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CHARLESTON CONTEMPORARY

NOV/DEC 2025

An International Celebration of Art in the Heart of Charleston

Located in the historic French Quarter at 13 Broad Street, the Frederic Payet Gallery is a vibrant and reﬁned art space showcasing a curated collection of works from internationally acclaimed and emerging artists. Our gallery represents a diverse range of styles and cultures, with a strong emphasis on color, emotion, and contemporary expression.

Founded by artist Frederic Payet, whose own paintings are known for their vivid palette knife textures and powerful color vibrations, the gallery now proudly features exceptional works from painters, sculptors, and mixed-media artists from across Europe, the Americas, and beyond. Each piece on display is selected for its originality, craftsmanship, and emotional resonance.

Whether you're an avid collector, a design professional, or simply a lover of ﬁne art, our gallery offers a unique opportunity to explore international creativity in an intimate and elegant setting.

Frederic Payet

Ruth Nyakundi Fleetwood Covington Katarzyna Zygadlewicz Serge Lescure Kenyan American Polish French

NATALIE DUNHAM

Growing up in Lancaster, PA down the street from Amish farms, Natalie Dunham quickly fell in love with honest craftsmanship and the textures and lines of the gridded landscape. Her studio practice has become an active representation of her perspective on life and living. She believes that true craftsmanship is marked by fundamental principles such as dedication, passion, and an exceptional attention to detail and that these principles are constantly threatened by the pace and complexity of modern life. Her work is an attempt to

integrate and celebrate these principles. Dunham is a process-based artist creating 3-dimensional material studies/sketches primarily composed of basic geometric shapes and lines through accumulation. Each study is assigned a numerical title that documents the process and materials used. Her hope is to challenge viewers to pause and appreciate the transformative powers of the creative process and to call attention to the essentially ordinary origins of even the most extraordinary works of art.

CHRIS FRICK

COVER ARTIST / IN HER OWN WORDS

I’m a German-born artist living in Charleston, South Carolina. The Lowcountry series began after I arrived here and started spending time near the marshes and the barrier islands. The landscape has a quiet strength. In the summer months, the air feels heavy, while in fall and spring it turns clear and crisp. The light shifts without warning, and the horizon never stays the same. Standing on Bull Island or by

Charleston Harbor, you can feel how water and sky seem to trade places. The longer I live here, the more I understand how this place impacts my work. I paint through contrastbetween beauty and strangeness, clarity and noise. My work is shaped by migration, by finding my place here, and by the power of a landscape that keeps transforming me. The paintings come from being in this environment.

I don’t plan them. I start, and the work follows what the place gives. The humidity, the light, the air, the tide - they all leave their mark. I try to let the surface carry that energy instead of shaping it into something fixed. The paint moves, settles, and changes as I work, like the land itself. The process is about staying open to what the landscape does to me - not copying it, but holding a trace of its movement and force. I hold a master’s degree in French and English literature, and that background has shaped how

I look at detail and rhythm in painting - how something builds, pauses, and changes over time. The Lowcountry series is my way of learning this environment. The coast reminds me that belonging is not fixed - it’s something you practice through attention, patience, and respect for what surrounds you. Each painting is an attempt to hold a small part of that experience, without trying to define it.

GEORGE READ

George Read arrived at Harvard as a premed freshman. Biology and chemistry were his first love, so it was unusual when to fulfill a humanities requirement, he encountered famed Dutch old master paintings scholar Seymour Slive, one of the university’s most celebrated lecturers. Three years later, he graduated with a degree in the History of Art. The Fogg Museum curriculum was strictly oldschool then, but it included studio work for those who chose it. A sober exploration of the techniques of painting, sculpture, and printmaking was encouraged. Then, famed masters Eduardo Chillida, Afro Basaldella, and Robert Neuman were in residence at the Le Corbusier studios. That was the start.

Along the way, he got a summer job as a gardener for renowned art critic Harold Rosenberg in the Hamptons. The Rosenbergs lived in a hamlet called The Springs, close to Jackson Pollack’s former farmhouse and studio, at the center of a community of celebrity artists and writers. George describes those days as “something of a blur- a sort of BUDS training in the fine arts. I was technically just his gardener, but Mr. Rosenberg thought I needed serious artistic toughening up. Well, he took the job very seriously. The easy days were when he’d lend me out to friends, the artists Adolph Gottleib and Willem de Kooning among them. I’d go to their places and do chores.”

