Artist: Chad Cole | Location: North Augusta, SC
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Artist: Chad Cole | Location: North Augusta, SC
North Augusta, SC
Chad Cole is a contemporary painter whose work is inspired by the landscape and architecture of the South, and his paintings evoke a sense of place while capturing the effect of time and light on architectural surfaces.
Mr. Cole's work poses a unique treatment of the popular tradition of “barn and farm” art: the idea of the “Southern Gothic.” His images demonstrate the influence of the Southern Gothic through the consistent use of subjects that suggest abandonment, decay, the bizarre, and a sense of being “haunted” by Southern history and culture. Dilapidated barns, abandoned textile mills, and roadside oddities are some of the forms employed by the artist to symbolize the influences of time, history, and culture in and within the regional landscape.
Chad's work is influenced by living in the Deep South as well as the literary traditions that abound in the region. Stories by several prominent Southern Gothic writers have had significant impacts on the painter's choice of subject matter and his use of light, tone, palette, and technique in his pictures. Mr. Cole's use of symbolism, allegory, and shadow also reflect his abiding interests in the roles that storytelling and psychology play in the perception of culture and history in the Deep South.