The ZOO @ if ART Gallery

MICHAEL CASSIDY, The Quiet, March 2 – 23, 2019.

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.

PREVIEW Michael Cassidy – The Quiet, March 2 – 23, 2019

PREVIEW of

MICHAEL CASSIDY –  The Quiet

March 2 – 23, 2019

Artist Reception, SATURDAY, March 2, 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Gallery Talk, Saturday, March 9, 2:00 pm

if ART Gallery CONCERTS

UPCOMING CONCERTS @ if ART Gallery:


-- January 18, 2020, 8:30 pm: Jack Wright & Ron Stabinsky

-- February 22, 2020, 8:30 pm: Friends & Neighbors

-- March 21, 8:30 pm: John Dikeman & Aleksander Skoric

-- April 25, 2020, 8:00 pm: Boomtown Trio, Craig Butterfield's new ensemble