PAST PORTMAN GALLERY EXHIBITIONS
Little Things
Juried Open Call Exhibition
of Small Works
October 29 - November 22, 2024
An eclectic selection of 70 pieces of “little” art will dance across the walls of the Portman Gallery at Glynn Visual Arts (GVA) in its newest exhibition, “Little Things,”
Twenty-nine coastal artists are invited to present up to three pieces – each one no larger than 12 inches in any dimension. Mixed media, acrylics, beads, ceramics, oils, watercolors, photography, pastels, clay, embroidery, collage and more will be part of the show.
The old saying, “Good things come in small packages,” definitely applies to this collection. “A creative and moving piece of art does not necessarily fill a big space,” said Barbara Northrup, a GVA Board Member who helped curate the art for this show. “Small art draws you in for closer inspection and contemplation” she said.
Art lovers may find just the right piece for themselves or as a gift for the upcoming holiday season. “Little Things” original art is priced from just $45 to $450.
Together Again, for the First Time
A Multi-Media Fiber Arts Exhibition
September 10 - October 25, 2024
An expressive collection of fiber arts is coming to the Portman Fine Art Gallery at Glynn Visual Arts in an installation titled Together Again, for the First Time. Six accomplished artists from Georgia and Florida will showcase a variety of pieces from contemporary to traditional style in media ranging from applique (often referred to as painting with fabric) to collage, sculpture, art quilts, and more.
Collectively, these artists have studied, taught, and worked in the arts across America. They are K. Joy Ballard Peters, Janet Saboor, Tae Jackson, Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks, Aisha Lumumba, and Sandra Teepen. Much of the vibrant art provides a study in color and texture; some celebrates family, culture, and history; and others focus on social messaging, advancing art focused on African American imagery and life experiences.
Joy of Life: Linda Bobinger
June 18 - July 26, 2024
"The Joy of Life," featuring a captivating retrospective of Linda Bobinger's remarkable sculptures. The exhibition will run from June 18 to July 26, 2024, providing art enthusiasts and the local community with a unique opportunity to delve into the evolution of Bobinger's artistic journey.
Linda Bobinger's artistry transcends time, offering a window into her creative evolution from the past to the present. A defining characteristic of her work is the seamless progression of influences from her earlier sculptures to her current creations. Central to her artistic exploration, her work has been the enduring inspiration drawn from Henri Matisse's timeless masterpiece, "The Joy of Life."
Renowned for his vibrant compositions and expressive use of color, Matisse's paintings have served as a muse for Bobinger throughout her career. Particularly resonant are Matisse's depictions of female figures, which have captivated Bobinger's imagination and found expression in her sculptures. Embracing Matisse's philosophy of simplifying form into essential lines and shapes, Bobinger's work exudes a sense of vitality and exuberance.
Bobinger has a deep connection to the arts community on St. Simons Island. As a young woman, Bobinger was privileged to have studied under one of the original founders of Glynn Visual Arts, Bill Hendrix, while attending Brunswick Junior College, currently known as College of Coastal Georgia. She also attended courses taught by Betty Lowe, Anna Belle Lee Washington and several other Glynn Art artists.
"The Joy of Life" showcases Bobinger's mastery of sculptural expression, featuring a diverse range of works that span sculpture-in-the-round and relief. Each piece invites viewers to embark on a visual journey, exploring themes of joy, movement, and the human experience. "I use humor and distortion in my figures to capture certain emotions that I want to depict," says Bobinger, reflecting on her artistic process.
Michael Jinkins and Jeff Mead
May 7 - June 14, 2024
Michael Jinkins and Jeff Mead, two acclaimed artists with distinct styles and inspirations, are set to showcase their latest works, offering a glimpse into the diverse influences shaping their artistic journeys.
