North Charleston holding arts fest poster contest

North Charleston poster

Want your artwork featured on a poster? Now's your chance. The city of North Charleston is putting out a call to artists to participate in the 2012 North Charleston Arts Festival design competition.

The winning piece will become the official design of the 2012 Arts Festival, taking place May 4-12, and will be featured on promotion material and merchandise, including advertisements, brochures, posters, apparel, online and more. The winning artist will receive $500, have the piece become part of the city's public art collection and be given an opportunity to exhibit other works at the North Charleston City Gallery during the festival.

Applications are up online at www.northcharleston.org with a noon Jan. 21 deadline. The competition is open to South Carolina residents 18 and older, and there is no entry fee. Categories of work accepted are acrylic, oil, drawing/pastel, watercolor and mixed media. Call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at 740-5854.

Stephen Hodecker

Be sure to check out the newest works by artist Stephen Hodecker that have arrived at Ingram Fine Art, 111 Church St. Working in oil, watercolor, egg tem-pera and pastels, Hodecker's work, landscape andfigurative, are "rooted firmly in the traditions and themes of European and American realism," said Kirsten Ingram, gallery owner.

"Hodecker has painted the landscape across the country and abroad, most notably Ireland, Scotland. However, his primary subject matter remains rural New England, New Hampshire and the coast of Maine. The flag and its relationship to our culture, central to Hodecker's Remembrance series, continues to emerge as a theme re-examined in recent work," Ingram said. 577-7047 or www.ingramantiques.com.

Ryan S. Brown

When you walk into the M Gallery of Fine Art on Broad Street, be prepared to see a painting of grand proportions. But it's not just the size of the 4 1/2-by-9-foot painting of the Catskills that makes it impressive, it's also the exquisite detail and mastery.

Gallery owner Maggie Kruger traveled 2,000 miles to pick up Ryan S. Brown's pieces from Springfield, Utah. She said, "I believe that the arrival of (Brown's work) is one of the most historically significant moments in Charleston's art world."

"Although Ryan resists the 'isms' scholars have used to place artist and art within a historical and cultural framework, there are certain things that can definitively be said about Brown's work -- things that need to be said in order to recognize the impact of his work and the contemporary realist revival," explains gallery director Carlen Quinn. "The most important recognition is that Ryan S. Brown fits into a greater movement in art towards formal, academic training acquired through the transmission of skills from master to pupil -- a practice that can be seen as classical in nature."

Brown said, "I don't know where I fit into all of this, or where others might categorize my work. It is my goal to have the skills necessary to react to nature and narratives in a personal way that communicates clearly to a wide audience. ... I also want a controlled level of refinement that allows for further contemplation beyond just the initial impression."

See the pieces at the M Gallery, 11 Broad St. Call 727-4500 or visit www.mgalleryoffineart.com.