With Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto set to let loose on May 22, it’s definitely a “more is more” few weeks of art ahead. Savvy, strategic arts lovers make the most of these cultural riches with a little organizational prowess.
One tack is to head out for the day, after pinpointing in advance some local exhibitions on offer around town. This has the added advantage of converging the local and global — and often with a healthy short walk.
After a midday concert, for example, slip into a cool gallery and get an eyeful. Pregame an opera at an afternoon art museum like the Gibbes Museum of Art, and then indulge in a quick nibble or drink before the production. Here are a few standouts to inform the art-infused days to come.
Around the Dock
Queen Street brims with some of Charleston’s most well-curated galleries. So finding visual inspiration near its historic theater is effortless.
Travel east, and discover the monthly revolving exhibitions of Robert Lange Studios. The gallery shows mid-festival, offering plenty to peruse after matinees. In May Beyond Belief gathers diverse painters to explore the poetic territory where realism and imagination meet. In June, Paradise Found is the fantastical, saturated solo exhibition by artist Denise Stewart-Sanabria that employs color theory to arrive at joy. 2 Queen St. More: robertlangestudios.com
But the block between Church and Meeting is bounty alone. The inviting Corrigan Gallery, with its pink exterior and charming courtyard, has a solo exhibition of paintings, among them many botanicals, by Townsend Davidson, up through the month of May, followed in June with works by landscape painter Frances Humphreys Roosevelt. 38 Queen St. More: corrigangallery.com
In May, the nearby Stevenson and Co. at 50 Queen St. spotlights works by its represented artists, to be followed in June by a solo exhibition of work by Riivo Kruuk, which reimagines Estonian folklore, traditional dress and ancestral symbolism through contemporary visual language. More: stevensonandco.shop.
Please visit Charleston City Paper for more information.