Teach. Learn. Inspire
March 26 - May 3, 2024
Teach.Learn.Inspire features seven of GVA’s art instructors showcasing their varied and unique artistic talents in drawing, painting, pottery, sculpture, photography, and mixed media collage. We are proud to have Jennifer Broadus, Debbie Craig, Ann Marie Dalis, Deborah Karwisch, Cullen Peck, Tom Quinn, and Lynn St. Clair among our teaching faculty. They represent a larger faculty of extraordinary talent.
Nancy Muldowney
A Forty Year Journey with Color, Light and Texture
February 13 - March 22, 2024
The Art in Bloom exhibition in our Portman Gallery will showcase floral arrangements inspired by the art of Nancy Muldowney and created by six current and former Cassina Garden Club innovative floral designers.
Collage: A Fusion of Styles
January 3 to February 9, 2024
Mary Kathryn Kline • Lanie Addessi • Pam Brannen
Holiday Art Market
November 26 - December 29
The Holiday Art Market showcasee the work of over a 30 talented local artists. From wheel thrown mugs to hand painted ornaments, a wide variety of works of art from talented painters, sculptors, jewelers and photographers.
The Art of Textile Accessories
Hats, Wraps & Bags
October 17 - November 17, 2023
Barbara Northrup, Marion Kennedy & Treesa Germany
Break A Tubman
Native American Princess
Kevin Pullen
Look, Listen & Connect
September 12 - October 13, 2023
Aurora Pope
August 8 - September 8, 2023
Art of the Lowcountry
Then & Now
July 5 - August 4, 2023
Dan McGrath
Coastal Perspectives
May 30 - June 30, 2023
Natalie Daise
Greens Grow in My Garden
April 4 - May 25, 2023
Deborah Jinkins, Blue Crabs, Variation 1
Georgia Coastal Artists Guild
February 14 - March 31, 2023
Organic Forms in Nature
January 3 - February 10, 2023
Holiday Art Market
November 25 - December 30
Richard Jacobus’
Beyond the Winding Streams
September 20 - November 18, 2022
Julia Hill
Above Below
August 16 - September 16, 2022
COMMON ROOTS: Many Branches
June 22 - August 13, 2022
CUMBERLAND ISLAND: Land, Water, Wind, and Light
Christa Bowden, Emily Gómez, Ernesto Gómez
May 19 – June 17, 2022
GARDEN PARTY
An Exhibition of Paintings and Pottery by the GVA Pottery Studio Members
April 4 - May 18, 2022
THE SPACE BETWEEN
Betty Oliver and Susan Ryles
February 22 - April 1, 2022
Our World Through a Graphite Lens
Kenneth Pasley
January 13, 2022 – February 18, 2022
![KP-IMG_E1356[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c59a479a09a7e1e668e758d/1645561169494-KS16H9066LWICE4NRKF0/KP-IMG_E1356%5B1%5D.jpg)
Kenneth Pasley employs graphite and charcoal as his primary medium giving both mediums a somewhat painterly quality through his self-inspired technique. His works have been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in Ohio, New York, and Georgia, as well as other art centers throughout the Southeast.
This collections reflects family, through the faces and places Pasley has encountered over his lifetime, while also serving as a time capsule of all of our lives.
Pasley writes, "My work explores the relationship between the beauty that surrounds us and the human condition crossing boundaries, cultures and experiences both near and abroad. What starts out as hope and vision soon becomes a passage in life, creating passion and emotions of a particular moment. I want the viewer to have a sense of reality with a new understanding as well as become a part the stories behind each work. Momentary forms become reconfigured through a studious and critical practice with the application of details, light, and texture so the viewer is simply reminded that beauty does not require color and can transport you to worlds both known and unknown."
Searching for the Inner Jew
Leonard Piha
November 30, 2021 – January 8, 2022
Despite being well-trained in conventional art forms, Piha has chosen folk art as the medium through which he can best create work that is more genuine, closer to the heart, and honest compared to the more fashionable art he previously created. He is a sculptor and a painter.
