The Language of Swifts
Solo Exhibition by Diane Kilgore Condon
Event Types: Visual Arts
Jun 4, 2024 10:00 AM — Jun 29, 2024 4:00 PM
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Art & Light Gallery
864-252-5858
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Art & Light Gallery is thrilled to present The Language of Swifts, a solo exhibition of work by Diane Kilgore Condon (Greenville, S.C.) launching on the Art & Light website and in the gallery at 10am (EST) on Tuesday, June 4th with an opening reception on Friday, June 7th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
Diane Kilgore Condon was born in Wisconsin and moved from Florida to Greenville in 1983 to attend Bob Jones University. Kilgore Condon has had solo exhibitions at the Greenville County Museum of Art and Bob Jones University. Her work has been included in group exhibitions throughout South Carolina and beyond, including the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA, the Burroughs and Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, the Sumter County Gallery of Art, the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston and the Pickens County Museum of Art and History. Kilgore Condon is among South Carolina’s most prolific and respected painters. She is the owner of Greenville’s Artbomb Studios. Established in 2001 in the Village of West Greenville, Art Bomb launched what is now Greenville’s most important arts district.
It is Kilgore Condon’s long standing relationship with the West Village and the changes to the community that she wrestles with in her current work. Birds, Chimney Swifts in particular, appear throughout Diane’s work in flocks and as individuals in natural environments. Chimney Swifts are small birds that look somewhat like swallows and are sometimes mixed in with flocks of swallows - they are nothing if not resilient creatures. They originally nested in old tree stumps then wood fence posts. After eastern forests were cut down and wooden fence posts went to the wayside, they adapted to nesting in chimneys. It is the Chimney Sweep’s need to find a place to nest, to find quiet and stillness, that intrigues Kilgore Condon and resonates with her desire to hang on to the simple sound of emptiness.
Kilgore Condon states, “There is a colony of about 75-100 Swifts that swoop through West Greenville every night in the summer- they tend to catch insects in big loops around the 140 year old oak tree in the heart of the Village. Soon the tree will be cut down and apartments will be erected in its place. I wish this wasn’t allowed to happen but I’m hopeful that the Swifts will find homes in the neighborhood where there are still trees.”
