Only at Western
Two artists will be featured in Western Wyoming Community College’s Art Gallery show “Global Marks” which opens January 20 and runs through February 24. The show will include the paintings of Brazilian artist, Liza Papi and Japanese artist, Toshiko Watanabe. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
Liza Papi holds a Bachelor of Arts from The Institute of Fine Arts State University of Rio de Janeiro along with a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting and Engraving and a Masters of Fine Arts in Art History/Museum Studies from the City College University of New York. Papi is currently an Art Instructor at Saint John’s University in New York and is a director of LEAP: “Learning through an Expanded Arts Program” for the city of New York, public education.
WWCC Gallery Director and Professor of Art, Florence McEwin notes that “Papi’s works is simultaneously playful, abstract and socially conscious.”
Toshiko Watanabe’s painted images were included in an earlier painting exhibit at Western’s gallery. By using the same materials as her ancestors, Watanabe aims to create work that is apart from her conscious. Japanese paper and paints, Indian ink and occasionally silver paper are used and applied with a “dripping” method.
Watanabe explains how she receives inspiration from her surroundings, “I work outside in my yard under a cherry and apricot tree. Here the petals of flowers, the autumn leaves, sunshine, cool wind and cold air surround me. I believe all these natural phenomena affect and reflect in my art works.”
Having also grown up on the ocean, Gallery Director McEwin says that, ”she finds a special affinity for the gestural wave like motion of paint application within Toshiko’s work. The work is especially poignant after this year of the devastating, earthquake prompted, tsunami. The Japanese have a respect for nature’s power accepting it with reverence, despite its’ consequences.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at: webmaster@wwcc.wy.edu.
