This could be a lighting issue. Try to start the client from the command line with:
./psclient_static.app/Contents/MacOS/psclient_static --relight
Relighting the podium should not take very long. Then, when the character selection window has loaded, just quit the client again and start it as normal. Hopefully this will remove the black patches you see.
You know Trymm? It pains me to realize that I should have KNOWN to do that before posting.

Thanks for the reply.
I don't know if this helps at all, but here is the log from my command line launch to issue the relight command ...
crystalspace.engine.notify:
Recalculation of lightmaps forced.
Initializing lighting (16 meshes).
Shining lights (7 lights).
WARNING! Object '_s_bridge_01' is not closed!
WARNING! Object '_s_sigil_01' is not closed!
WARNING! Object 'spikes_03' is not closed!
WARNING! Object 'spikes_05' is not closed!
WARNING! Object '_s_sigil_02' is not closed!
WARNING! Object '_s_sigil_04' is not closed!
...
Time taken: 0.4030 seconds.
Caching lighting (16 meshes).
crystalspace.maploader.parse.image:
Could not open image file 'tlo-ke_1.dds' on VFS!
crystalspace.maploader.parse.texture:
Couldn't load image 'tlo-ke_1.dds', using error texture instead!
crystalspace.maploader.parse.image:
Could not open image file '/planeshift/items/spoon_wooden01a.dds' on VFS!
crystalspace.maploader.parse.texture:
Couldn't load image '/planeshift/items/spoon_wooden01a.dds', using error
texture instead!