Benson Campus Galleries | Greenville Technical College

Sam Wang: Centripetal Summary

January 9 - February 10, 2023

Sam Wang’s photography consistently searches for a visual core through his experimentation with handmade equipment, photographic processes, and digital technologies. His discoveries elevate everyday sights to imaginative visions. Always the educator, as well as the photographer, Sam’s photographs teach us how to look and not overlook, how to comprehend through visual appreciation. In the monograph, Sam Wang: Four Decades of Photographic Explorations, Sam writes “I have been most interested in the discoveries we make in the production of art. To me the images and the prints are merely evidences of our experiences, or byproducts of our investigations, and not ends in themselves.”

Centripetal Summary is an abridgement of “Sam Wang: Centripetal Discovery”. Centripetal Summary came into existence following a circuitous route beginning with the short film, Sam Wang: Centripetal Persistence created by John Rash (Director of the Southern Documentary Project, at the Center for Southern Culture, University of Mississippi). Rash’s film led Sam’s former student, Richard Lou (University of Memphis Department of Art Chair and Professor) to curate the exhibition, “Sam Wang: Acts of Persistent Discoveries” for the University of Memphis Museum. A pared down version of “Discoveries” then moved to the Gammill Gallery, University of Mississippi, and eventually home to Clemson University. At Clemson, Denise Woodward-Detrich, Director of Clemson’s Lee Gallery, expanded the exhibition to “Sam Wang: Centripetal Discovery” for an exhibition in the fall of 2022 which also featured John Rash and a screening of his film Sam Wang: Centripetal Persistence.

Sam Wang: Centripetal Summary is an abstract of Sam’s compendium of looking, finding, and creating. Sam uses current digital technology as well as palladium, gum, and other darkroom processes that he sometimes combines and layers. With Sam’s eye and adventuresomeness there will always be more. Centripetal Summary is an homage to Sam’s 40 years on a centripetal path as an artist, educator, and a skilled, fearless craftsman.

Sam Wang was born in Beijing, China and immigrated to the United States. He studied art in South Dakota and received his MFA in Photography from the University of Iowa. For 40 years he was head of Clemson University’s photography program, graduating hundreds of photography students. He also co-initiated the Clemson MFA program in Digital Production Arts, preparing students for the animation industry. At Clemson, he received the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Art Award. He has been recognized as an Honored Educator by the Society for Photographic Education – Southeast Region. He was presented the Elizabeth Verner Award by Governor Nikki Haley for his contributions to the arts in South Carolina.

Sam Wang: Centripetal Summary is dedicated in memory of Blake Praytor. Blake, one of Sam’s Clemson MFA graduates, was instrumental in building the Department of Visual Arts at Greenville Technical College where he was lead photography instructor from 1999-2012 and DVA chair from 1999-2008. Blake's students have gone on to photograph professionally in Greenville, across the country, and around the world.

Blake Praytor, 2008, photo by Zane Logan