May 16 – July 5, 2008

“ABSTRACTION”

Opening reception Fri. May 16, 5:30-7:30 pm

MEL STRAWN, VIRGINIA MAITLAND,
ANIA GOLA-KUMOR, BEBE ALEXANDER
and JANE TROYER.

Book signing with MEL STRAWN:
Saturday afternoon May 31, 3 pm to 4:30 pm.

Virginia Maitland is one of Colorado's most acclaimed artists, widely known for her mastery of color and ethereal style.  'With Maitland, it's all about painting…..color, surface and content' wrote art critic Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News. 
Ania Gola-Kumor is a respected teacher at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design who uses layer after layer of pigment. Michael Paglia, art critic, Westword, has written of Kumor:   'I often think of Gola-Kumor as one of the region's best and most overlooked abstract painters.'
The drawings of Mel Strawn (his new book covers a 50 year period of drawing) are essentially studies of things, people, and  places.  Drawing became his 'home base' since he taught  life classes for decades at the University of Denver and Antioch College  Guest curator Sally Perisho selected historically-significant Strawn drawings from 1950s-1970s for this exhibition.
Bebe Alexander's ceramics are  influenced by man made objects particularly architecture with an emphasis on  the 1920's era of design.
Guest curator Sally Perisho has invited Dallas-based artist Jane Troyer to take part in the exhibition. Her new paintings express the thickness and thinness of a multitude of color. Troyer says the freedom and strength of the mid-century Abstract-Expressionists influence her work.