Exhibiting Artist

We live in an age where language is often deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning. The term “Intelligent Design” when considered by an artist may describe the aesthetic or functional aspects of an object that has been created with considerable research and thought. Conversely we are increasingly hearing from groups promoting “Intelligent design” as a theory that living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. My works explore this play on words through imagery associated with technology, evolution and architectural environments. The works are composed of layered copper plates that have been etched in acid, cutout, patinated and mounted into overlapping compositional elements. They are based on rearranged appropriated images from historic engravings. The final compositions are a mix of social commentary coupled with whimsical imagery. My goal is to create images that are aesthetically pleasing and conceptually significant, playing off the meaning of the chosen images.

Mana Hewitt is an artist based in Columbia, South Carolina. She recently retired from the University of South Carolina School of Visual Art and Design where she was the Senior Instructor of Jewelry making. Mana is a nationally recognized artist with over forty-five years of experience in the fields of painting, ceramics, and metalsmithing.  Her work is included in numerous collections including the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, the Arkansas Arts Center, Racine Museum of Art, the Dominion Corporation, First Citizens Bank Headquarters, the Columbia Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum, and the Federal Reserve. Her work has been featured in numerous periodicals, newspapers, and books over the years and her solo exhibitions include the First Light Gallery, Palm Beach, FL, TRAX Gallery, SC, 701 Center for Contemporary Art, SC, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, Leu Art Gallery, Nashville, TN, Golding-Yang Gallery, Morehead, KY and the Burroughs-Chapin Museum of Art, Myrtle Beach.