CHARLESTON, SC.-The Corrigan Gallery presents the first duo show of works by Kevin Bruce Parent and Gordon Nicholson entitled “Southern Remains” opening March 7, 2008 with a reception from 5pm to 8:00pm at 62 Queen Street, Charleston. The show will hang from March 5 – 31.

These two artists come “from off” – far off. Parent hails from New Hampshire and Nicholson from Toronto. They each have an inherent love of the South – Parent due to his study of the South through the literary classics of 20th century writers and Nicholson by marriage. They show their appreciation and awareness of what Southern means in their creative works. These works and images are not clichés these are remains of the past. Parent presents soft photographs created by alternative or early tradition photographic methods. Nicholson puts brush and pen to paper. The two have walked similar paths and bring us their “souvenirs” as reminders of that which has passed and is passing away.

Kevin Bruce Parent is a self taught photographer who has been shooting since 1990. Moving to Charleston in 1997 he was taken with the difference in the landscape and the stories behind abandoned boats, signage and cemetery sculpture. Utilizing pinhole cameras, zone plates and the lith printing process, Parent creates painterly images. Parent devoured the writers such as Poe, Faulkner and O’Conner. The translation of the South he has read of and the South he sees is moved to another level through the pinhole and the darkroom experience. Parent received an honorable mention in the 2005 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Art Exhibition and showed in the Black and White, Graphic Work in the South, 1904-2004 at Carolina Galleries in March 2004 as well as a group photography show here in 2006 entitled Light Writing.

He says of his work, “Over the past several years I’ve drifted to more alternative methods; homemade pinhole cameras, zone plate cameras, handcoloring, unpredictable and unrepeatable lith printing and occasional use of the van dyke brown printing process. I find it odd and a bit perplexing that anyone would entrust creative decision making to machines instead of using their deeply felt and often ignored intuition. I want to avoid mechanized recordings that verge on the cliché.”

Gordon Nicholson is a Canadian and American trained architect with two AIA SC Robert Mills Residential Design Merit Awards in 2007 as well as being a Grace Memorial Bridge Design Competition Co-Winner in 2006 and a 2006 Grand Award recipient from Remodeling Magazine. He lives with his wife and child in Charleston. His work was included in the fall of 2007 in an event called “Reconciling Poetics and Ethics in Architecture,” at McGill University, Canada with a paper titled “Silent Space” and a group show titled "70 Architects.”

Nicholson’s hauntingly beautiful watercolors covered with words with ink on paper appeared in Batture, the LSU School of Architecture Journal in an article in 2004 entitled Present Imperfect (cowriter Alice Guess) that described his thoughts relative to his paintings and the South. His work is included in the new MUSC Carolina Contemporary Collection housed at the Ashley River Tower.

He says, “All of the work represents sites in a state of transformation. Exploring ruins induces self-conscious reflections of our body and its temporality. Bemoaning what we have lost…we lose that which we did have…a rich tradition of utilitarian buildings and artifacts from our agrarian/ industrial past. Places lost to vines, fires, and neglect without us really even noticing and along with the places themselves all the cultural dialogue associated with those structures. To render visible those invisible sites by simple attention opens up the narrative possibilities of those sites. Mutual recognition of quality in a declining structure can encourage dialogue. Histories and anecdotes can surface. By attempting to represent that resultant dialogue, these paintings transform discussion. They take a familiar site and upset its nostalgic “picturesque” quality by reinvesting it with a new narrative. The text does not allow the images to be viewed as innocent landscapes or objects; the intersections of text and image act as a challenge to the subject matter. Moreover, that challenge is the “critical” aspect of this work. Without the layer of text, these would just be “pretty landscapes” of the disappearing South, lovely sepia postcards. However, the text is a leap past pretty, it is a deliberate defacement of an imagined South suggesting new readings and interpretations. “

Utilizing some of Nicholson’s words (in specific reference to decaying architecture), one could say that southerners must infuse the South with collective memory and thoughts. Retelling the stories points to an essential quality which is an imperfect narrative combating the encroachment of development and modernization.

The Corrigan Gallery presents art with a future instilled with intellect. Varied, provoking works are presented in an intimate space for the viewing pleasure of all. Bringing 20 years of Charleston art experience to collectors and presenting artists with fifty years of creating as well as those in the early years of their careers, the gallery provides a fresh alternative to the traditional Southern art scene. Located in the heart of the historic district, the gallery combines the charm of the old city of Charleston with a look to the future. The gallery is open six days a week from 10am to 5pm and often with extended hours. Paintings, drawings, fine art prints, photography and sculpture are readily available for the discriminating collector.