“Leonard Piha’s art lies within a tender vein of American folk art, its simple structures made rich through the infusion of universal experience—the longing of a child for his mother’s touch, grown children who no longer lean on parents, a nighttime walk shared by lovers. His work weaves a narrative tapestry from the threads of familiar stories.” Nashville Arts Magazine
Piha lives and creates in Athens, GA.
The Human Form
GVA Artist Members
October 27, 2021 – November 24, 2021
The Human Form exhibition showcases the work of 21 GVA member artists and 40 works including sculpture, acrylic, pastels, mixed media, lino prints, watercolors, photography, and ceramics. Submissions to the exhibition were juried by esteemed public artist, Ralph Gilbert, who is a figurative, narrative painter and muralist. Gilbert received his M.F.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is an Emeritus faculty member at Georgia State University in Atlanta. To learn more about Gilbert, please visit RalphGilbert.com.
About the exhibition, Gilbert wrote, “this collection includes an interesting and broad variety of media and will perfectly demonstrate how many ways the human figure, as theme, can be approached. There is a clear sense that photos were widely used as reference material. This is understandable and precedented by a history of great artists of the past, from Courbet, Degas, Homer, Thomas Eakins and on.”
Just a few of the 40 works of sculpture, acrylic, pastels, mixed media, lino prints, watercolors, photography, and ceramics
Georgia Color on the Coast: Plein Air Painting of the Golden Isles
October 21-24, 2021
Featuring Georgia Color Artists: Donna Biggie | Snellville, Jennifer Broadus | St. Simons Island, Ria Bruns | Vinings, Keith Burgess | Hiawassee, Kathy Carl | Marietta, Ella Cart | St. Simons Island, Mimi Diamond | Savannah, Ann Dodys | Madison, Anita M Elder | Dahlonega, James F. Gilchrist | Acworth, Lamar L. Gilstrap | Douglasville, Millie L. Gosch | College Park, Carol Griffin | Macon, Warren Griffin | Macon, Kippy Hammond | Newnan, Catherine Hillis | St. Simons Island, Denise Jennings | Atlanta, Munir Kapasi | Atlanta, Margalena Lepore | Newnan, Nancy Shippen Livengood | Atlanta, Julie Mann | Atlanta, Lila McAlpin | Atlanta, Celeste McCollough | Atlanta, Jill McGannon | Suwanee, Butchie Neely | Atlanta, Mary Negron | Cumming, George Netherton | St. Simons Island, Elizabeth W. Osborne | Atlanta, Kathy Rennell Forbes | Atlanta, Palma Rhoades | Kennesaw, Catherine Ritch | Dahlonega, Sydney Sams | Macon, Andrew Sheldon | Atlanta, Michael Strickland | Hiram, Susan Duke Waters | Rockmart.
Georgia Color Plein Air, presented by Olmsted Arts in partnership with Glynn Visual Arts celebrates the tradition of painting outdoors and depicts the dramatic and distinct locales and landscapes of Coastal Georgia.
Propelled by the creative genius of Georgia’s most gifted plein air painters, Georgia Color is a sister event to the prestigious, Atlanta-based, Olmsted Plein Air Invitational. This four-day, St. Simons Island experience will lift up the beauty, inspiration, and heritage of the Golden Isles and Coastal Georgia in watercolors, pastels, oils and acrylics by forty Georgia Artists. Each Georgia Artist was juried and selected from a competitive pool to paint our splendid coastal terrain and unique architecture and personality in competition with one another. The result will render hundreds of paintings for sale and competition.
View and Purchase Art from the Georgia Color on the Coast: Plein Air Painting of the Golden Isles Exhibition Catalogue.
October 21-24, 2021 Georgia artists recently created an incredible body of original work en plein air. The gallery catalogue presents the work of these thirty-five artists and several Olmsted Plein Air Invitational alumni. We invite you to view at your leisure. Enjoy. Be inspired. Listen. Take a deep breath of fresh air and art.
Click to view the catalog. Each of the photos in the catalogue is clickable for more information and to purchase. You may also download and save the catalogue to view offline (Caution: the download is large – 21MB).
