years, too.

“I always wanted to make a big painting without having to deal with a big canvas,” Spong says. “I thought that 58 x 48 inches was about as big a canvas I could handle. Once I started doing this, it was a lot of fun.”

Spong painted most of the panels in Good Report, Bad Report, No Report in the summer of 2007. She had no knowledge then of the pending cancer scare she would experience in the fall, though in hindsight she suspects the work anticipated the scare. “I operate on three levels,” she says, “the conscious, the sub-conscious and a third level. Even on a subconscious level, I think you still have some idea of what’s going on, but I really didn’t, even though I think now I suspected something.”

“When you are dealing with problems, every time you go to the doctor, even when you’re apprehensive, you think you’re fine, that you’re not scared and upset. Then you get the results, and even when they are positive, you realize that you’ve been scared to death. In hindsight, I think the painting is full of creatures. That’s what I am seeing in them.”

That Spong is seeing things in her work is remarkable. Here’s a painter who, only half-jokingly, would threaten to paint over her typically non-objective paintings if a viewer claimed to see representational elements in them. “I’ve always had a form in there that resembles the Easter Island heads,” Spong says. “I can detect that in my work as far back as I can see. But that’s all I could see. Now I am seeing all these things. I guess that after the fact I was looking for an emotional content in the work because I was dealing with emotional issues.”

“I came up with the title after I was through with the work and knew I had run into a new medical problem. The name covers the next five years, you know.”

Laura Spong 2006-2011 – Age As An Administrative Device

2008-01-28T15:36:00.215-05:00

Check back again later as we add more images for the preview of Laura Spong's upcoming exhibition, which celebrates her 85th birthday.

For more information about the exhibition, CLICK HERE.
To see images of the exhibition installed, CLICK HERE.

For prices please go to the Works of Art: Laura Spong section on the right side of this page.

Why?, 2010, oil on canvas, triptych, 60 x 144 in.
(60 x 48 in. each)

Once In A Green Moon, 2010, oil on canvas
Triptych, 40 x 90 in. (40 x 30 in. each)

19 1/2 Years of Painting, 2010, oil on canvas
30 x 30 in.

A Light Sketch, 2010, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

Disavowed, 2010, oil on canvas
14 x 11in.

Discussions are Better, 2010, oil on canvas
18 x 18 in.

Entic, 2010, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in.

Fish Pond, 2010, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in.

For the Day Shift, 2010, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

In the Midst of a Long Fall, 2010, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.

Jamboree, 2010, oil on canvas
48 x 36 in., SOLD

No Paths on Water, 2010, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in., SOLD

Red Squares, 2010, oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.

Remember the Future, 2010
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Xenophobia (Z Series) , 2010,
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

Zany (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zap (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zareeba Zeal Diptych (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas,
diptych, 20 x 32 in. (20 x 16 in. each), SOLD

Zealot (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in., SOLD

Zenith (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zephyr (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zero (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zest (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zestful Zombie Zucchini Triptych (Z Series), 2010
Oil on canvas, 20 x 48 in, (20 x 16 in. each), triptych

Zig Zag (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zillion (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zing (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zip Zone Diptych (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
diptych, 20 x 32 in. (20 x 16 in. each)

Zipper (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zither (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zoomzoo Diptych (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
Diptych, 20 x 32 in. ( 20 x 16 in. each)

Zoot Suit (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zounds (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Zippy (Z Series), 2010, oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.

Take a Walk, 2010, oil on canvas
40 x 30 in., SOLD

Taunt, 2010, oil on canvas, 14 x 11 in.

The Chief is Dead, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

The Rainbow Children, 2007-09, Oil on canvas
24 x 30 in.

Is This for Real?, 2010, oil on canvas
40 x 30 in.

Deep Down, 2006,
Oil on canvas. 36 x 18 in.

Time Lies, 2010, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

Tranquil, 2010, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in.

Viva la Vista, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

We All Live Downstream, 2010,
Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in., SOLD

We Create our Own Experience, 2010, oil on canvas
30 x 30 in.

Well Almost, 2010, oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in., SOLD

West of Eden, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Refreshing As Lemonade, 2009, oil on canvas
24 x 24 in., SOLD

Sunless Riddle, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

When Did We All Get To Be Pink?, 2009
Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in., SOLD

Refreshed, 2010, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in.

Lights Of The Night, 2007, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in.

Antoni, 2007, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Study The Stones As You, 2010, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.

Redo, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Speak For Myself, 2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

Send In The Clowns, 2009, oil on canvas
24 x 24 in.

