Find your spirit animal among Stephen Garrison's creatures at Location Gallery exhibition

Need some inspiration for 2024?

Check out “The Stories We Tell Ourselves,” Stephen Garrison’s inaugural show at Location Gallery, and find yourself a spirit animal.

“I tend to collect characters,” Garrison said of the animal-headed mythological creatures that populate the exhibition. “There’s some from different backgrounds, different religions, different things, so each one has their own different qualities.”

The collection, which opens Jan. 19, includes a dozen richly hued oil paintings, each with an accompanying black-and-white graphite drawing of the same character. Stylistically, the paintings harken back to the icon paintings of religious figures from the medieval and renaissance periods, from the way that the artist has applied color, to the arching tops of the panels, to the subtle symbols within.

The graphite pieces, however, have more in common with contemporary still life drawings than their more classical pairs. Each one takes on the animal portion of the mythological character that Garrison is depicting and distills it down to its traditional origami form, creating an intriguing multi-layered dialogue between the viewer and the piece, where one is looking at a three-dimensional object drawn in two dimensions but which evokes thoughts of a higher form of being.

“The Stories We Tell Ourselves is basically thinking about who you want to be or who you need to be at any given moment. At any one time I’ve probably been each one of these characters. And so, I want to open up a window that allows someone to, while they’re looking at these pieces, that they see themselves,” Garrison explained.

The value of a strong narrative

Among the characters Garrison has included in the show are figures such as Reynard the Fox, a being found in several medieval European folk tales, and Bastet, the cat-headed sun goddess from ancient Egypt. Each has their own historical significance, but, according to the artist, it’s not necessary for attendees to have any background information going in.

“There are things that flesh out the story for maybe people that don’t expressly know that Jean de l’Ours is a French fairy tale of this everyman bear figure who is strong but a little bit dumb, but he’s just there to help…Ways to unravel the story, or give someone enough, that they can then look into the story on their own,” Garrison said.

“The Stories We Tell Ourselves” is the first show for Garrison at Location Gallery, and one of the few at the gallery to feature an artist who no longer calls the Hostess City of the South home. But the combination of the quality of work and his background as a Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) graduate, more than tie him firmly to the eclectic style that the space is known for showcasing.

“Every show, I’m always looking to take another left turn or drive over the rotunda, just keep the audience guessing,” noted Location Gallery Director Peter Roberts. “[But] the values of a strong narrative go really far for me. So, if someone has strong narrative principles and approaches and finish in their work, to me that’s a no-brainer. Stephen hits all those marks.”

Additionally, each exhibition at Location Gallery includes a partnership with a local non-profit, with a portion of every sale going to the cause. This time around Roberts has chosen the animal-loving For The Love Of Paws, a sensible choice given the work’s subject matter.

Those donations will be made whether the work is purchased online at .locationgallery.net or in-person, but both Roberts and Garrison are hoping that folks come out to the gallery to find their spirit animal, rather than relegating their experience to a phone or computer screen.

“Seeing is believing,” said Roberts. “Something happens when you see art in person. It becomes more visceral. It becomes somehow more real.”

“It’s all about the synesthesia, the overall sense of the gallery,” Garrison agreed. “The sound of the gallery, the people in it, everything. There’s something magical about it.”

“The Stories We Tell Ourselves” by Stephen Garrison opens 6 to 8 p.m., Jan 19, at Location Gallery, 251 Bull Street, and runs through February.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA Location Gallery to show Stephen Garrison's mythological creatures