> Exhibit Archive

  2010 OUTDOOR SCULPTURE EXHIBIT
  February 5 – October 10, 2010 - COURTHOUSE GALLERIES COURTYARD
  Opening Reception: Friday, February 5, 2010, 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Cast your ballot on your favorite sculpture featured in this historic garden setting and help determine the People’s Choice Award for the fifth annual Outdoor Sculpture exhibit. Click images below to see a larger view (opens in new window)

Pokey Park I’ve Been Kissed bronze	Thomas Givens Happy Trout in Osage Osage orange and black locust knee joints	Antoinette Schultze Earthshine Milestone granite, glass and steel	Nancy Frankel Conversation II painted steel

See a working model train layout featuring items from the Lancaster Antique Train and Toy Collection. A locomotive bell, rear backup light from a steam engine, lanterns, pistons and many rare trains and accessories will delight visitors of all ages.

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Admission: $5 includes a visit to Andalo’s Clubhouse (420 High Street), the satellite location for the Children’s Museum while they undergo renovation or $6 for a key pass to include Lightship Portsmouth and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum.
For information call: 757-393-8543

Fairy Tale Art features fifty-nine original illustrations from well-loved classic fairy tales as well as modern variations on traditional tales. The magical settings for the stories are created by award winning artists: Kinuko Y. Craft, DEMI, Jane Dyer, Marilee Heyer, Trina Schart Hyman, Jim LaMarche, Barry Moser and Susan Paradis. Fairy Tale Art offers a magic journey to a timeless, enchanted, dream-like world.

The origins and history of fairy tales reaches back over thousands of years. These magical stories were told and retold by storytellers in the early civilizations of China, Egypt and India. Scholars cite the ancient myths and primal truths of the Vedas of India as the source of their shorter cousins, the fairy tale. The world fairy originates from the Latin word fatum, which means to enchant and in French, fee or feerie, is defined as illusion.

For years these stories were told to adults to uplift them from the world of drudgery by sharing a glimpse of another land. These oral tales were told by women who passed he stories down through generations and the tales changed with the storytellers. Often the heroine was given magical powers and miraculous rescues. Much later in the 1960s, the stories found their way into children’s books. Artists added visual images and seasoned the settings with imaginative details. Magic occurred deep in the forest or in resplendent castles where beguiling characters came to life. In this world, the archetypal heroines triumph over the woes of hard dull lives. Dilemmas arise, princes emerge and witches and fairy godmothers appear. We hear these stories at an early age and keep the pages turning until the promise of living happily ever after seals the ending. Before these spoken tales became recorded narratives, the details were modified over the centuries.

In today’s world fairy tales can smooth the uncertainties with a magic carpet ride that transports both child and adult to the realm of wonder and enchantment. The Courthouse Galleries offers a family friendly activity room where artists of all ages can travel into their own imaginations and try their hand at making art.

The exhibit was curated by Sylvia Nissley of Sarasota, Florida. The showing here in Portsmouth is part of a two and a half year national tour developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services of Kansas City, Missouri.

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Admission Fee(s): $5 per person/ combination ticket for Courthouse Galleries and Andalo’s Clubhouse (satellite site for Children’s Museum while they undergo renovation), Key Pass: $6 includes a visit to all four Portsmouth Museums including Lightship Portsmouth and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum. Courthouse Galleries only $3 admission charge.

Coupons or special incentives: Free Admission for First Weekend Friday and opening reception

J. Howard Johnson, Dr. Rod Taylor and Larry Johnson are three Virginia artists who celebrate the versatility of clay through ceramic vessels and sculptures that reflect the finest of craftsmanship and simplicity of form.

J. Howard Johnson, a Portsmouth resident for over forty years, has been exhibiting his ceramic vessels in the Hampton Roads area and beyond since the early 1960s. Johnson’s work has been recognized with honors in exhibits in Virginia and New York and sought by collectors.

Johnson first pursued painting with aspirations of becoming a commercial artist. He was inspired with the versatility and sculptural qualities of clay after taking a class in ceramics with Joseph Gilliard at Hampton Institute. Throughout his career, Johnson has avoided trends, instead celebrating the integrity of individual forms with fine craftsmanship and the proficiency required to realize them. He has built large textural forms that combined hand-building with wheel thrown techniques. His surfaces have ranged from rich textures and earthy tones of the clay itself to Raku, automobile paint and layered wax resist designs reminiscent of his earlier paintings.

Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Hampton Institute and received a Master of art education degree from Columbia University and spent a year in creative studies program at New York State University. For thirty-one years, Johnson taught in the Fine Arts Department of Norfolk State University before retiring in 1991. In 2000, he was awarded Professor Emeritus status.

Dick Cossett, former art writer at the Virginian-Pilot described Johnson’s accomplishments, “His ability to build sculptural forms would come first followed by his excellent taste in surfaces and textures and his ability to refine all of these elements into civil, classical statements that have their roots in primitive art.”

Larry Prenell Johnson, born in Chesapeake, VA, discovered his passion for visual art at the early age of ten. Over the years, he has studied drawing, painting, ceramics and sculpture, always paying close attention to detail that is reflected in his work today.

Johnson likens his working method to that of Vincent Van Gogh who said, “I dream of painting and then I paint my dreams.” These dreams also carried Johnson back to school in pursuit of becoming a university art professor.
Prior to returning to complete his academic career, Johnson explored his artistic interests while working at companies that specialized in the arts: advertising, photo-sensitive metal processing, art handling and building handcrafted sculptures. At Norfolk State University, he met and worked with Howard Johnson and Dr. Rod Taylor, who have also inspired him. Following completion of a bachelor’s degree, at Norfolk State University, he plans to complete a Master of Fine Arts degree in.

Dr. Roderic Taylor is the former Department Chair of the Fine Arts department and Assistant Dean to the School of Arts & Letters at Norfolk State University, where he is also professor emeritus in sculpture. Dr. Taylor received a Master’s degree in sculpture and art history from American University, a Master of Education degree in art education from Alabama State University and Ph.D. in art education from Pennsylvania State University. In addition to his work at Norfolk State, he has also taught at Shaw University, St. Augustine University, Alabama A&M University, Pennsylvania State and Vanderbilt University. His work has been displayed in over 500 exhibits in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Taylor describes his work, “I am concerned with taking a given medium and making a personal statement rather than creating products that mirror images or conditions that already exist. Thus, my work is based on my perceptions, observations and responses to the environment. I attempt to be sensitive to myself and to create with integrity those things that more accurately express my perception of life. I seek the intrinsic nature of forms; as brevity is the soul of wit, so too is simplicity the essence of art.”

Click on images to enlarge.

Sojourner Truth, bronze, by Larry Johnson

Ceramic vessels by J. Howard Johnson

Standing Man, bronze by Dr. Rod Taylor

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Celebrate the season with WINTER WONDERLAND: The Coleman Collection, a holiday classic for generations of Hampton Roads visitors and residents. From Victorian scenes of animated skaters and carolers to the enchanted forest of bears, deer and Santa’s workshop, the displays delight visitors of all ages.

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