The Galesburg Civic Art Center proudly announces the opening of the national juried GALEX 45 Exhibition and Competition.  The exhibition opens Saturday, March 12th and runs through Saturday, April 9th.  The competition awards over $2,000 in prizes including a $1,000 Purchase Award sponsored by Blick Art Materials.  The GALEX 45 Exhibition is sponsored by our exhibition partner, Cottage Hospital.

GALEX is one of the longest running juried exhibitions in the country.  It began in 1966 and has been an annual event at the Art Center ever since.  Sixty-two artists from Illinois and other states have been selected to participate in this show including:

• Christopher Bradshaw of Bettendorf, Iowa for his oil on canvas entitled A Precipitated Fashioning

There will be an Opening Reception in the Art Center Gallery on Saturday, March 12th, from 6-8 p.m. which is free and open to the public.  Many of the artists will be in attendance.

The juror for this year's exhibition and competition is Mel Adamson. Ms. Adamson received her Master of Fine Arts from University of California at Berkeley in 1988.  She studied with Joan Brown, Christopher Brown and David Simpson and was a teaching assistant to Joan Brown.  She studied painting at >cole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France during her junior year but otherwise did her undergraduate studies in both music and visual art at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  Her work is exhibited nationally and locally. Mel's primary subjects are the figure as well as imagery that refers to elements in nature, some of which have been affected by human activity such as harnessed rivers for hydroelectricity or high atmospheric clouds whose formation is threatened due to global warming.  "I work with imagery relating to water and other natural resources, their use, storage and waste, and our simultaneous reverence for and destruction of nature.  I am interested in the translation of the idea of storage and release of energy and the condition of change into the pictorial realm."  She is inspired by her students - their visual inquiry, dedication and skill.  She lives most of the year in Richmond, CA with her husband, her teenage daughter, their black lab, cat, and chickens and gains inspiration for her painting while working in her garden.  Mel is a part-time assistant professor for the pictorial art department at San Jose State University and taught at the California College of the Arts for their extended education program in Oakland, CA between 1999 and 2007.

Additional award sponsors of this year's GALEX show are Breslin's Floor Covering for the Award of Excellence, McFall Monument Company for the Medallion Award, and Blick Art Materials for the Kent Leasure Memorial Fine Print Award. Dowers Roofing is our Juror Sponsor.

GALEX and all other programs of the Art Center are partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. The Galesburg Civic Art Center is located at 114 E. Main St. in Galesburg, Illinois.  Art Center hours are Tuesday through Friday 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  For more information please contact the Art Center at (309) 342-7415, or visit our web site at www.galesburgarts.org

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Opportunity to learn about Baroque Art

The Figge Art Museum is offering a five-week art history course on Baroque art at 2:00-3:30 pm on Sundays, March 13-April 10. This course is an introduction to Baroque art of the 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe. Artists discussed in this course include Caravaggio and Bernini in Italy, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in Flanders, Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán in Spain, Rembrandt and Vermeer in the Dutch Republic, and Georges de la Tour and Claude Lorrain in France. The works of art will be discussed in relation to the historical context in which they were produced, with particular emphasis placed on contemporary art theory, systems and patterns of patronage, and religious ideologies. The course will be taught by Dr. Anne Muraoko, an independent art historian specializing in Renaissance and Baroque art.

The course is free to Figge members. For information about membership, visit www.figgeartmuseum.org or contact the membership office at 563.326.7804 x2007.

NOW ON EXHIBITION:

Tracks: Photography and the Railroad from the George Eastman House Collection | Through April 23, 2011

Crossing the Mississippi: The Quad Cities, the Railroad and Art | Through April 24, 2011

University of Iowa School of Art Faculty Exhibition | Through March 6, 2011

The John Deere Collection | Through May 2011

Legacy for Iowa: Pollock's Mural and Modern Masterworks from the University of Iowa Museum of Art | Ongoing

Portraits: Photography from the Brent Sikkema Collection | Ongoing

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Art Living | Ongoing

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS: 

Celebrating Ideas: Bridging Communities with Augustana's Liberal Arts through the Ages | Mar 19 through May 29, 2011

Waterviews from the Figge Collection | May 7 through Aug 21, 2011

February 11, 2011

(MAQUOKETA, IA) Maquoketa Art Experience is hosting a "Create-a-Painting" Workshop led by artist and writer Sandra Principe of Hanover, Illinois on Saturday, March 12 from 12-3 p.m. at the Maquoketa Art Experience studio located at 124 S. Main Street in Maquoketa.

Principe has created a painting event for anyone who is interested in exploring work with acrylic paints. In this class, participants will create a portrait of a cresting wave during a three-hour session led step-by-step by Principe. This class is designed for beginners or for anyone who wants to try something new. The registration fee is $35 for the three hour session. There is an optional materials fee of $15 that covers the cost of supplies if you choose not to bring your own. The registration form and materials list are available at www.maquoketa-art.org. For further information or to request a registration form contact Paula at Maquoketa Art Experience, maquoketaartexperience@hotmail.com or call 563.652.9925.

In her work Sandra Principe's oil paintings capture light and are reminiscent of the American painter, Martin Johnson Heade and are included in numerious private and corporate collections.  Her work has been shown in solo shows across the country, from West Palm Beach and Vero Beach, Florida to Laguna Beach, California. She is represented by Meghan Candler Gallery in Vero Beach, Florida; and Brio Gallery in Galena, Illinois. View Sandra's paintings at www.sandraprincipe.com

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(Davenport, Iowa - February, 2011) - The Figge Art Museum currently has volunteer opportunities available in the areas of education programs, family activity center, visitor services, community outreach and studio classes. Individuals who have an interest in community volunteerism or Quad City Art and Culture may register for the February volunteer information sessions.

The information and training session for prospective  volunteers will be held Wednesday, February 16, 2011, from 10am-11:30am, at the Figge Art Museum or Thursday, February 24, 2011, from 2pm -3:30pm.  Theses sessions will be geared specifically to adults, who are interested in volunteering and community support opportunities in  art education, public relations, administrative support, community outreach and visitor services .  The session will include an introduction of volunteer opportunities, a museum orientation and application procedures.  To register for this session, please call Museum Services Director Jennifer Brooke, 563-326-7804, ext. 2048.

Volunteering at the Figge is a great way to support your community by sharing your personal and professional experience with a non profit organization.  For more information, please visit the Figge Art Museum Web site, www.figgeartmuseum.org, or email j.brooke@figgeartmuseum.org.  

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