Exhibition Details
Clark Gallery is honored to announce James Aponovich / Elizabeth Johansson: The Lure of Italy and Richard Whitten: Ingenium Mentis, two companion exhibitions installed from June 15 through August 7, 2010. All are invited to join the artists for a reception on Saturday, June 19th from 4-6pm.
James Aponovich paints complex still life compositions set against Italian landscapes incorporating terracotta tile roofs and rounded Tuscan hilltops. Referencing 17th century Dutch and Flemish still life painters, masters of the Italian Renaissance, and the surreal compositional components of mid 20th century painters, Aponovich stages luscious fruits, opulent fabrics and vessels, and bold arrangements of flowers. Noted for their proportion, light, and vibrancy, Aponovich’s paintings are technically astounding idealizations of reality.
Aponovich is represented in museum collections across the country including the Art Institute of Chicago, Arkansas Arts Center, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A native of New Hampshire and graduate of the University of N.H., Aponovich was named N.H.’s Artist Laureate in 2006 and has been named a Lifetime Fellow by the N.H. State Council on the Arts.
Elizabeth Johansson focuses her compositions on blooming flowers from the garden and objects carried home from Italy such as spools of ribbons and marbles. Her subjects are fluidly arranged on a tabletop or shelf, creating a quietly animated composition. Thoughtful and delicate in her approach, Johansson applies oil to canvas or pastel to paper to achieve pure expressions of the still life.
Johansson’s paintings and works on paper have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at the Currier Museum of Art, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Danforth Museum of Art. She attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and New England School of Art.
Close companions in their creative pursuits, the resplendent paintings featured in The Lure of Italy reflect Aponovich and Johansson’s shared interests and artistic endeavors, including cultivating their nationally recognized gardens in Hancock, N.H. and exploring the landscape, cultural history, and culinary arts of Italy.
Richard Whitten constructs intricate yet expansive spaces of interior architecture by applying oil paint and metal leaf to shaped wood panel. Arches, pinnacles, and buttresses flank seemingly endless passageways. The viewer’s gaze is pulled into spaces that are physically impossible to access, eliciting our curiosity and imagination. Tapestry-like designs of geometric and floral details are painted in the margins of the paintings, reminding the viewer of the painting’s presence. The formality of Whitten’s compositions is diffused by the playfulness of what each painting evokes.
Whitten earned his MFA from the University of California, Davis and is a graduate of Yale University. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at the Beard Gallery at Wheaton College, Frye Art Museum, Newport Art Museum, New Bedford Museum of Art, and Attelboro Art Museum. He has received a fellowship from the Ballinglen Foundation of Art in Ireland and numerous grants from Rhode Island College, where he is currently an assistant professor of art.