Later, in France, in the fall of 1977, he had his first show, a two-man exhibition with a young Japanese sculptor, Tetsuo Harada. There, Read’s paintings and assemblages attracted the attention of

well-known French art critic Michel Tapie, who invited him to share studio space with a group of emerging artists at the newly-opened Centre Pompidou in Paris. The plan was interrupted. Before he could move into the new space, he was offered a position at Sotheby’s, New York. He took the job and moved to the United States. This next evolution, as specialist, auctioneer, lecturer,

and consultant engaged him, in some function or other, with “nearly every category of art and antiquity known, the collectors of those objects, and the markets where they trade, both real and fraudulent.” A glimpse at those times: on a steep and unrelenting learning curve, the

constant search for properties, long hours of appraising and cataloging, work with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Barbra Streisand in New York, and Claus von Bulow in Newport. A trip to Los Angeles with Oprah to find furnishings for her place in Chicago. He appeared on her show twice. On the second, he auctioned off a Michael Jordan game jersey to an audience of millions. Now he is back in the studio. He describes the break as immensely positive; an opportunity to sharpen and refine-, even if the break was quite a bit longer than anticipated.

His process is just as it was when he left off. Years ago, Eduardo Chillida suggested he work on a piece only until form and definition began to suggest itself. Then, stop, no matter how tempting it was to continue. A day or two later, surrounded by works in varying stages of progress, he could start again. He still works several pieces at once, moving from one to another without a pattern or plan.

George Read’s work is on view at The George Gallery from Nov 19 to Dec 13. georgegalleryart.com

NADINE O. VOGEL

Corporate executive turned global business owner turned passionate artist, Nadine Vogel holds a B.S., Industrial Psychology, College of Charleston and an MBA, Golden Gate University. As a self-taught, abstract artist residing in Folly Beach, S.C. and Highland Beach, FL, Nadine primarily paints using acrylics but also enjoys a variety of mixed mediums, always exploring new styles and colors. Living on the beach, Nadine’s creative process is inspired by the sights, sounds and rhythms of the ocean as well as

her life experiences as an author, public speaker, professor, TV Host, Interior Designer, global Disability Consultant, mentor, wife and mother to two beautiful women, one of whom is disabled. She believes that it’s those experiences, including the painful ones, that serve as a source of strength and creativity. Just like the sea’s ever-changing tides, Nadine’s art is an exploration of life, the importance of perspective and the belief in what’s possible.

LEAVE THE FAMILIAR BEHIND

Wander into the Grand Bohemian Gallery and uncover something unexpected. Located within Grand Bohemian Charleston, explore a curated collection of fine art — from original paintings to handcrafted jewelry, glasswork, and more. DISCOVER YOUR NEXT

FEATURED ARTISTS

Liv Antonecchia · Michael Arnett · Christy Boaman · Cece Burnett · Jean Lee Cauthen ·

Charles Clary · Alice Colin · Sid Dickens · Viz Glass · M Jason · Abra Johnson · Morgan Kinne ·

Jorge Lastra · Houston Llew · Gretta McCall · Jenan McClain · Anna Razumovskaya ·

Lauren Ridenour · Taylor & Connor Robinson · Jean Claude Roy · Samantha Rueter · Chris Sedgwick · Linda Sperruzzi · Lue Svendson · Pam White · Juliann Whitwell · Stephen Wilson

FEATURED JEWELRY ARTISTS

Kristen Baird · Brackish · J. Catma · Kate Furman · Teal Heron · Mara Labell · Melinda Lawton · Jenan McClain Designs · Lauren

Ridenour

ZinniaLou

ANNE ABUEVA

Anne Abueva grew up in Chicago, IL and currently works in Charleston, SC. Her studio practice is guided by curiosity, emotion, and ruthless editing. Each mark arises from a visual tug-of-war between instinct and intention, freedom and refinement. Unbound by conventional styles or themes, she creates freely and fearlessly, staying open to new possibilities with every piece. Whether through bold, expressive brushstrokes or more subtle, layered compositions, each work simultaneously offers a personal narrative and an invitation for others to connect with their own.

KRISTIN BRIN

My practice of making art is centered within my soul. Being an artist is something I’ve done instinctively, almost without question. I have always painted, and as the years race past for one and all, each artwork suggests to me that I may be changing without my own guidance. If you asked me fifteen years ago what the meaning was, I would have been dismissive about the question. Perhaps expressing that it’s about love for painting and other surface

comments of joy and happiness. That is not necessarily true any longer, and I am now comfortable sharing my story with you. As soft and gentle as many of my paintings are, there was a pathway to this moment which was tortuous and tested. I am a strong person without a straightforward past. Come in, I invite you to explore my works, my website, and studio... I do believe you will sense where I have been and what’s to happen next.

Photo by Olivier Pojzman