On The Brink Of The Void, 2010
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., SOLD

It May Be That I'll Not Climb The Hill, 2010
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., SOLD

Waltz To The Door, 2009
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., SOLD

Whirligig, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
SOLD

And Don't Come Back, 2010, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.

Smelling Of The Cave, 2006-09, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in., $2,900

Equal Goby, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Shake And Pour, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Odyssey, 2007, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Restored, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Have I Already Told You This?, 2007
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Dune Changes, 2009, oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.

Embarking, 2008, oil on canvas
36 x 24 in.

Sidewalk Trauma, 2007, oil on canvas
24 x 36 in., SOLD

Time Takes Flight, 2008, oil on canvas
40 x 50 in.

Spring Undercurrent, 2007-09
Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in.

Lenient, 2005-06, oil on canvas
40 x 50 in.

Amiable, 2007, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Doubtful, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

Winging It All Summer, 2010
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

With Anna's Help, 2006, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

Essay: Laura Spong: The Early Works

2007-08-23T15:03:00.000-04:00

LAURA SPONG: THE EARLY WORKS
by Wim Roefs
August 2007

Laura Spong has made a great leap forward in popularity and acclaim, beginning with her 80th-birthday exhibition in 2006. Recent successes also have generated interest in her early work. Several early paintings were in Spong’s 2006 retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. The South Carolina State Art Collection acquired her late 1950s painting White Flowers, along with Dancing Under The Street Light of 2003. The Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art earlier this year included eight of her 1950s and 1960s paintings in a group show, along with four major recent works. The museum has just acquired Spong’s 2007 painting Is It After Me Again? It hopes for an early work, too.

Among the early paintings in Greenville were City Street and Red Barns, both c. 1957, as well as Ice Floe and several untitled works from 1959-1965. The paintings, which are included in the current show, are of their time, both stylistically and in the use of lacquer on masonite and of sand and sawdust to create texture. But they also show that Spong brought considerable sophistication to her work early on.

Her use of sawdust is more than a gimmicky distraction. Ice Floe is a wonderfully appealing and accomplished abstraction suggesting representation. Red Barns is lively despite its flatness and limited pallet. Bottles, too, shows that Spong could make a flat composition with few colors sing.

Some of these paintings indicate that Spong walked the line between abstraction and representation with relative ease. Not that she walked it a lot; Spong never went through a truly representational phase. She only painted a handful of still lifes, city scenes and such. Most of them were assignments at the Columbia Museum of Art’s Richland Art School, where Spong began taking classes in the mid-1950s, especially from Gil Petroff. Bottles was painted in a class taught by local legend J. Bardin, who was somewhat taken aback by Spong’s rearrangement of the bottles he so carefully placed.

Spong is unsure what influenced her work at the time but knows she was never interested in creating representational, literal scenes. In the 1940s she had taken a few studio art and art history classes at Vanderbilt University. The real eye opener was a mid-fifties show of modern art at the Columbia Museum. Overall, her knowledge of modern art was sketchy.

Success came fast nevertheless. Spong won Columbia Artists’ Guild exhibitions in 1957 and 1961. She won an award in the Guild of South Carolina Artists’ annual show in 1960. Personal circumstances prevented her from painting and exhibiting with any frequency in the next quarter century. But the few remaining works from her early oeuvre show the promise she would fulfill decades later.

Laura Spong: The Early Years: August 21- September 8, 2007

2007-08-21T18:40:00.001-04:00

GREENVILLE MUSEUM ACQUIRES PAINTING BY

COLUMBIA ARTIST LAURA SPONG

LAURA SPONG: THE EARLY WORKS

NOW SHOWING at if ART Gallery

through September 8

The Greenville County (S.C.) Museum of Art has acquired Columbia artist Laura Spong’s 2007 painting Is It After Me? The painting is oil on canvas and measures 48 x 58 inches. The painting was included in the recent Greenville Museum exhibition Studio Visits and was featured on the cover of the museum’s June membership newsletter. The purchase went through if ART Gallery in Columbia, which represents Spong (b. 1926).

The Greenville Museum purchase follows last year’s acquisition of two Spong paintings by the South Carolina State Art Collection, which purchased Spong’s late-1950s painting White Flowers and Dancing Under The Street Light of 2003.

Meanwhile, if ART Gallery is showing Laura Spong: The Early Works. The exhibition, which runs through September 8, consists mainly of paintings by Spong from the 1950s and 1960s. Attached is an essay by if ART owner Wim Roefs with more information about Spong and her work from that period.

