Center Art Gallery
Spoelhof College Center
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
(616) 526-6271
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SHEESLEY/WITKIN: Fortitude and Forbearance
An Exhibition of Paintings by Joel Sheesley and Jerome Witkin
Reception honoring the artists on September 14, 7-9 p.m.
Almost twenty years ago Jerome Witkin last exhibited paintings in the Midwest
and now for the first time shows with Joel Sheesley. These narrative painters
mark life’s way serving up to some of us markers for living and not just
along the way of life. Witkin, painter brother to photographer Joel Peter Witkin,
introduces us to cultural heroes Picasso, Jackie Kennedy, and Ingmar Bergman
without their manufactured art world halos. We see their lives altered by events
beyond their control and the lives of others whom they have forever changed
as well. Sheesley’s characters in paint evidence no art world, rather
humans pictured and picturing their hopes and frustrations without the thin
glosses of cultural experts. Engaging memories and expectations are elicited
from attending viewers who also recall imagers as distant as Rembrandt and Degas
and as near as Lucian Freud and AP wire photographers. Witkin and Sheesley hold
before us the foibled and fearful famous as well as the not so well known each
of whom through resources beyond their own demonstrate fortitude and forbearance.
This exhibition is made possible in part by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Incorporated
located in Los Angeles, California.
The barrier-free Center Art Gallery, located on the lower level of the Spoelhof
College Center, is open 9 a.m.to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. There is no admission charge.
For more information call (616) 957-6271.