State art exhibit includes Coker professor’s work

A work by Coker College art professor Jean Grosser is featured in State Art Collection: Contemporary Conversations, Part I, an exhibition at the 701 Center for Contemporary Arts in Columbia through Nov. 1.

Grosser’s artwork in Contemporary Conversations is a shrine-like box called “Smoking by Pregnant Women.” A mixed-media piece made from wood, paper, metal and cigarettes, it uses a 1937 Life magazine advertisement for Camel cigarettes. In the advertisement, a woman sharpshooter declares that cigarettes aid her digestion and relaxation. At the same time, the Surgeon General’s warning on the cigarette pack warns that smoking may result in fetal injury, premature birth and low birth weight.

Grosser joined the Coker College faculty in 1985 and is chair of Coker College art department. She holds a master’s of fine arts from Ohio University and a bachelor’s of fine arts from Alfred University.

Contemporary Conversations highlights 188 works by 95 selected South Carolina artists including painter Jasper Johns, photographer Cecil Williams, and printmaker Thomas Seawell. The collection reflects the diverse voices and concerns of South Carolina artists who are inspired by social issues, memory, local and national history, and imagination.

Author Eleanor Heartney, contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress, chose all of the pieces in Contemporary Conversations from the 448-piece State Art Collection, which is maintained by the South Carolina Arts Commission. Part II of the exhibition runs Nov. 5 to Dec. 6 at the 701 Center for Contemporary Arts