HOTC Art to HeART

You're invited to the opening reception of On Being: Realism and The BGSU School of Art Painting and Drawing Program on Friday, August 9from 5-8pm. This exhibition will be on view August 9 - September 13, 2019n
On Being: Realism and The BGSU School of Art Painting and Drawing Program
Curated by Brandon Briggs and Dennis Wojtkiewicz

Realism, like nature, persists. All visual art is based in the observed. Nature and perception are the minimally required precepts if one is to ?make art?. On a grander scale, realism is fugitive, with the maker towing an ever confusing line between control and chaos not dissimilar from the lines walked by the abstract expressionists of the mid 20th century or even that of contemporary painters of all ?isms? attempting to organize the natural world into a cohesive statement on a surface.

With realism the natural world is directly coded into the dramatic narrative of the work, and in nuanced ways abstraction is coded into the unfolding of the painted image. Each of the artists are keenly aware of both their surroundings as subject as well as the nuanced efforts that make for interesting marriages of form and content containednaturally in the painted or drawn surfaces as an expression of both intention and improvisation. Formulas, in other words, will never do. Each of these artists is attempting to make realism new, a way to discover the purposes of the image. What is the place in our mechanized, mass-produced, digital world for such hand-crafted, one of a kind, fiercely analog work. Unlike televisual media (film, television, and social media/net-channel) realism has remained relatively quiet. All of the artists represented seek to find balance inside of the quiet place that realism occupies while acknowledging its historical, social, political, and cultural contexts.

Similar interests between the artists in this exhibition is born of another commonality: each artist is either a former student or current faculty member at the School of Art at Bowling Green State University. Although the Painting and Drawing area in the School of Art has never identified itself as being behind any of the ?isms? mentioned above, there has emerged over the past 25 years a large cohort of artists interested in the type of visual phenomena underscored in this exhibition. The belief in the craft of drawing and painting as an integral part of an artist's means of self-expression continues to flourish. Something very interesting and unique emerges when students, academics and artists from all over the country converge at a hub of artistic practice and merge ideas about their approach to picturing the world. This is intended to be a survey of what happens when traditional forms of painting and drawing are treated as an ever-important means of discovering balance through observation and patience.

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You're invited to The Art Market at Taste of the Arts 2019 on Saturday, August 24, 2019 from 11am-7pm.

The Art Market is a curated marketplace featuring the best in contemporary craft and handmade goods. Ourmarket strives to bring the highest quality handmade goods to the people of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Taste of the Arts Festival celebrates and supports the rich diversity of arts and cultural experiences in our vibrant community. The festival is open to all, providing access to art without cost.

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You'e invited to the opening reception of Humanimals in Precarious Positions by Melanie Cooper Pennington on Friday, September 20, 2019from 5-8pm.

Melanie Cooper Pennington has been sculpting for 20 years. It wasn't until after marriage, two children and 12 years as an interior designer in Chicago that Melanie received an opportunity to pursue her dreamof working as a full time artist. Prior to her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Indiana University, Pennington began studying the figure at Wheaton College where she received her Bachelor of Arts (BA). She continued figurative anatomy studies at workshops in New York and Colorado, and has since participated in multiple artist residencies and curated exhibitions. She has recently shown with Sculpture in the Parks in Chicago, The Indianapolis Art Center and at The Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University where Melanie has worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture for the past 3 years.

By embodying forms in the likeness of whales, bison and elephants (animals that we keep our distance from because of their physical power and intimidating size), Cooper Pennington's large-scale sculptures immediately trigger curiosity and wariness. Her ?Beasts' are, however, frequentlysoft and touchable, placed in precarious positions or engaged in a struggle with an opposing force, consequently probing the viewer's capacity for empathy. The visceral materials by which Cooper Pennington constructs her work range from ceramic and steel to fur and wood. She uses her knowledge ofhuman anatomy to anthropomorphize the beast - incorporating human signifiers that make the imagined creatures feel knowable.


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