"Casablanca (Classic Version)" by Aldwyth (courtesy of the Ackland Art Musuem)A 73-year-old recluse from a South Carolina island will make her debut with her first major show at the Ackland Art Museum this weekend. The woman, who according to the Ackland's Nic Brown goes only by the name "Aldwyth," is being brought into the art world limelight by former Chapel Hill resident Mark Sloan, who is now director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. Brown claims that Sloan has "really been [Aldwyth's] champion," working to bring her work from the outskirts of the art world into the mainstream.

Aldwyth's art deals primarily with intricate mosaics. For one piece, Aldwyth cut every image from an entire encyclopedia and fit them onto a gigantic collage. Another collage is composed of hundreds of eyeballs. She does her work at her home on an island off the coast of South Carolina.

A picture of one her pieces I saw over e-mail looks like it is dripping with eyeballs – very unique. I’m not the only one excited to meet her and see her work this weekend (see back here Monday for pictures).

“There’s been a lot of excitement, a lot of curiosity,” Brown says. “The art work is totally mind blowing, the work of somebody who is a real sort of obsessive.”

Aldwyth will be in Chapel Hill Saturday evening for an invitation-only opening for museum members and special guests. The public opening, where the artist will be present, is Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Ackland.

Update on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 10:18AM by Lisa Rossi

I just spoke with Mark Sloan, who is director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, and is the one who discovered Aldwyth and helped bring her to Chapel Hill. I learned a few more tidbits.

* Sloan describes bringing Aldwyth's show to Chapel Hill as "a wonderful full circle for me." That's because of Sloan's strong Chapel Hill connection. He was born here, and his father, Bill Sloan, was the owner of the former Sloan Drug Company located at the corner of Franklin and Columbia Streets.

* Sloan first encountered Aldwyth at her spartan home on Hilton Head Island and was blown away by her work.

"I kept thinking somebody will snatch her up, and no one was doing it, and I thought maybe I should just do it," Sloan says. "She lives for this work. She's extraordinary."