September
Robert Andriulli
“Landscapes, Real and Imagined”
The paintings that comprise this exhibit represent my continued interest in observational paintings from nature, along with studio creations that explore a variety of formal and thematic concerns. The paintings “Backyard View”, “Hood Mountain Vignette”, and “Neighborhood” were painted on location and are direct responses to the special characteristics of these environments. In each case I’ve taken liberties for formal reasons and expressive possibilities. The remaining paintings evolved in the studio. They are developed from paintings and drawings from life, memory, inventions, other sources, plus discoveries made in the act of painting. What they all share in common is my endeavor to find a visual equivalent that unites my experiences, musings and imagination.
Biography
Robert Andriulli was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and now resides in Millersville, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. from William Paterson College of New Jersey in 1975 and an M.F.A. in Painting from The Pennsylvania State University in 1978. He also attended summer fellowship programs at Yale University in Connecticut and Oxbow School of Art in Michigan. Robert Andriulli is currently a Professor of Art at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, and has formerly taught at Bowdoin College in Maine, Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania.
Evan Kitson
“Rituals”
“This body of work deals with an expansive and specific still-life set-up consisting of various human and animal bones. This set-up was created and staged by my friend and fellow draughtsman Jeff Geib and myself in our shared studio space. When I first started to train seriously as a draughtsman during my time in undergrad, I reached out to Jeff and began to draw alongside of him in his studio. He had set up a number of still-lives at that time, the first being a cow skull. Following the cow skull was a replica of an Asian human female skull that was placed on a chessboard. These two still-lives were the first experiences of really seeing a skull for what it is; seeing the form itself, and not judging the skulls based on the archetypal symbols in my mind, or looking at what was missing. The eye socket was no longer observed as “the place where the eyeball should be” and became the combined junction of the brow ridge, the nasal bone, and the zygomatic bone. Instead of seeing what’s not there, I saw for the first time what was. This began my ongoing journey of exploring and studying perception. This began what I’ve now come to see as my only constant ritual in my day to day life. With this still-life set-up, we’ve created an amped up version of those early still-lives. There is a great deal of natural light coming from two directions, along with a shallow depth of field, and the staging is such that it commands the abstraction of the common symbol of the various bones, which often answer to each other in strange and un-expected ways. The staging of this still-life is incredibly considered and was created in a ritualistic manner, Jeff placing an object, followed by myself, and back and forth until we were both content. My aim is to explore this set-up in a manner fitting of the ritualistic quality of both my practice and my subject; each day I will enter the studio and work purely from observation, letting the dialog of the subject, the artwork, and myself guide my process. I aim to discover new gestural insights through the search of the abstract composition that is inherent in this specific set-up. I’ve begun to think of these objects not as specimens but as reliquaries involved in a specific, time-honored ritual based in the academic tradition of working from observation, and aim to push this ritual further through the allowances of contemporary contemplative practice of navigating one’s own perceptions. The work created will be an artifact of this ritualistic practice and experience. The genuine nature of this body of work will allow for my on-going aim of finding myself in the ever-deepening void of perception. Each time you inch forward, there seems to be miles more to explore.”
Biography
Evan Kitson received his BFA from the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. Evan has also studied at the Art Students League of New York, and is a student of Odd Nerdrum. Evan Kitson has taught at the New York Academy of Art, The Janus Collaborative School of Art, the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Harrisburg Area Community College, and privately in his Lancaster, PA Studio. Evan has exhibited his work in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. His work can be found in the soon to be published book The Figurative Artist’s Handbook by Rob Zeller through Monacelli Press.