Sozo Gallery

Watching @kennynguyenclt at work is something truly special 💙 he is so detail oriented and the smallest change can make the biggest impact! Head to stories to see what we currently have up in the gallery, this one is also still available👏🏻#Sozogallery #kennynguyenclt #charlotteart #artgallery #artinstallation

Sound On! A little @kurt.herrmann studio action, vibrant colors🌈, and new creations to start your Sunday🙌 #kurtherrmann #SOZOgallery #art #contemporaryart #jazz

Who misses Miss Martha? 🙋‍♀️ She sends her love to all of our SOZO family💗#missmartha #art #sozogallery #teamsozo

Feeling like we could all use a little more of this right now. Hannah here- just as we are all different, I’d like to think and to hope that when your grace the walls, the windows, the inside, the light at SOZO you will understand and know and feel that SOZO is a different art gallery and trying to make a difference. We are more than art. We see you. We feel you. We love you. And this is how we sometimes close down an opening. Ms Martha and @cameronmooremusic dat ping their thing. I will never forget the goosebumps that went down my neck as I witnessed this spontaneous and unplanned moment, this gift. #sozogallery #bethelight #endracism #moreloveplease #missmartha #cameronmoore #musicishealing #artishealing

Feeling like our world could use a little more orange in it right now. How spectacular is this @kennynguyenclt installation of Flamekeeper SOZO is excited to share with with you the final installation images of this pristine corporate space. Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. ... In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance. #corporateart #installation #orange #sozogallery

This Wednesday we’ll continue our virtual artist studio tours. Sign up in link in bio! Join us at 530 EST and come meet @kurt.herrmann | bring your energy | or come catch his VIBE via color| it’s authentic and contagious | last week we had 97 join us 🙌| don’t miss out, you know there will be a sercy for one of you lucky guests ✌🏼#kurtherrmann #sozogallery #colorbombs #art #sozovirtualtours

Who is joining us tonight? 🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️Here is a sneak peak of what inspires @ed.nash.fine.art ❤️ Want more?? Head to our link in bio to sign up via Eventbrite! Ps- there might be giveaway at the end 🤫🤗#Repost @ed.nash.fine.art with @get_repost ・・・ Ever wondered what inspires my paintings? Well the fabulous @mcgrawm82 and I put this video together over the past few months. Here is a little a little teaser. The full version is in the link above I'd love you to take a minutes to watch it. I'm so exited to finally share it. Thank you to all the fabulous collectors and designers that through supporting me enable me to do this everyday #abstractart #art #artvideo #documentaryfilm #nashvilleart #design #artstudio #painting #atlantahomemagazine #interiordesign #nashvillelifestyles #milieu

Word #womanowned #red #tribe #clt #womanownedbusiness #womenstrong #valentinestreat

Flashback to our #VIVID opening in October. Art is family. Meet #missmartha We’ve been researching a bit and digging around and have discovered that the majority of community is intimidated by art galleries. What? 🤷‍♀️We are fun and inclusive and inviting and full of story. We want to get to know your story and help connect you with the artist and work you fall in love with and purchase. Please join us this Saturday for #seekingsilence 1030-12 noon #art #galleries #story Turntable and headphones by @herbwilliamsart

The perfect $350 gift to start your college student on! Figurative beauties by @lauramdargan We deliver all this week and ship until Friday! Ho Ho Ho ❤️🎅 #sozogallery #figurativeart #art

A closer look at the process behind the work of @ed.nash.fine.art ✨ Join us, this Thursday from 6-8PM for our Open House for #VIVID in which Ed Nash’s work is featured. #sozogallery #ednashfineart #vivid

Sneak Peek at @kurt.herrmann ‘s works for #VIVID 🤩 Raise your hand if you are excited as we are 🙋‍♀️ #sozogallery #kurtherrmann

Today's Artist Spotlight is on Philadelphia-based abstract artist, Scott Troxel. Troxel received his BA from Temple University and his work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally. From an early age, Troxel was obsessed with modern art, color and design. “I predominately work with wood as my base medium, due to its strength, dimension and organic nature. The inherent texture of wood combined with paint and other man-made materials allow me to explore the concepts of old and young, worn versus new, organic versus man-made and the past versus the present and future. I look to capture a sense of time in my work and often combine the feeling of different eras within a single piece. I see this as a direct parallel with human life, as we too grow older and interact with other generations, both younger and older." - Scott Troxel Modern Abstract Art #sozogallery #nowondisplay #cltarts #scotttroxelart

Today's Artist Spotlight is on Charlotte-based photographer and cinematographer Scott Gardner. He has filmed numerous documentary television series for National Geographic, Red Bull, ABC, Discovery Channel and others. His photographic work takes him all over the globe, from remote caves with Buddhist monks in Myanmar to shamans on the steppes of Sibera. His work is in private and corporate collections around the world, and has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions. Scott recently completed a residency at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, where his work focused on storytelling and portraiture within marginalized communities. He is currently working on two photography projects, Finding Silence and About Face CLT. Scott believes in art as an act of service.

