hidell brooks is super excited for our summer opening of two solo exhibitions this friday for sally king benedict and kate long stevenson. new paintings by both southern artists include works on canvas and paper. sally and kate are dear friends and contemporaries. working with the same mediums ink, gouache, oil, graphite, and acrylic they approach the canvas in different ways. sally king benedict allows representational elements to appear on her abstracted canvases especially evident in her classic face paintings. kate long stevenson's focus is totally abstract except in her nude paintings which are elegant and defined through her use of line and color. they both handle the paint brush with distinct character and are definitely coming into their own oeuvres.

facing view

i wanted to create a body of work that blurred the line between figurative portraits and abstract landscapes. they exemplify the bits and pieces of our photographic memories that reminisce on different places and times and the state of mind they put us in.

--sally king benedict

variations on an untitled theme

it's important to me that my paintings have a subject, despite how non-subjective some can seem. with my nude paintings, the figure is the vehicle that invites you to discover the true subject: the way it was painted. the abstracts have just skipped that introduction, altogether, but they're still about something--music, tempo, motion and emotion. it all comes from a feeling, but then the challenge is not only to translate that to the canvas but to have it make sense, compositionally.

--kate long stevenson

please call the gallery if you have any questions concerning the new work by sally king benedict and kate long stevenson. all paintings in the exhibition are on our website under each artist's tab. sally and kate will both be at the opening from 6-8 pm this friday july 17th. hidell brooks is psyched to have r oots food truck in the lot as well as a keg from the olde mecklenburg brewery.