Frank Poor: Displaced

For its first exhibition of 2015, 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, S.C., will present a solo exhibition by Rhode Island artist Frank Poor. The exhibition’s title, Displaced, refers to Georgia native Poor’s exploration of the vernacular architecture of the South from the vantage point of someone who left region some 25 years ago.

The opening reception for the Poor exhibition is Thursday, January 8, 2015, 7:00 – 9:00 pm. The exhibition will run through Sunday, February 22, 2015.

Poor will present new work created during his three-month residency at 701 CCA from October – December 2014. The artists traveled the back roads of South Carolina, camera in hand, to find and photograph buildings in the state to use as models for his new architectural sculptures. He subsequently “rebuild” the structures as part–skeletal renditions made from wood and partly covered with photographic images of the buildings printed on aluminum or veneer. The exhibition will include buildings in the South Carolina towns of Eastover, Hopkins, Cayce, Swansea, Bishopville, Eureka, Ward, Pageland, Johnston, Woodford, Riley and Ward. Some of them will be wall-mounted, others will be free-standing.

In his work, Poor gives vernacular Southern architecture a contemporary twist. His sculptures of the buildings are sleek and cool, belying their often-weathered condition. While both the structural forms and photos are precise, they don’t necessarily fit precisely in each individual work. “The resulting tension,” Poor says, “is a metaphor for the relationship between the experienced world and our memories of it.” What Poor sees in the South 25 years after he left might be structurally intact, but his memory of it is not.

Woodstock, Ga., native Poor (b. 1962) lives in Cranston, R.I. Among his solo exhibitions are those at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C.; Artspace in Raleigh, N.C.; the Newport (R.I.) Art Museum; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.; Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C.; and at Atlanta’s Georgia State University, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Ariel Gallery and the CNN Center Gallery. Among public collections that include his work are the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass.; the National Museum of Ornamental Metal in Memphis, Tenn.; and the Macon (Ga.) Museum of Art. He received his BFA from Georgia State University in Atlanta and his MFA, from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Poor teaches at Rhode Island College in Providence and previously taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Connecticut, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass., Brandeis University, Montserrat College, Brown University and Columbus State University.

For further inquiries, contact info@701cca.org or call Sheldon Paschal (803) 319-9949.

701 CCA is a non-profit visual arts center that promotes understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of contemporary art, the creative process and the role of art and artists in the community. The center also encourages interaction between visual and other art forms.

701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley Street, 2nd Floor, Columbia, SC 29201. During exhibitions, hours are Wed, 11–8; Thu-Fri, 11-5; Sat, 9-5; Sun, 1-5. For more information, visit www.701cca.org.