Today's Sozo Gallery Artist Spotlight is on Pennsylvania-based painter Kurt Herrmann. Herrmann does both figurative and abstract work but above all is a colorist at heart. Kurt on his "Color Bomb" series: "I want the Color Bombs to be beacons of positivity that radiate across the room or whisper quietly beside you. I love the freedom and openness of color. These works don’t bring any baggage or hidden agenda. Lately I’ve realized how connected these paintings are to the landscape and seasons outside my window. I constantly feed on the natural world where I live, and it feels like I’m mentally taking millions of pictures of what is happening outside and instantly trying to distill those images into absolute color. Almost as if I was zooming in with a camera and plucking out the solid pixels of pure color that best represent what I’m seeing and feeling. Sometimes it is literal and other times it is my memory that dictates. Because in the depths of winter I may long for the riotous colors of Spring so much that I’ll reach back six months and extract a bit of yellow from a daffodil or some pink from too much sun. The memory bank of images is always changing and old and new are interchangeable. Sometimes they are ecstatic and full of verve and edge – like a saxophone exploding out of nowhere, or the sublime wail of a guitar rattling the windows. But other times they search for silence and quiet, and all the notes not played. They are like songs composed of shape and line that bask in the presence of absolute color representing nothing but themselves."

Today's Sozo Gallery Artist Spotlight is on Charlotte-based mixed media artist, Kenny Nquyen. See his newest series of work during his upcoming solo exhibit set to open in January 2019. Nguyen was born and raised in South Vietnam. In 2007, he went to Vietnam National University of Art and Architecture for BFA in Fashion Design. In 2015, he earned a BFA degree in painting at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States. Nguyen’s artwork often draws on the elements of personal experiences to explore identity and cultural displacement. Nguyen has exhibited his works in many group exhibitions and solo exhibitions in the U.S and aboard including Japan and South Korea. In 2016, Nguyen received an Excellence Award for his painting exhibited in Asia Contemporary Young Artist Award Exhibition at Sejong Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. In 2017, Nguyen is one of ten Vietnamese American artists was chosen to exhibit his works at Rayburn Office House Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. Kenny Nguyen lives and works in Charlotte, North Carolina "Migration has changed my perception of cultural identity and traditional art. I encountered with a new culture as an outsider and began to realize how much my identity was impacted through the adjustment process. The consequences of displacement and the ongoing conflict in everyday life have dominated my way of thinking and creating artwork. It also provided me a distant vision to look at the traditional art and culture through a microscopic level and discover many unknown territories. As much as I loved my cultural heritage, I made works that are not simply to celebrate my culture but to point out the experiences of being different, isolation and lost in an unfamiliar environment. As time goes on, those experiences are constantly changed and intertwined with each other to create a new cultural identity. My paintings reflected a multicultural perspective, brought together the oriental undertone and abstraction. Th

We're so excited for the opening of local Charlotte artist Robert Langford's, "Syncopation: Shifting Focus," on Friday, November 2. Robert's new series of work was inspired by music and the architecture of our Queen City. Here he talks about the connections he makes between his art and his surroundings. “When I walk through Charlotte, sometimes I focus on the big picture –– what new thing is going up, what’s being renovated. Other times, I see only the history of what stood before,” says Langford. “There are stories on every corner. My paintings are the same way –– there’s never just one story to tell. In cities, in art, or with music, what we focus on ebbs and flows, shifts in the light. No part would be as interesting out of context, and each element is vitally important in the larger story of who we are.”- Robert Langford

Today's Sozo Gallery Artist Spotlight is on Italian-American artist, Nicola Parente. Nicola obtained a BS from King’s College (PA) and a Masters degree from the University of St. Thomas (TX). Parente is proudly presented at Sozo Gallery in collaboration with Gremillion & Co. Fine Art. Parente currently lives and works in Houston. Working in a variety of media, he engages the viewer in dialogues of human encounter within the urban environment. "We live in a fast moving world. We are unable to capture the changes around us. We feel trapped in a fast moving highway of transformation. I sit. I breathe. I inhale the thoughts, the ideas, the movements that are overwhelming, intense, rigid yet fluid, beautiful yet disturbing, moving and captivating. I digest the moment, this particular moment. I allow myself to bask in it. My work struggles to define the intersection that is present in daily urban life. I am intrigued by the interplay between the fluid and the static elements present in today’s urban tapestry. My work investigates untangling the chaos, the brilliance of technology, human development, nature’s vibrancy and ultimate demise. I document it in the best way I know how, art, my only voice." - Nicola Parente

Today's Sozo Gallery Artist Spotlight is on D.C.-based artist, Alison Cooley. Cooley’s atmospheric abstraction draws on material juxtapositions and a language of repetitive markings, ink blooms, etchings, and organic elements to explore the beautiful, continuous cycles of the natural world. Symbols in the paintings replicate, change, fade, and return through the work creating a subtle tension that examines themes of compliance and resistance, harmony and dissonance, certainty and illusion. Cooley’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Washington, Charlotte, Richmond, and Toronto.

