Art Exhibit Review

Today my father and I went to an exhibit by Ashley Holt at the Chapman Cultural Center. It was was presented by The Artist's Guild of Spartanburg and was in a room right in the front room of the biulding. Down the halls, which lead to two other exhibits in a larger back room, were covered with large portraits of foster children. The two exhibits in the back room were an exhibit on local printmakers and an exhibit by a woodworker named Michael McDunn.
     I really liked Ashley Holt's style. Many of his pieces were humorous or had a very comic book look to them. He had many pieces that were about his memories, like a scene of a cashier with a gumball-machine head and quarters everywhere, which was influenced by his many previous jobs at stores. I thought the foster-children portraits were a very good way to spread the word about these needy kids. In the last room I visited, the prints were what immediately caught my eye. They were all very detailed and many looked like drawings. My favorite was a screenprint by Andrew Blanchard called Dixie Totem I. I thought it was really interesting how he caught the "American Gothic" style he described in the caption of his pictures. I really think looking at how he focuses on the "American Gothic" in all of his pieces gave me an idea of what our theme for the 12 pieces we will create this year is supposed to be. The last exhibit by the woodworker was very interesting because it was a bunch of tables. Some of them were made out of scrap wood, and some had very intricate details. I liked how this exhibit gave a very different idea of what art is.