The Brunswick Muralists Come Inside
Featuring artists Kevin Bongang, Roderrick Davis, Catherine Durrett, Jeff LeMieux, Cullen Peck, and Megan Torello
August 11, 2021 - October 8, 2021
Painting and mural artists Left to Right, Top: Catherine Durrett, Kevin Bongang, and Roderrick Davis;
Bottom: Jeff LeMieux, Cullen Peck, and Megan Torello
Featuring works from the portfolios of Kevin Bongang, Roderrick Davis, Catherine Durrett, Jeff LeMieux, Cullen Peck, and Megan Torello.
Please see and support these extraordinary artists who have brightened and enlightened our community with their contributions to the Brunwick Mural Project.
Due to the current rate of COVID infection in Glynn County, we are postponing the outdoor reception scheduled for Thursday, August 19th event. Please stay tuned for information on future receptions.
Glynn County is currently hotspot for the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC recommends and GVA requires that masks be worn indoors and for gallery viewing even if you have been vaccinated – masks will be available if you don’t have one. The number of people inside the gallery at any one time will be limited to ten. Social distancing will be encouraged.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The Big Photo Show
Coastal Photographers Guild
June 29, 2021 - August 7, 2021
The Big Photo Show Virtual Gallery
Experience The Big Photo Show with the Virtual Gallery. For an enhanced viewing experience, be sure to turn up the volume on your device. Enjoy.
THE DUKE SMITH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
The Duke Smith People’s Choice was awarded in BOTH the Aspiring and Experienced Photographer Divisions.
A Book of Saints
Cullen Peck
May 27, 2021 – June 29, 2021
This extraordinary and arresting exhibition is an exploration of the way human beings--and particularly children--create mythologies out of everyday life. Peck’s portraits, drawings, and poetry teeter on that shimmering line dividing the mundane and the divine, seeking the balance that unites them.
Cullen Peck was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BA from New York University and studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in Florence, Italy. She spent a decade painting commissioned portraits and recently returned to the US where she has settled in coastal Georgia with her family. Influenced primarily by Renaissance art and documentary photography, Cullen's work explores the human figure to contend with fundamental human truths found between the palpability of bodies and the intangible quality of light.
All Media, All Ages
Local Artist
April 11, 2021 - May 15 2021
Our All Media, All Ages exhibition assembled renowned local artists with aspiring area high school artists. You won't want to miss this inspiring multi-media show of over 75 pieces in a variety of media.
Touching the Blue Void
Sorina Susnea
March 1, 2021 - April 9, 2021
Join us at GVA for our latest exhibition featuring fascinating new creations by artist, Sorina Susnea. This unique exhibition is open to the public now through April 9, 2021.
ISOLATION ART
VARIOUS ARTISTS
2020-2021 DURING THE PANDEMIC
At Glynn Visual Arts, we realize that art is a powerful tool to help us understand and process the world around us. Art heals and is medicine for the soul. As we go through this difficult time of global pandemic, the act of creating helps so many of us get through this. In the gallery below, you can see some of the wonderful art work that our friends have been creating.
Labyrinth
Suzanne Clements (painter) & Mark Wentz (sculptor)
Jan 10, 2021 - Feb. 27, 2021
The styles, themes and palettes of local artists, Mark Wentz and Sue Clements, make this exhibition a uniquely collaborative collection. Enjoy a leisurely visit to the Portman Gallery at GVA Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The Labyrinth exhibition features 24 mixed media and oil on cold- wax pieces created by intuitive, abstract painter, Suzanne Clements.Sue says, "I love to have the freedom to follow the path before me. I hope to entice the viewer to uniquely see, feel and interpret what I am -- at once revealing and concealing."
Sculptor and glass artist, Mark Wentz is showcasing 16 pieces featuring a variety of materials. Mark says, "memories are the main inspiration for my work. My passion for all medias and methods allows me to use the most appropriate materials and techniques for each piece."
