WORK/Love: Eric O'Dell Solo Exhibition
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A sunset, pine tree, tower, auto manual - out of these simple premises drama begins, according to local artist Eric O’Dell, Curator-At-Large at the Macon Museum of Arts & Sciences and Adjunct Professor at Mercer University. The large-scale abstract paintings and drawings of O’Dell’s Work/Love series explore places and environments that could be called non-descript, in-between, or even average. This fall at Wesleyan College, contemporary spatial landscapes and spaces will be visually and thematically connected with more dreamlike images of tools and other objects in O’Dell’s solo exhibition.
“These are places that are not intended or necessarily manipulated to be attractive or beautiful,” describes O’Dell. “There is a powerful authenticity to such places. I like their ambiguity, and I find myself striving to heighten and accentuate their mystery. It is through this desire for mystery and wonder that I hope to make viewers more aware of their own selves and place in the world.”
The exhibition will open Tuesday, August 26, 2008 and run through Tuesday, October 28, 2008 in Wesleyan’s Valeria McCullough Murphey Art Building Gallery. An Opening Reception with the artist is scheduled for Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 6 – 7:30PM. Gallery talk by the artist starts at 6:45PM.
O’Dell’s paintings are rich with color and texture. Working on unprimed canvas, the artist leaves the painting flat while working and employs techniques of brushing, spraying, nontraditional mediums, and dripping to achieve great dimension.
“Paint brings the poignancy,” according to O’Dell. “The images I use to call a painting into existence act only to get the ball rolling...When I start a painting, I do not want to know what it will become before it is finished. Subject matter is only the first step, albeit an important one. It is the act of painting that I equate with the journey.”
August, 2008 |
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