Event: “John Kingerlee: A Painter’s Passage” will be on exhibit at the Visual Arts Center (VAC) in the Department of Art and Art History, Oct. 29-Dec. 18. This solo exhibition of works by the Anglo-Irish painter consists of abstract, narrative and figurative paintings, as well as mixed-media works curated by late university alumnus and New York Times art critic William Zimmer.
On Nov. 8 there will be a Kingerlee lecture held by curator and New York-based art critic Dominique Nahas. Nahas will lead a free, guided public tour of the exhibition for faculty, students and members of the Austin community. Nahas is a faculty member at Pratt Institute and The New York Studio Program, where he teaches critical theory.
There will be a closing reception and awards ceremony for the William Zimmer Prize in Arts Criticism on Friday, Dec. 3, 6:30-9 p.m. The William Zimmer Prize in Art Criticism will be awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in any studio art or art history program in the United States for the best-written essay on Kingerlee’s work. Preceding the awards ceremony will be a talk on Kingerlee’s art works, presented by Art in America’s Managing Editor Richard Vine.
When: Exhibition: Friday, Oct. 29-Saturday, Dec. 18
Lecture: Monday, Nov. 8, noon-1 p.m.
Closing reception and awards ceremony: Friday, Dec. 3, 6:30-9 p.m.
Where: The Visual Arts Center is in the Department of Art and Art History at the corner of 23rd and Trinity streets.
Background: Exhibited in this survey of Kingerlee’s work are paintings the artist executed after moving to the remote Beara peninsula in southwest Ireland. The centerpiece of the exhibition is work from the “Grid Series,” which consists of panels of colored grids built up over the years to create deep squares of paint evocative of the rugged landscape. The grids are deeply imbued with Kingerlee’s lifestyle decision to live in a remote locale, at one with the landscape, but bearing the hardships of daily life in order to paint.
