UNEARTH
Exhibition Dates: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2017
Reception: Thursday, SEPTEMBER 7, 6 - 8 pm
Melissa Oresky
Regan Golden
The Painting Center is pleased to present Unearth organized by Shona Macdonald. This exhibition brings together four artists: John Dilg, Regan Golden, Shona Macdonald and Melissa Oresky for whom ‘unearth’ means not only excavating imagery from ‘earthly’ sources but also,‘unearthing’ as a means of painting itself. The works not only represent nature as subject matter but evoke natural forms through their physical presence as objects. Each artist considers aspects of land or earth in their work in invented, imaginary ways rather than engaging in traditional methods of ‘landscape’ painting, such as plein air. To unearth also means ‘to bring to the fore,’ which is how each of these artists conceptualize and execute paintings. Digging through and sifting reference materials, and plumbing the depths of materials, ‘unearthing’ is also a discovery of potential imagery through painterly experimentation. Finally, unearth implies something other than the earth, an otherworldly landscape, perhaps, filled with whimsy, dreams, melancholy, and the surreal.
** This exhibition was made possible by grants from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Illinois State University College of Fine Arts and the University of Iowa.