Have you seen "Mise-en-Scene"? Don't miss your chance to catch this amazing collection by Charlotte artist, Andrew Leventis before it closes on October 18. "My new body of work borrows from the French term mise-en-scene, for “placing on stage.” The word is used in film and theater to describe the arrangement of scenery, stage properties, and objects for a production. These works are oil paintings on canvas, and they focus on utilitarian and aesthetic objects that are symbolic portraits of people. My process appropriates source material from film, television, and other mass media outlets. I observe disregarded moments in film, press pause, record the frozen image through my camera, and use the resultant photograph to create my oil paintings. I aspire for my work to combine the human touch of painting with the clinical look of the camera, as viewers are simultaneously aware of the look of photography, the look of video, or the look of a low quality computer screen image and, all the while, that the object presented is a painting. This series depicts interiors full of objects, both old and new. The images are taken from myriad cinematic sources that represent an array of historical epochs. Obsolescent rotary telephones, heirloom vanities, vintage tea sets, black and white family photos, and corduroy coach bags denote a transient world in which things pass in and out of usage and fashion. These objects are set amidst hotel corridors, turquoise swimming pools, pink bathtub tiles, and city sidewalks. Much like the traditional still life, they represent a backdrop of shifting worldly things. At times, figures move in and out of these surroundings, like travelers in a landscape. My primary interest is in the objects that form the backbone of a scene a character inhabits. To me, the alluring part of the film still is its underpinnings- the small objects being manipulated by the character in a scene, or the things that are present in the fuzzy background. The focus of my

Today's Sozo Gallery Artist Spotlight is on Charlotte-based nature artist Wendy Bilas. "My oil paintings are a celebration of light and its ever-changing, ever-dramatic, and ever-elusive impact on color. While inspired by classic impressionists, I try to use my own sense of composition and calculated brushstroke to give my work a simplicity and a soulfulness all its own. Nature is my sanctuary and I suppose you could say birds are my muses. Birds display beauty, color, freedom, heaven, and earth. They are transient -- in the moment and seasonally -- yet they are staid as they predictably migrate and inhabit nearly every acre of the earth. Birds also have a special family connection for me since my dad was an ornithologist and nature photographer. Every bird I paint has a story behind it and a message of time and place. The paintings celebrate the cardinals that visited our backyard feeder in the deep snows of a mountain winter and the rare warbler that visited briefly during spring migration. My dad photographed them all, and his photos inspire my paintings today. This series is full of contradictions, just as the messengers themselves are. Birds in these paintings are representational, yet abstract. They express life, but suggest mortality. They symbolize peace, but fight to survive. Birds follow us through life's triumphs and struggles, always providing a background soundtrack and color as they become the constant messengers for hope, peace, transience, and life."- Wendy Bilas Fine Art Wendy graduated with a bachelor's degree from Duke University and a master's from Wake Forest. In 2007, she was recognized as an Art with Heart Emerging Artist in North Carolina and has been honored in juried shows throughout the Southeast. She works out of her studio in Charlotte, NC, where she lives with her husband, ESPN basketball commentator Jay Bilas, and their two children, Tori and Anthony.

Join Sozo Gallery on Friday, September 28 for the opening reception of artist and UNC Charlotte assistant professor, Andrew Leventis' "Mise-en-Scene." Andrew Leventis, Assistant Professor of Painting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has a beautiful way of bringing typically unnoticed moments and objets into the spotlight. Leventis observes disregarded moments in film, pauses the scene, records the frozen image through his camera, and uses the resultant photograph to create his oil paintings. His new series “Mise-en-Scene” depicts obsolescent rotary telephones, heirloom vanities, vintage tea sets, black and white family photos, and corduroy coach bags set amidst hotel corridors, turquoise swimming pools, pink bathtub tiles, and city sidewalks.

Did you know that our diverse collection includes local, national and international artists? We currently represent over 20 artists and are adding new and exciting artisans regularly. Whether you are attracted to the mountainous ranges of Alicia Armstrong's, "Elevations(3)," or vibrant abstracts like John Pavlicek's "Untitled XII," our amazing collection of talented and unique artists are sure to offer something for both the new and established collector.

This week's Sozo Gallery artist spotlight is on French-Canadian artist, Annie Labbé. Annie Labbé is a French Canadian artist. Born in 1979 in Limoilou, she grew up in Charlesbourg, and now lives in Lévis. She was introduced to photography at the age of 14, and chose to continue her studies in fine arts at Cégep de Sainte-Foy. In 2003, she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in New Media from Laval University. After experimenting with many mediums including drawing, installation, sculpture and of course photography, the artist discovered that painting was her true passion. The artist took time to travel around the world, and realized that the mighty Saint Lawrence River close to her home was a big source of inspiration, which fascinated the artist at a crucial time in her career. The first works from her "Landscapes" series were soon created, depicting her favorite subject. This first series gave her the possibility to be represented by an art gallery in 2007. During these 10 years, sold and shipped all around the world, her creation grown and took different directions. Two major series were born, inspired by the family and art studio life, The Square Series and The Architectural Series.