News and Media

Published: Jan 26, 2011


SAVANNAH, Georgia - The SCAD exhibitions department presents "It Is What It Is, But It Isn't," a solo exhibition by artist Kendell Carter. By combining a design-based sensibility with a hybridization of cultural styles and references - from Baroque to hip-hop - Carter's installations offer unique observations on form and function. Carter's work was heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "a clever commentary on the widespread cultural and commercial co-opting of street fashion."

Featuring elements commissioned exclusively for the SCAD exhibition, "It Is What It Is, But It Isn't," Carter's first solo show in Savannah draws our attention to innovative thinking and new assimilations of everyday objects and popular imagery in contemporary art. "Carter's exhibition initiates new conversations in painting, sculpture, drawing, interior design and furniture design that shift the content and context of 'classic' design and fine art paradigms," said SCAD curator Erin Dziedzic.

Carter has transformed Pinnacle Gallery into a visually and conceptually stimulating environment. Bright pink-and-black striped walls and custom-made architectural details offer a vibrant backdrop for Carter's paintings, which incorporate the Abstract Expressionist "drip" using spray paint and shoe laces in lieu of traditional paint. This lively setting serves to further animate a central sculptural grouping, including an Eames chair and chandelier reinterpreted with a hip-hop twist.

Carter was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and earned an M.F.A. from California State University, Long Beach, California, in 2006; a degree in environmental design from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, in 2000; and a B.F.A. from the Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1994. He has had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 2006; Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, California, 2007; and moniquemeloche, Chicago, Illinois, 2008. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, 2007; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, 2010; and forthcoming at the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2013. His work has been reviewed in Artforum online, Art in America, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. His work is included in public collections at the Laguna Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California. Carter lives and works in Long Beach, California.
           
Pinnacle Gallery, SCAD Savannah, 320 E. Liberty St., Savannah, Georgia
Through Feb. 18, 2011
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-4 p.m.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit scadexhibitions.com.