Painter Rob Evans Named
2010 Martha and Merritt deJong
Memorial Artist-In-Residence
June 27 - August 29
INDICATOR,
ROB EVANS,
Watercolor and acrylic on paper,
2000, 21 x 20 inches
Collection of Mr. Martin Murray
Presented in partnership with the MARTHA AND MERRITT DEJONG FOUNDATION, the WILLIAM A. CARSON FOUNDATION, the DAUS FAMILY FOUNDATION in memory of JOHN J. DAUS, JR. and MR. AND MRS. JAMES OWEN COLEMAN
The Artist’s Residency is sponsored by DR. AND MRS. SPIRO MITSOS in cooperation with the ROBERT G. GRAVES FAMILY in honor of VIRGINIA G. AND JOHN H. SCHROEDER
Rob Evans has been selected as the Evansville Museum’s 2010 Martha and Merritt deJong Memorial Artist-in-Residence. In conjunction with his residency and weeklong classes, 35 of Evans’ paintings, which are a 30-year survey, will be featured in the Main Gallery exhibition, MAGIC & MYSTERY: THE ART OF ROB EVANS, from June 27 – August 29.
Artist and independent curator Rob Evans lives and works in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University in 1981 and has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Pollack-Krasner Foundation. Evans’ meticulous paintings and drawings have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Evansville Museum’s 2007-2009 nationally traveling exhibition, Object Project.
Most recently, Evans’ 10 foot painting, Cicada, traveled to five museums in the state of Pennsylvania as part of the exhibition, Artists of the Commonwealth: Realism in Pennsylvania Painting 1950-2000. His work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Museum of Art and the San Francisco Art Museums, among others.
Evans offers this insight into his work, “Having been raised by scientist parents, I have always had a fascination with the sciences. For the last 20 years, my paintings have been based primarily on direct observations of the forces of nature at work: the passages of time; the cycles of life and death; growth and decay; changes of season and weather; the mysteries of life.”
Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana and Evansville Museum Collaborate with Regional Artists in Annual Juried Exhibition
July 11 - September 12
Presented in memory of VIRGINIA B. LOWENTHAL
For the 17th consecutive year, regional artists have participated in a juried exhibition entitled WORKING TOGETHER. This July 11 – September 12 Old Gallery exhibition is presented in cooperation with the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. Juror for this year’s competition is Brian Lee Whisenhunt, Director of the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Since becoming the 10th executive director of the Swope Art Museum in June of 2008, Brian Whisenhunt has concentrated on refining the Museum’s exhibition schedule, public programs and community profile. Mr. Whisenhunt received his Masters of Art degree in art history from the University of Oklahoma and wrote his thesis on earthworks, large-scale sculpture in the landscape from the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has worked in museum education for over 10 years and enjoys the challenge of helping people connect with works of art. Whisenhunt began his professional career at the Wichita Art Museum as director of education. He then became the first manager of public programs at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, the largest university art museum in the United States, where he was in charge of the development of a new menu of programs for the institution when it opened a new building in 2006.
Michael Bergt: Bronze Sculpture from Evansville Collections
July 11 - September 12
FALLEN ANGEL
MICHAEL BERGT
Bronze, 1998
Collection of Tay Ruthenburg
Presented in partnership with RICH and HOLLY D’AMOUR
Summer visitors to the Evansville Museum will notice a marked difference in one particular area of the second floor Garden Colonnade. As part of the first phase of the Museum’s “Reaching for the Stars” major facility renovation/expansion project, the area just outside the Main Gallery that once featured a “Vivarium” with a small fountain, live cockatiels, fish and turtles has been cleared to make way for a sleek new gallery suitable for smaller exhibitions.
Inaugurating the new space will be an exhibit of small bronze sculptures by the celebrated American artist, Michael Bergt – a longtime friend of this institution, who was featured in a 1998 one-man Main Gallery exhibition, “The Human Pageant” – is also represented in the Museum’s Contemporary American Still Life Painting Collection.
This is the first time that Bergt’s work as a sculptor has received solo attention here. All of the works featured are being loaned by Evansville collectors, including Lisa and Marty Imbler, Tay Ruthenburg, Martha Ryan, Richard and Kathy Wagner, and Kenneth Drew.
Concurrent with this two-month exhibition, which opens on July 11 and continues through September 12, will be a one-week teaching residency in which Bergt will offer life drawing classes in the evenings for more seasoned artists.
Represented in major museum, corporate and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, Bergt is widely admired for the apparent ease with which he moves from one art medium to another. Whether in his egg tempera paintings, which have gained him international acclaim, or his masterfully designed and executed sculptures and works on paper, Michael Bergt demonstrates equal technical authority and vision.
In Crossing Lines, John D. O’Hern’s insightful 2006 book about the artist, the author observes:
Michael Bergt sees with more than his eyes. He sees underlying cosmic design manifested in the human figure and in the flora and fauna around him. He intuits the psychological processes active in his models’ minds and looks for their expression in the subjects’ faces, in their appearances, and in their manners. He uses the figure to express his insights with humor and beauty.
