A deep chalkboard black blankets backgrounds that look unfathomably deep. Glowing greens take hold, too, advancing on the canvas in brilliant bluster. Hot pinks assert their presence with a balls-out passion that dares you to remain unmoved.
If Full Spectrum, the charged and color-busting solo exhibition of works by Demetrius Bing, is any bellwether of the potential of the new Drummond Studio Gallery, Charleston has just landed a magnetic, meaningful new addition to its visual arts scene.
From one sleek, gallery-white wall to the next, every eyeful manages to somehow to converge the free-form crude and the achingly elegant, the unbridled rough and the palpable vulnerable, offering a vibrant, visceral encounter with contemporary Charleston art that our community surely craves.
While the exhibition is mainly on view by appointment, this month the virtual gallery offers two opportunities on the heels of its recent opening, so that the public can engage with the work.
Coming together as an aggregate portrait of the self-taught artist, we follow from one work to the next as Bing paints his way out of a painful past to burst forth with unchecked torrents of color and abstracted clarity of vision.
Reflective of Bing’s own childhood, the show starts on the dark side, via an exploration of his own painful experiences. That personal story and emotion resonated with gallerist Arun Drummond, drawn by seeing “an African-American man who is not afraid to talk about trauma and mental health and a lot of these subjects that are sometimes taboo in the African-American community, to see that he was open enough to not only talk about these things, but express it in his art and make it something that other people could connect to.”
Near the entrance are works reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Some take the form of squares of black cloth rendered frenetic with saturated colors. One rages pink, red and purple as witha gray skull with wide holes for eyes meets an unlocked padlock and the struck-through words “Past” and “Present” that cede to a yellow-boxed “Future.” Another with a scratchy “Wreck Day!” depicts a car, with the artist in the driver seat gushing splashes of red.
At the corner, this work meets black-backed likenesses of the artist, floating aside a tally of “Love Me” and “Love Me Not.” These segue to square flags spelling out “heal.”
Round the space’s central wall, all color breaks loose. Abstract works both large and compact lavish unapologetic free form fits of exuberant expression that at the same time remains tempered by fragile, tenetive lines that sometimes tend figurative. Classical busts and statues positioned throughout the show layered with generous, technicolor drips and strokes — a euphoric, recontextualizing color-washing of classical forms. On a central wall, a portrait of East Side’s legendary blacksmith Philip Simmons usher the neighborhood inside.
Drummond has underscored that the intention of the gallery is to make art accessible to all, and Full Spectrum delivers on this with Bing’s works. While illustrative of a visually sophisticated artist, they access raw emotion in all its complexity, coaxed curatorially with an arc from dark to light, from pain to healing to joy.
Life on Line
Drummond Studio Gallery opened in the fall fall at 12 Line St., a 1912 corner building with the gallery entrance on Hanover Street. Nearby, signs augur an artful, community-focused hub, the kind that would make an urban planner’s heart sing: the convivial City Lights Eastside bistro welcomes flowing crowds with good coffee and baked goods, as well as evening wine, pop-up menus and music. Nearby is the praised, popular Bintu Atelier, which serves West African-inspired fare.
“They have created a new sense of community, and I wanted to be a part of that,” said Drummond, who is also a Charleston-based artist.
Virtual and by-appointment, the gallery has the contemporary feel of one on Broad Street or perhaps in Manhattan’s Chelsea district. A handsome shingle now swings outside the front door, telegraphing what to expect inside: the smartly refurbished main gallery rooms and two studio rooms — coveted in a city with scant affordable terrain in which to make art.
To help foster community, Drummond has also just joined the board of Redux Contemporary Art Center to lend to creative connectivity. A champion of local artists, he is a mentor of Bing. Drummond said he is committed to engaging with those from around the city, and around the block on the Eastside, a neighborhood he said has been overlooked and forgotten.
“For many years, it has had a dark cloud over it, but that is starting to change,” he said. the community knows that they are welcome in my space.”
After landing the lease last February, the Eastside resident said he learns more every day about his gallery home.
“Bringing the arts to this community would help to enrich it in a way that has never been done before. And as I do it, I want to make sure that the community knows that they are welcome in my space.”
This month, the by-appointment gallery will open its doors for two public events surrounding Full Spectrum. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 17, the gallery will host open studios to see the exhibition. And from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 23, the gallery will host an artist talk to mark the closing of the show. More: drummondstudiogallery.com.
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