Robert Birmelin, Penn Station, Lower Level- with Prodigal Forgiven, 2008
Poetry of Content: Five Contemporary Realist Artists
Available Dates: May 2016- December 2019
Space requirements: 350 linear feet
Rental fee: $8,500 plus round trip shipping
For more information, please contact Emily Dittman, ekdittma@syr.edu or (3105) 443-4097
Exhibitions Description:
In the landscape of contemporary practice, representational imagery has seemingly gone into hiding. With a few exceptions, imagery that incorporates a realistic visual space, modeled figures and natural surroundings is largely absent from the lexicon of art making. Over his more than forty years as a painter and professor at Syracuse University, internationally recognized artist and guest curator Jerome Witkin has championed representation and narrative in his work and his teaching.
Poetry of Content examines the careers of five mature artists who work in a Realist style: Robert Birmelin, Gillian Pederson-Krag, Tim Lowly, Bill Murphy and Joel Sheesley. Each has a visually distinct body of work and yet there are threads, aesthetic, philosophical and spiritual, that tie them together. The strongest is their determination to work in a representational manner. Each has decided that Realism, be it through images of the figure, landscape (rural or urban) or still life best communicates their interests in the world around them. This has often put them at odds with the mainstream art world, especially commercial galleries who appear more interested in short term trends and experimental work. Instead, these five artists hew to a fuller, deeper visual current that propel them inexorably forward.
The exhibition includes a fully illustrated catalog and didactic text panels.
Download the complete exhibition checklist
Categories: General Announcement, Traveling Exhibitions