Now that summer is here and school is out, it’s time to go out and meander the streets of Savannah.  If you’re curious to see what the world is offering the art scene this summer, you definitely need to stop by the SCAD Museum of Art.  To kick off the summer, they have just put up a new installation in the welcome area, and there are a few stop-by worthy exhibits coming in the next few weeks to check out.  This summer we’re going to start off with the art of Dario Escobar and fashion designer Ralph Rucci which kicked things off mid-May.

Dario Escobar’s work is simple and complex at the same time.  He adopts many diverse objects as forms of media to create his work such as baseball bats, motor oil, soccer balls, and skateboards – to name a few.  Two pieces stood out to me most today, a piece called “Dawn” (pictured below), and another called “Untitled” (pictured below).  “Dawn” was interesting because of the negative space the angular cutout of the meticulously arranged baseball bats created, and then the random pile it created from it below.  “Untitled” was a mix of wood, plastic, and stainless steel.  It was a great mix of straight industrial angles and organic lines from the drawings on the blue plastic.  Pieces by Dario Escobar are from Dario and the Jose Bienevu Gallery in New York.

Ralph Rucci’s work is an arrangement of leather, feathers, lace, embroidery, and beautiful rainwear.  Although you’ll find that most of his pieces in the exhibit are blacks, ivories and whites; you’ll also see that there are some fantastic pops of color.  One dress (pictured below) which has a sleek and elegant black front, will surprise you with it’s pop of color on the back of the train, which has arrows strategically placed within the color pop.  I did have a favorite.  It was the evening wear which was a beautifully beaded flesh colored pants romper, with a long elegant black collared, three-quarter length coat.  If you were able to make it to Ralph Rucci’s lecture, you know how impressed he was with SCAD’s gallery.  So impressed that he wanted to add a touch of his own to his exhibition.  He did this by writing all over one of the mannequins displaying one of his gowns (pictured below).

 You can visit the works of Dario Escobar and Ralph Rucci until September 16.  The SCADmoa will also be welcoming Ivan Navarro June 16 with his show “Heaven or Las Vegas”

Written by: Brittany Caudill