The Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture is pleased to host its newest shows featuring emerging artists from our community.
A Sense of Place in the Jessie Wilber Gallery showcases the artistic expression of Kathleen Rabel. The exhibit takes viewers on a journey through the stunning body of work she developed as she traveled and keyed into the uniqueness of place.
“For many Springs, I returned to Penedo, an ancient village in Portugal, to work in my studio at Vivenda Santa Iria. There, I found angles of light, shadows and reflections in which I experienced a separate dimension of observation,” she explains. “Calçada-paved lanes, rough shadowed whitewashed walls, quiet people moving through light connect me to the sense of sanctuary that I seek in this work. The place and the spirit of the people who live there have clarified my vision of the human spirit that the modern world can obscure.”
The Hour Between Dog & Wolf showing in the Emerson Lobby is an exhibition by Martijn Caspar Swart. The body of work illustrates his journey through emotion and texture, light and dark, as he searches for his own masterpiece.
“As my paintings have developed over the years they have become increasingly both rough and sensitive,” he writes. “These are a recent collection of paintings throughout that development in search of a masterpiece. The greatest portraits capture the essence of character, the eyes like windows to the soul.”
Swart also delivers Mythologies in the Weaver Room. Inspiration for this series explore the deeply ingrained aspects of human experience.
“The inspiration for these paintings are Mythologies which show us the most universal and deep-rooted aspects of human experience. It is how we remember who we are and what we are capable of. After all, the full breadth of humanity includes much greatness and much suffering, everything in our nature is sublime,” he notes.
“The classic painters of the Renaissance rediscovered that through moments of profound emotion that people can touch on immortality as the ancients did before them. Like a bittersweet reminder, Mythologies reveal a perspective we often turn from in fear, yet opens our eyes to the glories of each moment. These paintings are an effort to reveal something about our own existence in the same way. It is the marrying of the excellence of the past with the possibilities of the present that reveals a truly timeless and classical beauty.”
All exhibits are open the public, on display through May 12th. The closing reception will be held as part of the Emerson’s 30th anniversary event from 5:30–8pm. For gallery hours and more information, please visit www.theemerson.org. Located at 111 S Grand Ave., the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture serves as a primary resource for the arts, arts education, and cultural activities in Southwest Montana. •
