Tag Archives: Abstract

Featuring, Tim Hussey, mixed media

Rebekah Jacobs Gallery, Charleston, SC

Our Southern sister city hosted a reception for Tim Hussey’s work this weekend at Rebekah Jacob Gallery, nestled on the  south end of historic King Street.  Rebekah’s space is everything a modern gallery should be – it features emerging contemporary artists, it educates their collectors, and even has a young collectors group of works for under a thousand dollars.  Rebekah herself is as charming and stylish as a person could be, filled with knowledge of her artists and the city of Charleston. 

The works on display by Tim Hussey celebrate his return to the South after living and showing in New York City for years.  A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Hussey worked for MTV, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, GQ, Esquire, and Outsider magazines. During these years, he focused on design and illustration, and he incorporates these elements into his mixed media abstract paintings. 

According to Rebekah Jacobs, “Tim Hussey explores various media through interrelated realms of illustration, figure painting and pure abstraction.  His paintings are infused with intense color and texture, allowing the chaotic nature of the media to work to his advantage.  For Hussey, the act of painting is as important as the finished product, applying mediums like house paint, oil sticks, pen and colored pencil to collaged vintage papers with as much chance as deliberation.  His untidy formats and size variations express strong emotions, psychological battles and at times the desire for spiritual comfort.”

If you find yourself in Charleston this summer, be sure to visit the Rebekah Jacobs Gallery.  With an in-depth focus on modern art and photography of the American South, the gallery will surely have something to please.

Pascal Bouterin exhibition, Huff Harrington Fine Art

by Erin Hollenbank

Young French artist Pascal Bouterin came all the way to Atlanta’s Huff Harrington Gallery to debut a solo show entitled “Dedicated,” where he was on hand the entire evening to personally “dedicate” each painting he sold to his happy buyers.  Judging from all the red dots on the labels (signifying sold paintings), he must have been a busy man that evening. 

Regarde, oil on board

Bouterin’s show featured paintings he described as “Abstract-Impressionist” (not to be confused with Abstract Expressionist), which were hung beautifully and precisely along the walls of the homey Huff Harrington space.  Bouterin paints primarily in oils, applied with a knife, and uses pen and ink and pencil to apply subtle touches and details.  His arrangement of soft colors and brush strokes give a romantic, emotional aura to his paintings, and his unconventional way of creating perspective using brush strokes rather than lines quietly invites the viewer into his paintings.  “Romanticism is a place of freedom for me,” he says, “and I use my brush to take me there.”  His subjects range from international landscapes to cosmopolitan environments.   The majority of the paintings in the exhibit are black and white with gray tonalities, with a remaining few in soft pastel colors.  My favorite pieces are those where impressions of figures claim the forefront, walking into the depth of the painting, as depicted in Le Femme au Parapluie.

La Femme au Parapluie, oil on board

Bouterin is not a stranger to the U.S.  He’s exhibited several times in New York, Aspen, Knoxville, and Dallas, in addition to his exhibitions in Paris, Avignon, and Barcelona.  Not only is he an accomplished painter, but a budding jazz musician, two arts that simultaneously compliment each other.  “The harmony of the panting is the melody of the music,” Bouterin says. 

It is not an accident that this up-and-coming French artist happened to show at Huff Harrington.  Ann Huff and Meg Harrington are Francophiles and lovers of all things French, which shows in their collection of mostly Impressionist style art.  They met Bouterin in his studio in France, where they take annual buying trips and gallery tours.  Together with their unique eye for art and international flair, and the homey brick ranch location, they formed Huff Harrington into one of Atlanta’s finest galleries (and my personal favorite).  It has a certain je ne sais quoi quality that makes it easy to love and hard to leave.