Bonnie Baxter: Rewind
August 22 – October 11, 2008

Opening and Reception: August 22, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Gallery Talk: 7:00 p.m.... Bonnie Baxter

The international tour of Bonnie Baxter: Rewind, a multi-media exhibit,is being offered by Laurentides Museum of Contemporary Art in Canada, with stops between 2006 and 2009 in Newfoundland, Alberta and Quebec, Canada, Fort Myers, Florida and Memphis, Tennessee in the USA, and Istanbul, Turkey.  The artist acknowledges the generous support of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA).

In the artist’s words: “I have been an artist for a long time… making things, trying things, looking for a true narrative, a narrative of how life is… I see that life is not complicated, but it is dense, and that it is easy to get caught in this density – a tiny insect in a mass of layers, struggling to find the surface. I would rather see the layers as opportunities, evidence of the simultaneity, synchronicity, serendipity that abounds in life. Each series of work I produce acts as a semi-autobiographical translation of life – finding beauty in the commonplace: seeing that the extraordinary is common.  Rewind reflects some 15 years of this practice, combining work from several series.  It includes a selection of work from my large-scale digital print series on canvas, Les coquelicots and Baphomet, as well as the video imagery of Surreal and Cityscape.  With imagery drawn from my travels, my art practice, and my everyday life, their layers play a counterpoint, sublime, ridiculous, and everything in between. Rewind’s center piece Babel, attempts to find sense and beauty in the diversity rather than a lesson in humility.” 

Bonnie Baxter was born in Texarkana, Texas.  She has lived in Val-David, Quebec, since 1969.  She has taught in the Print Media Program at Concordia University, Montreal since 1984, and she has lectured extensively and given workshops in Canada, Mexico, the USA and Turkey.

Mamie Holst: From the Series Landscape Before Dying
October 24 – December 6, 2008

Opening and Reception: October 24, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: October 24, 7:00 p.m. … Ron Bishop, Gallery Director

With her ongoing series of paintings titled “Landscape Before Dying,” Mamie Holst explores the inspiring abstract landscape within her experience of chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome. Since 1989, when she was diagnosed with CFIDS and forced to return home, she has mined her syndrome related sensations for her work’s static, tremor, crosshairs, elegance, distortion, drift, space, targets, voids, isolation, and peace.  Mamie noted that:

“I feel like I don't really think anymore. Of course I still think or else I wouldn't function obviously, but it's a much more basic type of thinking. It's like if you try to think big thoughts your brain hits a blank wall. When painting, it just sort of comes out. While looking at a finished painting, I can't really remember how I did it. I know where I put the lines down etc., but most of the decision making is more subconscious.”

Mamie Holst was born in Florida in 1961. She received an AA degree in 1981 from Edison Community College and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1987 to 1989 where she earned an MFA.   A John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship was awarded to Mamie in 2005. Mamie is represented by Feature Inc, New York, NY.  Mamie currently lives in Ft. Myers, FL.

The first in a series of Chamber Music Performances will be held in the gallery during this exhibit on October 27, 2008 – 1:00 p.m.
Adam Muller, Sax
Brice Gerlach, Pianist

Selections from Henk Badings, Dimitri Terzakis, Karel Husa, J.S. Bach and others.

Adam Muller, Saxophonist
Adam was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. After initial music studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, he completed coursework at The University of Southern Mississippi and The Florida State University, receiving degrees from both institutions. He has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, giving performances at the Kennedy Center and Capitol Hill, and has appeared as soloist at music festivals including the International Society of Contemporary Music. Muller also served as the first classical saxophone professor at Florida International University in Miami.  In 2004, he was invited by John-Edward Kelly to become a founding member of an international chamber music ensemble, The Kelly Quartet. Based in Germany, the group has inspired significant new literature for the medium, including works by Michael Denhoff, Krzysztof Meyer, Dimitri Terzakis, Manfred Stahnke, and others.

Brice Gerlach, Pianist
Brice received his bachelor's and master's degrees in organ performance from Eastman School of Music and Indiana University respectively.  He is currently completing his doctorate in choral conducting from Indiana University.  His organ teachers include L. Robert Slusser, Russell Saunders and Larry Smith. He is currently Assistant Director of the Naples Philharmonic Center Chorale and Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Naples.

Mamie Holst, Landscape Before Dying (High Strangeness)
Acrylic on canvas, 14” x 18”, 2001

Lilian Garcia-Roig: Nature of Being There
January 16 – February 21, 2009

Opening and Reception: January 16, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: January 16, 7:00 p.m. … Lilian Garcia-Roig

The paintings of Lilian Garcia-Roig are anchored in the tradition of landscape painting.  But, that is just a stepping stone to what are her main concerns.  While her paintings do have the initial impact of looking like landscape ‘interiors’ it becomes immediately clear her work is less illusionistic than a first glimpse might suggest. 

“By creating the illusion of recognizable trees, I draw the viewers comfortably into an assumption that what they perceive will be glimpses of conventional space.  Up close, however, the images break down and the lush, gestural paint marks, the squeezed-out patches and the occasional raw canvas help instead, to reinforce the two-dimensional character of abstract painting.” – Lilian Garcia-Roig

Garcia-Roig was born in Havana, Cuba, studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and received an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.  In 2006 she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting and a State of Florida Artists Enhancement Grant.  In 2004 she was the featured artist for the State of Florida during the National Hispanic Heritage Month.  She currently teaches painting at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

A Chamber Music Performance will be held in the gallery during this exhibit on January 26, 2009 – 1:00 p.m.
Wendy Willis, Flute
Diane Coffman, Cello
Ron Doiron, Harpsichord

Theme:  Going Baroque

Lilian Garcia-Roig, St Marks Inlet, oil on canvas, 40”x 30”

Syd Solomon:  On Black
March 13 – April 9, 2009

Opening and Reception: March 13, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: March 13, 7:00 p.m. … Michael Solomon

Syd Solomon (1917-2004) was born in Uniontown, PA and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  After serving in Europe during WWII, he attended L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.  In Sarasota he studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design.

Solomon has exhibited globally and his works are held in numerous permanent collections including: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Norton Gallery of Art, Tampa Museum, Tate Gallery in London, Tel Aviv Museum and the Whitney Museum of Art, to name a few.

A Chamber Music Performance will be held in the gallery during this exhibit on March 25, 2009 – 1:00 p.m.
Holocaust Memorial Program

Cello Power
Eugene Eicher and Diane Coffman, Cellists

All Compositions in honor of Jewish Composers

Syd Solomon, Shore Sentry
Lithograph on black paper, 22” x 30”, 1977

Annual Student Art Show
April 23 – April 30, 2009

This exhibition features the work from Edison State College art students and includes painting, drawing, design and photography.

Chamber Music Series
October 27, 2008 – 1:00 p.m.

Adam Muller, Sax
Brice Gerlach, Pianist
Selections from Henk Badings, Dimitri Terzakis, Karel Husa, J.S Bach and others.

January 26, 2009 – 1:00 pm
Wendy Willis, Flute
Diane Coffman, Cello
Ron Doiron, Harpsichord
Theme:  Going Baroque

March 25, 2009 - 1:00 pm
Holocaust Memorial Program
Cello Power
Eugene Eicher and Diane Coffman, Cellists
All Compositions in honor of Jewish Composers

The performances are free, open to the public and held in the gallery.  The chamber music series is sponsored by the gallery docents.

The Gallery would like to express its sincere appreciation to Diane Coffman for developing the series.