Crawfordsville, IN — The Wabash College Art Department announces the opening of Contemporary Figurative Paintings on Monday, January 26 from 8-9:30 p.m. The four artists whose work will be exhibited at the Fine Art Center are Tim Kennedy, Robert Kingsley, Eve Mansdorf, and Tina Newberry. Each of these Indiana artists present their subjects in different manner and all appear here through the courtesy of the Mark Ruschman Gallery.
Tim Kennedy, who teaches art at Indiana University, presents the subjects of his paintings engaged in quiet pursuits in familiar surroundings. Kennedy says of his art, “The people, objects and interior settings within the paintings elicit emotional resonances, but I do not believe these meanings to be fixed. To me the painting is what is meaningful rather than the things depicted. My hope is that any images or associations evoked by the work have a poetic, musical effect on the viewer.” Kennedy was the recipient of the of 2002 Indiana Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Grant and has had many exhibitions including his most recent solo show at the First Street gallery in New York City.
Robert Kingsley received his MFA from Indiana University and is the John Rapp Emison Professor of Creative and Performing Arts for Research, Teaching and Service at DePauw. The recipient of numerous prizes and awards for excellence in art, Kingsley is described as follows by his former teacher, Robert Barnes: “I have known Robert Kingsley since 1974 when he was a student of mine in the graduate program at Indiana University. He was one of the most talented and impressive young artists I have encountered in 35 years of teaching. As a professor of painting he has proven that an artist practicing his craft on the highest level is truly the best teacher...acting as an example for his students. The painter-educator has become more the norm in our profession, but few demonstrate such excellence and dedication as Kingsley.”
Eve Mansdorf is an art professor at Indiana University. She says, “The large figure paintings are conceived from imagination but are based in real life experience and location. The paintings are primarily domestic interiors, usually of couples or single figures. I am interested in the nude figure as subject matter and strive to find a pretext for using it other than in the strictly perceptual mode of the model in a studio. Usually the paintings focus on male/female relationships as I see this as a way of exploring identity and sexuality.”
Tina Newberry is the fourth of the Indiana artists and although she now teaches drawing at Drexel University in Philadelphia, she earned her MFA at Indiana University. The Philadelphia Inquirer says, “ She’s a traditional figure painter who casts herself pictorially in a variety of roles... The paintings in which Newberry appears nude or partially so are symbolic reveries. They're often leavened with sly humor. Self-deprecating humor is always attractive, but in these quietly beautiful little paintings the joke is on all of us. Newberry is not just herself but Everywoman and man who daydreams of being someone or someplace else.”
The exhibition will run through February 21 and is open to the public. All paintings will be in the Randolph Deer Art Wing. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9-5 and Saturday 10-2.