In September, Spong will be in The Fame Factor, a group show at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia organized by if ART Gallery. The exhibition will explore the concept of fame, especially the relativity of fame. The show will include limited edition prints by world famous artists, including lithographs by Joan Mitchell, Karel Appel, Lynn Chadwick, Wilfredo Lam and Bram van Velde.

In addition to Spong, the exhibition – which opens on September 7 and runs through September 18–also will include South Carolinians Leo Twiggs, Edward Rice and Virginia Scotchie. Other American artists in the show are Richard Hunt, Benny Andrews, Ibram Lassaw, Paul Reed, John Hultberg and Sam Middleton, an American artist who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s. Dutch artists in addition to Appel will be Corneille, Ger Lataster, Hannes Postma, Kees Salentijn and Lucebert. Furthermore, the show will present French artist Jacques Doucet and Belgian artist Reinhoud.

Several paintings in the current Spong exhibition of early works at if ART Gallery were included in the Greenville Museum’s Studio Visits exhibition, which ran from April 18 – June 10. The Greenville exhibition also included if ART Gallery artists David Yaghjian of Columbia and Dorothy Netherland of Charleston, S.C., as well as David Boatwright of Charleston and Alexia Timberlake and Jay Owens, both of Greenville.

In addition to her 80th-birthday exhibition in February 2006, Spong had three solo exhibitions last year, including one at Hampton III Gallery in Greenville and a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. Spong also was in a two-person show at the Vinson Gallery in Atlanta. In February of this year, Spong was with Katie Walker, Paul Reed and Mike Williams in a group show at Columbia’s Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, organized by if ART Gallery. Next month, Spong’s work will be in a group show at Elder Art in Charlotte, N.C., and in October, she will have a solo exhibition at Francis Marion University.

For more information, please contact Wim Roefs at if ART Gallery.

Laura Spong 2006-2011 installation at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808

2007-02-11T14:59:00.009-05:00

Essay: Laura Spong: Abstract in Nature

2007-02-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

LAURA SPONG
by Wim Roefs
February 2007

In 2006, Laura Spong had four solo exhibitions. They included a retrospective at the University of South Carolina and a wildly successful 80th-birthday exhibition that might have set a sales record for a solo show in Columbia, S.C., especially for a local artist. Helped further by her inclusion in several group shows, Spong certainly broke her own sales record for a year by a wide margin.

A well-received, 32-page catalogue accompanied her 80th-birthday exhibition. It detailed her remarkable life and career, discussed the context of that career and evaluated her art. “The other day I read the essays in the catalogue again,” Spong says, “and I had a hard time believing it was about me.” With the commercial success came critical acclaim. The South Carolina State Art Collection acquired two of Spong’s paintings, and later this year she’ll be in a group show at the Greenville (S.C.) County Museum of Art.

The acclaim has liberated Spong. For years she has painted with workman-like regularity, routinely keeping daily hours at her studio. For years she also has painted with a sense of urgency, not so much because of age but because those paintings don’t paint themselves and she gets out of sorts if she doesn’t work. To this work ethic and passion, the recent success has added new confidence, and Spong has been hitting it on all cylinders since, producing gem after gem.

“I have been inspired and energized,” says Spong. “I think the work is freer. It has a sense of letting loose, of just painting and not obsessing about every little line and dot.” The work has changed some, without losing any of the Spong imprint. While maintaining the lyrical quality of her work and the fluid lines, Spong’s paintings have become more aggressive and daring.
The breaks in the planes are sharper, the marks at times more forceful, and the scribbles more abundant and perhaps livelier. More often than before, Spong has explored an earthier, even dark pallet. More often also she has limited her pallet, even producing somewhat monochromatic paintings.

Above all, these developments suggest an increased confidence as Spong further expands her range. But, she says, sometimes they indicate her disposition. “I am not depressed, but I do feel pessimistic about the situation in the world. Still, at times I feel great hope, too. My hope comes from my faith, but when I am not in that mode, I go dark. I get into fears of the future, of losing my independence and my health, and fear about the people I love.”

“I think the paintings are more interesting,” Spong says. “I think I am getting more layers and more depth. My biggest fear has been that I would just paint a pretty piece of cloth.”

Abstract in Nature: February 9-20, 2007

2007-01-26T18:21:00.001-05:00

if ART, International Fine Art Services

presents at

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady St., Columbia, S.C.

A b s t r a c t I n N a t u r e:

Featuring

Washington Color Field Great

PAUL REED

and

South Carolina’s

LAURA SPONG

KATIE WALKER

MIKE WILLIAMS

Feb. 9 – 20, 2007

Artists’ Reception:

Friday, Feb. 9, 5 – 10 p.m.

