The owner of Myers Park’s SOCO Gallery is making Charlotte an arts destination
ON A SEPTEMBER NIGHT in Myers Park, a crowd overflows onto SOCO Gallery’s front porch. The opening for Elliott Puckette’s Recent Works teems with local artists, longtime and budding collectors, and celebrities such as Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers and his wife, Dexter actress Jennifer Carpenter. At the center of the crowd is owner Chandra Johnson, greeting all visitors in the same way as they enter the 1920s bungalow: with a hug and an introduction to Puckette. It’s a reminder why this gallery is named for “Southern Comfort.”
Puckette’s large, abstract works feature a continuous line with no obvious beginning or end. It’s the fifth show in a year of growth and daring curation for the gallery, which has evolved from a photography-centric program to a broader survey of the art world.
In the weeks that follow the opening, staffers study Puckette’s drawings, trying to find the starting and ending points of her dramatic, winding strokes. The gallery’s own beginning is much easier to identify; SOCO’s been in this space since 2015. Led by Johnson, its trajectory from sparse pop-up to Southern cultural force is unprecedented for the city. The growth is perhaps a reflection of the city’s growing cultural sector, Johnson says. Her modesty aside, SOCO’s success is more complicated than that, considering the difficulty of running an art gallery.
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way
The Dumbledore of CMC
A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic
LGBTQ HB2+5
Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts
Oh, Snap!
New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s
ALLISON LATOS
The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience
GOOD HEALTH
For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
Uptown or Downtown?
Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TOP DOCTORS 2021
The annual list you can't without