Beauty that's made for each other. Local artists, Mark Wentz and Sue Clements' styles, themes and palettes make this exhibition a uniquely collaborative collection. Enjoy a leisurely visit to the Portman Gallery at GVA Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Social distancing and masks are required. You can also make an appointment to see the exhibition with up to 5 other people and will have the gallery to yourselves.
Small groups of up to 5 people may come together to view the exhibition on Wednesdays with an appointment. The gallery space will be exclusively yours for up to an hour. The artists may be available to join you. Viewing sessions are from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Social distancing and masks are required.
For more information, please call (912) 638-8770.
2020 PORTMAN GALLERY EXHIBITIONS
Painted Prayers: Prayers During A Pandemic
Randy Siegel
Nov 10, 2020 - Jan 2, 2021
Randy Siegel will exhibit his latest work at The Portman Gallery at Glynn Visual Arts at 106 Island Drive on Saint Simons Island, November 9 through January 2, 2021 in an exhibition entitled, Painted Prayers: Prayers During a Pandemic.
Artist’s Statement
Enough of 2020! Partisan politics, rocky race relations, and a worldwide pandemic … it’s no wonder we’re so anxious. It’s as if our very culture is unraveling, and it is. The old social order is crumbling to clear for the new.
This exhibition is composed of painted prayers—each a petition for peace in these troubled times; each an expression of one of three intentions:
Intention One: Gratitude. History has taught us that even in turbulent times we can find peace by focusing on that for which we are grateful.
Intention Two: Trust. I believe—and sociologists agree—we are birthing a golden era, a time of global unity, harmony and peace. The time of individualism and nationalism is slowly dying, and a new age celebrating our interconnectedness is being born. Birth is a painful process, but it’s during those periods of great discomfort that we experience the greatest personal and spiritual growth.
Intention Three: Service. Anxiety and depression are their strongest when we place our attention on ourselves. By shifting our focus to serving others, anxiety and depression lift and we discover renewed meaning in our lives.
Let’s welcome the new year with trust, gratitude, and service as our guides.
Portfolio
Ella Cart & Walter Hobbs
October 6, 2020 - November 7, 2020
The art exhibition “Portfolio,” showcasing painter Ella Cart and potter Walter Hobbs will be on display October 6th through November 7.
The title Portfolio is a fitting name for this exhibition. Ella Cart’s portfolio is varied in both medium and in subject. The exhibition features landscapes, figures, florals, and abstracts. The mediums used to create these works include oils, acrylic and mixed media.
Included in this exhibition will be the work of ceramic artist, Walter Hobbs. Hobbs uses a variety of techniques to create his ceramic pieces including using raku firing, a ancient Japanese method for finishing pottery. “Whether it be forms, glazes, firing processes, textures or uses, I have always pushed myself to take what I am doing today and use it as a basis for what it may become tomorrow. This approach allows my work to continue to be challenging, and thus rewarding, to myself and to collectors.”
Warrior Women Evolving
Alice Woodruff
March 10, 2020 - April 11, 2020
Alice Woodruff’s exhibition of ceramic figurative sculpture opens at Glynn Visual Arts on Tuesday, March 10th with a special preview opening for women only. Men will get their chance at the GVA’s regular opening reception for the show on Thursday, March 12th. “Warrior Women Evolving” features female vessels that represent famous and unknown women. All are portraits of extraordinary strength and wisdom. Some of the nude figures are draped, others have an "open belly" in which a tableau from their life is displayed. Each figure has written history and story that accompanies the art. Much of the work is highly politicized and emotion-driven, in many cases created in response to conditions in the larger world such as the #METOO movement and the threat to women’s lives, safety and happiness. The body of work, as a whole, explores the evolution of female empowerment from helpless victim to weaponized champion, the value of "women's work" as well as more personal stories of cancer and motherhood. This exhibit is particularly important in view of the fact that 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote.
