January 23-February 28, 2009
Opening Reception:
Friday, January 23rd, 5-8 p.m.
Groveland Gallery is pleased to present a unique exhibition of landscape paintings by three Minnesota artists. Though the subject of landscape has been of fascination to artists for hundreds of years, each generation continues to reinvent the theme. With varied stylistic approaches, interests and choices of medium, artists Gregory Euclide, Robert Dorlac and Andrew Wykes offer a contemporary approach to the depiction of landscape.
Andrew Wykes, a Hamline University professor and a transplant from the UK, represents the landscape from a more nostalgic point of view. His delicate and traditionally executed oil paintings depict the prairie areas near his Northfield home. Through the use of a muted palette and the selection of understated, quiet vistas, Wykes’ paintings unearth deeply imbedded recollections of the landscapes from his youth.
Robert Dorlac, a former park ranger and geologist, is now a college professor of fine art at Minnesota State University in Marshall. Dorlac relies on his naturalist and social scientist background when he creates his plein air paintings. He writes of his work: “…remnants of grand ecosystems – what is left after man-assisted mutation into parking lots, malls or agriculture – are important places for me. I spend a great deal of time in prairie, forest, wetland, desert and alpine landscapes. These places are my studio.”
Minneapolis artist Gregory Euclide departs from traditional painting. Euclide creates sculptural images of the landscape – paintings and drawings on paper that has been folded, creased, painted and infused with organic matter. He explains: “the battered and wrinkled sheets of paper that are the foundation of these works carry a blend of imagery containing picturesque landscapes drawn from memory, photo transfers from nature photography, abstract areas of raw paint and actual artifacts such as bark and pine needles … The three-dimensional forms of these new terrains – painted on both sides and containing hidden vignettes – encourage the kind of exploration one might find in nature rather than in a traditional picture.”
The artists will be present at the opening reception on Friday, January 23rd from 5-8 p.m. This exhibition runs concurrently with the Groveland Annex exhibition, "Recent Work," by Charles Lyon. Both exhibitions continue through February 28th.
