From staff reports
news@joplinglobe.com
Two exhibits will open on Saturday at Spiva Center for the Arts, 222 W. Third St.
Following successful runs at the Sheldon Swope Museum of Art in Terre Haute, Ind., and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, “Works from Perception: Paintings by the Midwest Paint Group” will debut Saturday in the AT&T; Main Gallery. The exhibit runs through Feb. 21
The exhibit features 10 “mid-career” artists who comprise the membership of the Midwest Paint Group. Bob Brock, William Foust, Philip Hale, Jeremy Long, Timothy King and Michael Neary studied at different times at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Glen Cebulash, Barbara Lea, Ron Weaver and Megan Williamson received their training at institutions including Boston University, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Yale, and the New York Studio School.
The MPG painters work in widely varied abstract styles and the media and subject matter also varies among the 40-plus paintings in the exhibit. The paintings include landscape, portraiture and still life that are rendered in oil, acrylic, pastel and mixed media.
During the MPG show, nearly 1,000 Southwest Missouri third graders will see it during their annual field trips to Spiva. Each third grader will have an opportunity to create one painting to take home and another smaller one that will be added to a collaborative mural for display at Spiva. The third graders’ visits are sponsored in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri.
“Works From Perception” is presented with financial assistance from the Friends of St. Avips and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
The exhibit “Out of the Woods: ‘Best of Missouri Hands’ Woodworkers” will be on display in the Regional Gallery through Feb. 26. The exhibit features artists who work in wood. The works include contemporary fine furniture, finely crafted vessels and exuberantly colored, hand-carved pieces.
Sponsored by the Newman Family, “Out of the Woods” features five artists. Joseph Martellaro, of Cuba, Mo., employs exotic woods and freeform shapes to construct contemporary furnishings, a significant departure from his background in antique restoration. Matt Keim, of Pacific, Mo., and Jerry Crowe, of Cassville, use lathes to create functional and sculptural vessels that celebrate the imperfections and raw beauty of their materials, a variety of exotic, salvaged and native woods. John Freise, of DeSoto, and Kathy Ruth Neal, 1945–2009, represent two approaches to hand-carving. Freise’s delicately long-legged shorebirds are usually carved from white cedar and painted in oils to capture a primitive, aged feel and look. Neal was a self-taught woodcarver of growing renown who achieved acclaim for her dynamic, colorful vignettes of American life: events of the day, at the movies, the circus or politics.
“Out of the Woods” is presented with assistance from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. Neal’s work is shown courtesy of the Mary Susan Sanders and Katherine R. Neal Foundation for the arts and mental health.
Admission to the AT&T; Main Gallery is by voluntary contribution, $2 suggested for adults and $1 for school-age children.
Spiva Center for the Arts is open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5.m. Sunday. The Center is closed Mondays and major holidays.
Details: 417-623-0183 or www.spivaarts.org.