Contact Wim Roefs at if ART:(803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its February exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, S.C., if ART, International Fine Art Services, presents Abstract In Nature, a group exhibition with work by South Carolina artists Laura Spong, Mike Williams and Katie Walker as well as renowned first-generation Washington Color Field painter Paul Reed. The show consists of abstract paintings by Reed, Spong and Walker and abstract metal sculpture by Williams. The exhibition opens Friday, Feb. 9, with a reception from 5:00 –10:00 p.m. and runs through Feb. 20. Opening hours are weekdays, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Sundays 1:00 ¬ – 5:00 p.m. Reed, Spong and Walker are represented by Columbia’s if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln St., (803) 238-2351, which also shows sculpture by Williams.

Washington, D.C., native Paul Reed, (b. 1919) in 1965-1966 was one of the six painters in The Washington Color Painters, the first nationally traveling exhibition of Washington Color Field paintings. The other five painters were Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Gene Davis, Howard Mehring and Tom Downey. Reed’s work is in dozens of museums across the country, including the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Museum of American Art, all in D.C., the Detroit Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum in Hartford, Conn., the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. In South Carolina, his work is in the Greenville County Museum of Art and the Columbia Museum of Art, whose acquisition of two Paul Reed paintings was facilitated by if ART owner Wim Roefs. Reed’s work has been in more than 100 solo and group shows, including Modernism & Abstraction: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which traveled nationally from 2000-2002.

Columbia’s Laura Spong (b. 1926) enjoyed her most successful year in 2006, both in terms of sales and critical acclaim. Spong sold more than 30 paintings from her 80th birthday solo exhibition at Gallery 80808 in February 2006, which was accompanied by a 32-page catalogue published by if ART. Spong also had solo exhibitions last year at Carol Saunders Gallery in Columbia and Greenville’s Hampton III Gallery, as well as a retrospective at the University of South Carolina’s McMaster Gallery. She was in a two-person show at Atlanta’s Vinson Gallery and in several group exhibitions in North and South Carolina. In April, she’ll be in a group exhibition at the Greenville County Museum of Art that also will include if ART Gallery artist David Yaghjian.

Greenville’s Katie Walker (b. 1970) was in the 2005 Florence, Italy, Biennale, and recently has been in exhibitions at the Upstairs Gallery in Tryon, N.C., Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, the Spartanburg (S.C.) Museum of Art, the Carillon Building in Charlotte, N.C., the Artbomb in Greenville and Brookgreen Gardens in Pawley’s Island, S.C. She was included in New American Paintings No. 40, 2002. Walker holds a BFA in Studio Art from Furman University and an MFA from the University of Georgia.

Sumter native and Columbia resident Mike Williams (b. 1963) recently had a major solo exhibition at Columbia College in Columbia, S.C. Williams is among the state’s most-acclaimed painters and sculptors. In recent years he has had solo exhibitions at Pawleys Island Cheryl Newby Gallery, I. Pinckney Simons Gallery in Beaufort, S.C., and at Newberry College in Newberry, S.C, Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., and the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C.

if ART Gallery Opening: November 2006

2006-11-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

Odyssey, 2006

Oil on canvas

20 x 20 in

$875

OPEN NOW:

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln St.

Columbia, S.C.

Gallery Hours:

Most days, except Sunday, from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

& by appointment (call 803-238-2351)

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

On Nov. 10, 2006, if ART, International Fine Art Services, opened if ART Gallery. The gallery is at 1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, S.C., in the Vista district, across from the Blue Marlin restaurant. For more information, contact if ART’s Wim Roefs at (803) 238-2351 or wroefs@sc.rr.com.

If ART Gallery carries the work of South Carolina artists Leo Twiggs, Mike Williams, Carl Blair, Tom Stanley, Virginia Scotchie, Tonya Gregg, Peter Lenzo, Jeff Donovan, David Yaghjian, Anna Redwine, John Monteith, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Paul Yanko, Laura Spong, Steven Chapp, Katie Walker, Edward Rice, Aaron Baldwin, Bill Jackson, Herb Parker, Dorothy Netherland, Eric Miller, Mary Gilkerson, Matt Overend, Kim Keats and Phil Garrett. The gallery also carries work by Dutch artist Kees Salentijn, German artists Reiner Mahrlein, Roland Albert and Klaus Hartmann, and Washington Color Field painter Paul Reed.

The gallery also carries a wide selection of unframed and lithographs, silkscreens, etchings and other limited edition prints by such nationally and even internationally prominent artists such as Karel Appel, Richard Hunt, Bram van Velde, John Hultberg, Sam Middleton, Benny Andrews, Hannes Postma, Corneille, Lucebert and Alvin Hollingsworth.

