The Michigan Landscape Invitational exhibit was co-curated by renowned painter Jim Nawara and PCCA Exhibition Director Mary Fortuna. The curators chose the work of five Michigan artists who represent a cross section of contemporary landscape painting in Michigan, with an eye toward presenting artists whose work
has not been shown extensively in the Detroit area.
Jim Nawarais a senior Professor of Painting and Drawing at WayneStateUniversity, where he has taught since 1969. His paintings, drawings and prints have been shown in a long list of international, national, and regional group exhibitions
over the past forty years.
Howard Dombrowski(Livonia) is a self-taught painter and long time resident of the Detroit area. His paintings are intimate representations of mostly rural scenes. He often emphasizes cloud-filled skies in his small, gem-like paintings.
The viewer senses the artist is at one with his world,
absorbed in the act of capturing a distinctive light or atmosphere.
Keith Downie(Muskegon) has shown his work all over Michigan and Illinois. The local landscape and its houses are the focus of his painting. He seeks out ordinary, unsentimental locations for his straightforward house portraits.
Susan Friedman (Huntington Woods) isolates small segments of the larger landscape and explores them up close. According to Nawara, “Friedman presents nature intensified in her complex microcosms that suggest that there are more things under heaven and earth than we can easily perceive.”
John Hubbard(Marquette) has been teaching at NorthernMichiganUniversity since 1969. His northern landscapes zero in on sunlit tree branches against the sky; water falling over mossy rocks; cool shadows and tracks in the snow. The Upper Peninsula landscape that surrounds him is abstracted to the essential elements of painting - lavish color, pattern, light and shadow, and painterly mark making. These canvases are a visual feast capable of invoking a longing to visit a well-loved region.
Shirley Parish (LathrupVillage) considers herself a painter of abstract landscapes. She works outdoors, sometimes finishing a painting on sight. Her paintings are immediate and fresh, activated by rapid brush strokes and bold marks. She has shown her work in Michigan, Chicago and New York.
First Floor Gallery: Sarah Trahan
March 5 – April 10, 2010
PaintCreekCenter for the Arts is also proud to present recent works by Sarah Trahan. Sarah is an artist living and working out of Berkley, Michigan. A native of Rochester, she received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, and completed the MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. Trahan’s work spans many mediums, with a focus on digital collage and mixed media works. She is on the faculty at the College for Creative Studies and
Oakland Community College in Royal Oak,
where she teaches digital media and alternative processes.
The works presented here include Sarah’s digital collages. Invented figures and strange interiors and landscapes make up this world. The artist combines scanned photographs and other images with drawing and mixed media to “participate in, re-create or completely fabricate events that can no longer be experienced firsthand. Telling stories is important: I am interested in what stories lie within the realms of spaces
(imaginary or real) and their contents...
There is a certain bittersweet comfort in a collection of stories made tangible.”
Red Corner - John Leyland
CALL FOR ENTRIES: MICHIGAN CERAMICS
PaintCreekCenter for the Arts invites all Michigan ceramic artists to submit work for Michigan Ceramics, juried by John Leyland.
JUROR
John Leyland studied ceramics SlipperyRockUniversity and at PennStateUniversity; and earned his M.F.A. at MiamiUniversity in Oxford, Ohio. He has worked as an intern at the MattressFactoryInstallationArtGallery in Pittsburgh and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in the SlovakRepublic. His background includes working as a production potter and teaching ceramics since 1994. Leyland is the Ceramics Studio Coordinator at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. He teaches ceramics classes at the College for Creative studies in Detroit and for local pottery guilds in Ann Arbor. He exhibits his sculpture work extensively and continues to make pots. Recent exhibits include a show at the EllaSharpMuseum in Jackson, Michigan.
ELIGIBILITY
This exhibit is open to all Michigan ceramic artists ages 18 or older. Each artist may enter up to five pieces for a $15 entry fee. Works may be functional, non-functional, decorative or sculptural. Large works and installations will be considered subject to space limitations.
AWARDS
There will be three awards of $100 each. More awards will be made if additional funds can be secured.
For detailed information and a link to a pdf entry form, click here.
CALL FOR ENTRIES:
PCCA MEMBERS BIENNIAL
PaintCreekCenter for the Arts invites members 18 & up to submit works in all media for consideration for our first PCCA Members Biennial exhibit. Members may submit original drawings; paintings; watercolors; collages; limited edition hand-pulled prints (no commercial reproductions); photographs; original digital prints; functional ceramics; sculpture; mixed media works; glass; video or DVD (artist must provide playback equipment.) Jewelry will not be considered, as we do not have secure jewelry display cases. Large sculptures or installations will be considered, subject to space availability. Please note that PCCA staff are unable to carry heavy sculptures upstairs.
ELIGIBILITY
This exhibit is open to all members in good standing ages 18 or older.
