JUNE 22 - AUGUST 7, 2021

Opening Reception with the Artists
Tuesday, June 22, 6 – 8 PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Reasons To Be Cheerful, an exhibition curated by Holly Keogh, featuring recent paintings, mixed-media, and performance works by eleven Goodyear Arts artists: Renee Cloud, de’ Angelo Dia, Amy Herman, Blaine Hurdle, Sarah Ingel, Holly Keogh,  HNin Nie, Kilee Price, Kat Sánchez, and Grace Stott. Extracting the “Goodyear” from its physical space and bringing this artwork to SOCO Gallery, will result in a jewel box of an exhibition; a small, glittering slice of the dynamic work and energy that defines Goodyear Arts. This Charlotte- based,  artist-led, nonprofit residency and events organization focuses on local visual, performing, and literary artists. 

Reasons To Be Cheerful will highlight the vibrant work from the collective.  Personified “Cherry’s”, artist Nie’s alter-ego, will “walk” around the gallery space; Hurdle’s kinetic sculpture and a large-scale fiber installation by Sánchez will hang from the wall and ceiling; an assemblage of Herman’s smaller photographs, a mural and installation by Cloud, and a dreamy, yet hyper-realistic, nostalgic painting of Keogh’s will engage the space and viewer. At SOCO Gallery’s first public opening of 2021, Dia will share his poetry and Ingel will perform a dance duet exploring the movement of the body and how dance can manifest healing.

The work in Reasons To Be Cheerful is a hard hit to the senses. Texture, color, and vibrancy seek to indulge and seduce, but this beguilement is also a question raised to make one self aware. The line between play and paranoia, ecstasy and discernment are blurred and asking you to let go.

What is left is a wonderland, a space to surrender to a world where oversized baby cherubs holding diet cokes flutter beyond giant unicorns. To enjoy or be skeptical of this enjoyment all exist within the work as a balancing act to be seen by the glass half empty or half full. Is optimism enough to manifest healing? Prosperity? Fill in the blank? Is joy enough? 

Joy is a shared experience, a propelling force, and, at times, an act of rebellion. Joy can be an emotional response that fuels momentum.  The exhibition calls to the senses the delights and simplicity of accessing this joy and happiness. Perhaps next year. Or maybe even never. In which case…. Reasons To Be Cheerful.

ABOUT GOODYEAR ARTS

Goodyear Arts was formed in 2015 as an artist-led, nonprofit residency program in underused spaces in Charlotte, NC focused on providing artists with time, space, and money to create.  Currently located in the newly developing Camp Northend, the large, raw exhibition and working space has contributed to the growing local arts scene in Charlotte.  The organization offers residencies to local and regional artists,  engages with emerging artist and curator talent, and produces curated exhibitions and events. Run by a founding collective, and including 40+ alumni of the residency program, Goodyear supports a diverse group of artists through continued use of free studio, rehearsal, and access to communal spaces. 

Over the years the artists in Reasons To Be Cheerful have worked side-by-side in their studios and have  become each other's confidants, critics, cheerleaders, and friends. Keogh states, “Although the word “community” conjures up feelings of PR and HR stunts, it is rare that community in the true sense of the word exists and forms organically in a world more connected virtually than physically. It is a place that embodies the feeling of this show.” 

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Holly Keogh (b. 1991, American) is an artist living and working in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her studies include a year at the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 2012 where she concentrated on painting before graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. After graduation, she became an original member of the Goodyear Artist Collective where she had the inaugural artist residency. She is currently represented by SOCO Gallery in North Carolina and has exhibited with various galleries in the Southeast. In 2019 she was selected to participate in the Pienkow Artist Residency in Chelm, Poland where she was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award. In 2020 Keogh presented her first solo exhibition at SOCO Gallery, Towards Another Picture, and was an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a Bennett Prize finalist and was awarded Charlotte Arts & Science Council’s “Emerging Creators Fellowship” for 2021.