Woodruff's education started in the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1960s. She became a very successful production potter, supplying functional ceramics to crafts stores and museum gift shops in the southeast. In her forties, she switched gears, went back to school and became a nurse practitioner. After 13 years of nursing, she returned to clay, more recently focusing on sculpture rather than functional pots. However, Woodruff uses her experience as a skilled potter as the foundation of the sculptural work.
She lives and works in Watkinsville, GA. Alice Woodruff, a renowned craftswoman, and sculptor can now add "facilitator of stories" to her title. She hopes that viewing the work initiates the larger conversations of inequity and power within the community.
SANKOFA: IF STITCHES COULD TALK
Tracie Lee Hawkins
February 2, 2020 - March 6, 2020
"Sankofa" is a term the Twi language of Ghana that translates to "Go back and get it" which symbolizes taking from the past, what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge.
Tracie Lee Hawkins is a painter and fiber artist whose work reflects this concept. She creates fine art inspired by nature and historical events using oil, watercolor, acrylic paints, and textiles. Tracie studied fashion design in New York City where she was born and raised. After sewing for more than 30 years, Tracie returned to her first passion of oil painting and studied Old Maters style painting under Chris DiDomizio for three years.
Tracie was published in the International Review of African American Art, Hampton Virginia in 2010, and exhibited her historic Obama collection at the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture at Alabama State University in 2012. Her completed collection of Obama quilts was exhibited at Alabama State University Warren/Britt Gallery January and February of 2013.
HOME IS HOW WE MAKE OURSELVES
Leigh Kirkland
January 31, 2019 - February 3, 2020
Leigh Kirkland’s artwork is a bricolage of painting, paper collage, printmaking, and constructed objects. This series, “Home is How We Make Ourselves”, arose in response to and was completed in the two years after Hurricane Irma flooded my home on St Simons Island on September 11, 2017.
The subject is houses, but thematically the series questions the extent to which our identity, public and private, is embodied in and represented by the objects we gather around us. Those things are more important than we like to admit. We choose things, here represented by houses, to construct and commodify our identities, our selves.
2019 PORTMAN GALLERY EXHIBITIONS
Petit Cadeau
(Small Gift)
Local Artists
November 25 - December 27, 2019
With works from our coastal community, this exhibit features all small works (under 11'x14") and all priced under $200, just right for your Christmas gift giving.
Edge of the Continent
Works by Atlanta Artist Gregor Turk
October 28 - November 22, 2019
Turk is a well known Atlanta sculptor with close ties to the coastal area we call home. In this exhibition he examines our area from two distinct perspectives: 1) a recreational focus— in his Con/Text series he transfers text from local historical markers and plaques by making wax-oil rubbings onto either topographic maps or screenprints from vintage postcards of the area; and 2) a transit focus of Brunswick as a port— Choke II is a series of ceramic tablets featuring choke points (straits and isthmuses where geography and shipping lanes constrict). Exhibition media include clay, rubber, and works on paper.
Mastering the Art of Contradiction
Works by Atlanta Artist Brett Callero
September 16, 2019 – October 25, 2019
“Mastering the Art of Contradiction, features Atlanta artist, Brett Callero. In this exhibition the artist explores living in an age filled with hyperbole, contradiction and a pervasive sense of tension. Through Callero’s mixed media works he digs deep into the paradox of overconfidence and insecurity which have unsettled the moral and ethical standards of civilized society.
Callero has a diverse background with an undergraduate degree in Graphic Design and he worked as an art director for over a decade. He also has an MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) and subsequently taught there for 11 years. The mixed media work in this exhibition definitely reflects these two disciplines.
Callero is a working artist and continues to live and teach in the Atlanta area.
Moral Contortionists - Brett Callero
Book Club - Susan Anderson
Anything Goes
Local Artists
August 5th, 2019 - September 13th, 2019
This wonderful exhibition showcases the talents of our members and community. Artists selected their favorite pieces and let their creativity run wild! Sixty-six (66) artists and over 100 pieces of art in a wide variety of mediums are on display in this unique yearly event at GVA!
Pictured: Book Club by Susan Anderson