Since March 2005, if ART, International Fine Art Services, has organized commercial gallery exhibitions in Columbia, mostly at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808. In addition to presenting gallery artists and special exhibitions at if ART Gallery, if ART will continue to organize exhibitions at Vista Studios/Gallery 80808. The company also provides curatorial and exhibition design services.

Most recently, in September, if ART was hired by the Technical College of the Lowcountry to install dozens of art works at the college’s new building in Bluffton, S.C. Earlier this year, if ART installed two exhibitions of work from the South Carolina state art collection at the Sumter (S.C.) Gallery of Art. The if ART production “South Carolina Birds: A Fine Art Exhibition,” curated by company owner Wim Roefs, is at the Pickens County Museum of Art & History until Nov. 11, 2006. The exhibition opened in 2004 at the Sumter Gallery of Art and traveled to the Burroughs & Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, S.C. Roefs wrote the essay for the exhibition catalogue, which he also edited.

In 2005, Roefs curated exhibitions of work by Leo Twiggs and Carl Blair for the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, S.C. He also curated an exhibition of paintings by Marcelo Novo for HoFP Gallery in Columbia, S.C., and wrote the essay for the exhibition catalogue. Earlier this year, Roefs curated an exhibition with work by Dutch artist Kees Salentijn for the Center of the Arts in Rock Hill, S.C. In May, he curated an indoors/outdoors sculpture exhibition for the city of Dillon, S.C.

Roefs contributed an essay to the catalogue for the exhibition “A Collection for Margaret: The Personal and Private Art of Carl Blair.” The exhibition is on view at Hampton III Gallery in Greenville until Nov. 11. Roefs teaches a course in African-American art at the University of South Carolina.

Since March 2005, if ART has published eight small exhibition catalogues. The catalogues featured short essays by Roefs about Aaron Baldwin, Mike Williams, Anna Redwine, Tom Stanley, Carl Blair, Janet Orselli, Matt Overend, Laura Spong, Leo Twiggs, Jeff Donovan, John Monteith, Dorothy Netherland, Herb Parker and Phil Garrett and Mary Gilkerson and the process of making monotypes.

Conversation, 2007

Oil on canvas

24 x 30 in

$1, 600

Preview of Laura Spong: Still Screaming: February 5-17, 2009

2006-11-03T15:20:00.002-05:00

For prices see Works of Art: Laura Spong on the right of this page.

It Was A Good Year, 2008

Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 in., SOLD

Maybe, 2008, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in.

Unmasked, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Remains Of 8's II, 2008

Oil on canvas, 8 x 8 in., SOLD

Dreaming Blue, 2007, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Jump The Fence, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

School’s Out, 2008, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in., SOLD

Remnants Of A Circus Dream, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in., SOLD

Beyond Bias, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Ease Out, 2007, oil on canvas, 14 x 14 in.

Dispelling The Gloom, 2007, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

At Sea, 2008
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

Still Screaming, 2007
Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in

245 Days = 8 Cycles Of The Moon, 2008

Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., SOLD

Murky Entrance, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

My Mom Sent Me Over, 2008
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

A Chance Reflection, 2008

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., SOLD

In The Distance Was Singing, 2008

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Pigs In A Blanket, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

The Costs Are Mounting, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Game Time, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

My Kid Can Do Better, 2008

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Yellow Vapors, 2008

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

Grubby Storks, 208

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Limbo, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Yes We Can, 2009, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in.

Eagle Gone, n.d.

Oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in.

Well, Anyhow, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in

Beyond Gravity, 2008

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD

Finger Friendly, n.d., oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in., SOLD

Watching The River, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Soup, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

Mostly It’s A Journey, 2008
Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.

Laura Spong's Work in Drop Dead Diva

2006-11-02T14:28:00.003-05:00

The following works by Laura Spong appear on Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva:

My Wave Length, 2006
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 in.
$ 2,700

Murky Entrance, 2008
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.
$ 2,900

Wind On The Highway, 2003

Oil on canvas

58 x 48 in.

$ 6, 250

Still Screaming, 2007
Oil on canvas
58 x 48 in
$6,250

Obscure Lamentation, 2007
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 in.
$ 2,700

Duality Of The Heart, 1996

Oil on canvas

58 x 96 in. (triptych)

Two outside panels: 58 x 24 in. each

Center panel: 58 x 48 in.

$ 11, 500

Beyond Bias, 2008
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 in.
$ 2,900

8 Squared, 2008

Oil on canvas

30 x 30 in.

$ 2,025