At the Intersection of Paper and Paint

A couple weeks ago, Jericho Arts opened a fascinating exhibit entitled Paper & Paint. The two-person show features new work by local artists Jocelyn Chateauvert and Thomas Sweeney. Paper & Paint opened with a reception on Sept. 10 but the work will stay on display through Nov. 1 and is worth dropping by Jericho Arts to take a look before its gone.
Jocelyn Chateauvert creates lighting, sculpture, and fiber art installations from the paper she makes by hand. Her oversized, immersive work merges alchemy with artistry, and for her show at Jericho Arts, she turns her attention to ocean life as her muse. She earned an MFA from the University of Iowa, and since 1999 she has lived in Charleston, devoting herself primarily to paper art installations in public spaces and private homes.
“I build worlds from the most common and least known material: paper,” says Chateauvert. “The ritual of hand papermaking is ancient, scientific, and rhythmic. I merge this science with engineering to make structures using paper’s inherent strength and capacity to be self-supporting.”
Air-drying these pieces adds the unexpected — the paper shrinks, twists, and cockles, forming three-dimensional shapes of subtle design. Stretching and burnshing each surface by hand flowers the piece to its final expression. “Oversized and immersive, familiar and abstract, my pieces dilate our natural world and invite you inside,” says Chareauvert,  who has been honored not only by the South Carolina Arts Commission but also by a Smithsonian Fellowship and was a featured exhibitor at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.
Sweeney is a multi-disciplinary artist who is part architect, part designer, and part fabricator. His mixed media creations offer the viewer a compelling combination of familiar and abstract, using found and upcycled objects, line drawing, paint, and his professional renderings. For this exhibit, Jericho Arts is displaying new works inspired by the geometry, iconography, and mystery of shipping containers and dumpsters, subjects Sweeney has studied and sketched since he moved to Charleston more than seven years ago.
Well known for his architectural work on The Alley, Burwell’s, HoM, and the Tattooed Moose, Sweeney has kept a very active creative process through independent art and design projects and furniture making.
Jericho Arts is part of Jericho Inc., located at 815 Savannah Hwy. Suite #101. For more information call 212-8482 or visit www.artsjericho.com.