For a PREVIEW, click here.
On
Saturday, March 2, if ART Gallery will open an exhibition with new paintings by
West-Columbia artist Michael Cassidy. Michael
Cassidy: The Quiet will open that day with a reception from 2:00 – 4:00
p.m. Cassidy will present a gallery talk the next week, on Saturday, March 9,
at 2:00 p.m.
Cassidy, of West Columbia, S.C., is
known for his meticulous paintings of flowers and other plants and things such
as bricks and antlers, all in solitude, isolated against a dark background. In
this new body of work, Cassidy has expanded his subject matter and approach.
Included now also are turtles, birds and other small animals, often in
combination with plant life or weathered pieces of decorative wood. In several
of the paintings featuring a bird, Cassidy has stepped away from his subject’s
isolation against a dark background and instead painted the birds on tree limbs
against moody gray and blue skies. Cassidy’s paintings also are considerable
bigger than in the past.
Michael
Cassidy (b. 1977, Flint, Mich.) has lived in the Columbia area for some 17
years. He joined if ART Gallery in 2015 and had his first solo exhibition there
in 2016. Cassidy was selected for the 701
CCA South Carolina Biennial 2015 at the city’s 701 Center for Contemporary
Art. He has had solo exhibitions in 2009 and 2014 in the FAB Gallery at South
Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., as well as a 2013 solo show at
City Art Gallery in Columbia. Among group exhibitions in which he was included
are those at S.C. State University’s I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium and
the Anderson Art Center in Anderson, S.C. From 2011 – 2015, Cassidy worked as
curator, gallery director and instructor at S.C. State. Since 2015, he works as
an exhibits master craftsman at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.
Cassidy received an MFA from the University of South Carolina in 2014 and holds
a BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich.
