First 2021 Feature Exhibition
The Rice Polak Gallery is excited to announce our first feature exhibition of the 2021 season. We will be exhibiting the work of Bruce Ackerson, Peter Arvidson, Mike Stilkey & Blair Thornley. The show opens on Thursday July 8 and runs through Wednesday July 22 and best of all we will be having an (in person!!) Opening Reception on Friday July 9 for the show.
We also have a little treat for you – if you click on the video below you can hear the voices of these 4 wonderful artists.
The Voices of Bruce Ackerson, Peter Arvidson, Mike Stilkey & Blair Thornley
Bruce Ackerson
PETER ARvidson
Before his untimely death this year Peter wrote: As I mature as an artist the meditative quality of art-making and art-viewing are becoming more important to me. I am drawn to work that is subtle and quiet yet deeply thought-provoking. The paintings that result tend to be introspective and introverted in nature. The viewer has to seek them out and enter this quiet space.
MIKE STILKEY
My art depicts a simultaneously wry and whimsical narrative about the experience of life. Many times, I will imagine the story behind discarded books and will then express that story in my art by using them as my canvas and then layering my own visual narrative over the existing object. This allows me to reuse and repurpose existing materials and objects and give them a second life as works of art.
BLAIR THORNLEY
My approach to painting is largely intuitive, rarely planned, although it is based on many years of drawing from careful observation. I like to see what I can imply rather than spell out, avoiding literal rendering as much as possible, and focusing on emotion, movement, gesture, and attitude.
The gallery is now open daily, online and of course by appointment. Please visit our new website as work by all of our artists continues to arrive daily. And if you are in town this Friday please stop by the gallery — It’s our first opening in 2 years!
Featured Image above: “Monarch Reading” by Blair Thornley
