The Johnson Collection

Art crates can be art too! TJC just welcomed home our Hayward Oubre sculptures after two years of travel alongside “Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity.” We are excited to have them back in Spartanburg, and couldn’t help but art nerd out over the packaging! Photos courtesy of TJC’s Collection Manager: Aimee Wise

TJC Gallery will be closed today in observance of the Fourth of July holiday!

Happy Fourth Everyone!

Joseph Cain (1904 – 2003) • Sign of the Swordfish • Circa 1948

What is going on at TJC Gallery this month?

TJC Gallery will be closed this Friday and Saturday in observance of the Fourth of July. We look forward to welcoming you in to Sweet Home Spartanburg today and tomorrow!

TJC Gallery will not be open for ArtWalk this month. Please enjoy other Community Art Spaces this month like Ridge Gallery's "Claws vs Paws" one-night-only show, supporting local animal rescues and spay/ neuter efforts with trap-and-release organizations.

Sweet Home Spartanburg closes this month on July 25. See our "home away from home" show before its gone! TJC Gallery will then be closed from July 26-August 5 in preparation for our new show: "Yellow."

More exhibition information to come!

Today we remember artist John Acorn, who passed earlier this month.

A sculptor with a passion for a broad variety of materials— Acorn was also an esteemed colleague, professor, and department chair at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. He carried three lifelong passions with him—his family, his students and peers, and the joy of making. Acorn's personal philosophy followed him throughout his life: “I’m a teacher artist. I enjoy the interaction between the generations. I’m not an artist who happens to teach.”

The Johnson Collection fondly remembers visiting his studio in 2015. Rest in peace, John.

John Acorn (1937-2026) • Shrine Figure • 1992

Georgia native Dox Thrash grew up in a cabin a generation after slavery, but escaped the limited opportunities that faced him and many other Southern African Americans by moving to Chicago and later Philadelphia. He received training at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked for many years in graphic design at a Philadelphia print shop, later co-inventing the carborundum printmaking technique.

When does a home cease to be? Though change is the fate of all earthly things, homes are built as much with feelings and associations as they are with construction materials. Can a decaying house or even a totally altered landscape remain something of a home if it still evokes the thoughts and memories of its former use? How faint is the echo of home when those associations pass even from memory?

Dox Thrash (1893 – 1965) • Ruined Cabin • circa 1940 • On view at TJC Gallery