“Pattern Recognition”

An exhibition of art by Tracie Cheng.

March 18, 2024 to April 18, 2024

Reception: Thursday, April 18, 2024 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Tracie Cheng is a Taiwanese American artist weaving lines and paint into dynamic visual dreamscapes. She very consciously observes life around her-absorbing stories and experiences-and subconsciously watching as they unfold onto the canvas. Resembling nature, fractals, patterns and forms, her paintings are inspired by all the incredible and regular things around us. The lines undulate in and out of visibility and reality while the paint provides shelter and contrast, allowing the paintings to be playful, familiar, yet challenging to our imaginations. It prompts curiosity and assurance; an invitation into wonder and a hope for possibility in the intangible. Her work is meant to be a reflection of life’s textured complexities, giving voice to her every-evolving relationship with faith, culture, ethnicity and narrative.

Tracie attended the University of Texas in Austin and graduated with a degree in architecture. After several years of architectural work, her desire to shape environments shifted to the visual arts. Her artistic style channels aspects of Chinese brush painting, abstraction, with some architectural sensibilities sprinkled throughout, continually shaped by the beauty and intricacies of the different cultures around her. Tracie has shown her work at galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, Vancouver, and Shanghai. One of her first major projects was a series of paintings for Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and her paintings are now in public and private collections all over the world. Tracie finds joy navigating this artist life alongside her son and sculptor husband, Eóin Burke, in Connecticut. You can see more of her work on Instagram.

GALLERY HOURS:

Mondays:   11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Tuesdays:   9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Wednesdays:   2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Thursdays:   12:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Fridays:   11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Gallery is closed on weekends, and holidays.

“Nathan Beard: A Swirling Eddy”

An exhibition of work by Nathan Beard.

Now until April 18, 2024

Reception: Wednesday, April 17, 2024 4 – 5 p.m. via Zoom

Nathan Beard employs a variety of processes to achieve complex, multi-layered artworks inspired by the human conception and experience of Space-Time. The meaning of his work is inextricably tied to the process of its creation, with each color, form and technique chosen for its metaphorical possibilities. He draws inspiration from the density and variety of Floridian flora, the natural and cosmological sciences, as well as mathematics and anthropology.

Utilizing a diverse set of approaches and techniques, Beard probes the space between our very linear experience of the world and the non-linear ways in which it continually transforms itself. Meditating upon the connective patterns underlying events at vastly different scales, the all too human tendency to reduce complex relationships to contrasting dualities and the potential congruity between human will and natural forces, he seeks a deeper understanding of the intricate relationships between matter, space, energy and time. Of special interest to Beard are the quandary of ultimate origin, the profound role that death plays in human psychology, and the paradox of the inwardly infinite.

This exhibit includes several artworks from each of Beard’s bodies of work, ranging from representational paintings of plant reflections on water to a genealogically-based research project that helps Beard construct artworks based on participants’ memories. Connecting all of his projects is a focus upon the human experience of space-time and how we shape reality by extracting meaning and funneling purpose from the swirling eddies of life. Given that the exhibit is held in an educational setting, “Nathan Beard: A Swirling Eddy” is also meant to serve as a demonstration of the diverse approaches and skill sets a contemporary artist can develop in order to build a career in visual art.

GALLERY HOURS:

Mondays – Thursdays:   9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Gallery is closed on Fridays, weekends and holidays.

“Recent Work”

An exhibition of art by Paul Erschen.

Now until April 18, 2024

Reception: TBA

Paul Erschen is Department Chair and Professor of Visual Art at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, IL and workshop leader at the ACRE art residency program in Steuben, WI. In August 2022, he attended a residency at Watershed Center for The Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME. Paul holds degrees from The Ohio State University (MFSA, 2000) and Northern Illinois University, (BFA, 1998).

GALLERY HOURS:

Mondays – Thursdays:   9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Gallery is closed on Fridays, weekends and holidays.