EVOKE Contemporary

2010 July

Re-Presenting the Nude | curated by John O’Hern

01 July 6 – 8 pm | opening reception thursday evening through July 31

“The body and its senses are our tools for experiencing the world and each other. The ineffable energy that animates the body opens up worlds within and without.” John is Santa Fe Editor of American Art Collector and Western Art Collector magazines and was Executive Director and Curator of the Arnot Art Museum where he originated the innovative biennial exhibitions of contemporary realism, “Re-Presenting Representation.”

some of the artists participating include

steven assael | sharon allicotti | daniel barkley | michael bergt | christyl boger | f. scott hess | sabin howard | geoffrey laurence | michael leonard | javier marín | scherer + ouporov | paul rahilly | wade reynolds | jon eric riis | karen rosenthal | david simon | frederick spencer | daniel sprick | roxanne swentzell | bernardo torrens | james tyler | patricia watwood | gary weisman | kent williams | will wilson

2010 August

Louisa McElwain | oil of joy

06 August 5 – 7 pm | opening reception friday evening through August 30

A classically trained artist with roots firmly planted in the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, McElwain paints with knives and masonry trowels, working quickly to capture an image before the light fades or the clouds drift past. Inspired by the color theory of Joseph Albers and a masters workshop with Wolf Kahn, it was at the Nera Simi drawing studio in Florence, Italy, in 1973 where McElwain says she learned to see by focusing on the same figure drawing for two weeks. For McElwain, paint is not subordinate to the motif. She often incorporates bits of stone, glass, plants, and even insects into the paint as she works.

“There is a powerful feeling that surges up from the earth and through me as I paint,” she says. “I am vulnerable to the powerful forces of wind and light and bugs. There is a rhythm to nature, a measured meter and tempo, the speed the clouds move in the sky, and the way the shadows shift. I’m walking a line, balancing between allowing the painting to exist for its own sake and expressing something true about my experience of nature.”

2010 September

Kent Williams | solo exhibition

02 September 6 – 8 pm | opening reception thursday evening through September 30

Primarily a figurative painter, Williams’ work explores, in both bold and subtle ways, and often through a suggestion of narrative and woven symbolism, the thread of life that ties us together as human beings. Embracing our virtues while not shying away from our faults, he shows us portraits of ourselves, intense and penetrating.

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2010 October

Lynn Boggess | solo exhibition

14 October 6 – 8 pm | opening reception thursday evening through October 31

The landscapes of Lynn Boggess give us a year-round walk in the woods. They provide us with a series of meditations on beauty; they give us an opportunity to consider the importance of Nature to our own experience. They also contain, in small subtle ways, much of the history of landscape painting. Because Boggess has chosen to paint Nature directly, and because he sees it as beautiful and endangered, he draws us into his fierce political vision.Because that vision is so disciplined that the artist presents it for us, without commentary, we may choose for ourselves which memory to recall; which path to take.

Marian J. Hollinger, Curator
James David Brooks Memorial Gallery
Fairmont State College

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Past Exhibitions

2010 June

Teresa Elliott + Gordon McConnell | two contemporary views of the west

Teresa Elliott attributes a lifelong connection to the pastoral American West for the reverence that inspires her grand portraits of the regal longhorn. The subtlety and confidence with which she paints her large-scale canvases lead many who encounter them to experience surprisingly emotional reactions. Her contemporary view of the West is dramatic in its grandiose scale and overpoweringly engaging in its sentimental spirit and majesty.

Gordon McConnell’s paintings celebrate the old black and white western film images that inspire him. Particularly the action scenes - flying teams of horses, stagecoaches smothered in illuminated dust, desperate bandits on the run, cowboys, cavalry troopers, fearless indians -wild riders and all. The aura and nostalgia of the old West and the great epic films have been stilled in Gordon’s contemporary interpretation of the era he loves. His paintings are romantic tributes to the memorial and mourning of the dreams of the West.