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October 26, 2006
ARTIST MERRILL WAGNER FEATURED IN ONE-PERSON EXHIBIT AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
Merrill Wagner, a painter whose works are inspired by the landscape, will present a selection of paintings of varied forms and formats in a one-person exhibit in the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne from October 30 through December 1. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
The exhibit, titled “Looking at the Land,” encompasses Wagner’s small oil on canvas landscapes—a private, ongoing practice for the artist—along with a 30-foot-long installation of painted and drawn slate blackboard fragments; shaped steel and large oil on canvas paintings; a stone floor assemblage and several square, rust-preventive painted steel sheet paintings for which Wagner may be best known. The show, which will also travel to the Fine Arts Center Galleries at the University of Rhode Island, explores the congruencies of representation and abstraction found in Wagner’s disparate forms of landscape painting.
“Merrill Wagner finds inspiration in the worlds she inhabits, be it the landscape of rural Pennsylvania, or the industrial materials that abound in New York City,” says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries. “The works are crystallized from the artist’s experience, from the influence of training and tradition and of contemporary art concepts, as well as her observation of the natural environment.”
The large abstract works, “Assertion” 2005 for example, present found materials—steel from the foundry, fragments of blackboard slate—which are transformed with paint and pastel to suggest landscape.
In the small oil on canvas paintings, such as “March” 2003 Wagner captures the landscape with its palpable sense of time, light, and weather. For these paintings, Wagner works outdoors and traditionally on an easel, focusing on forsythia, bushes, flowers, snow and other observable elements of nature.
Wagner grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and she was very influenced by the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. As a girl, she often became preoccupied with drawing the contours of the land from memory. She moved east to attend Sarah Lawrence College, from which she earned a bachelor’s degree, and later the Art Students League of New York.
The recipient of several awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship and the Hassam Purchase Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Wagner has exhibited her works in one-person and group exhibits across the United States. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including William Paterson’s Sculpture on Campus collection, and is featured in several self-published publications including Time and Material, Notes on Paint, and Oil and Water. She has taught at Princeton University, Parsons School of Design, and the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.
The exhibit is one of three shows currently on view in the Ben Shahn Galleries. “More Than Meets the Eye: Insight into the Artistic Process,” on view in the East Gallery, explores how artists imagine, recognize, and bring their art to fruition; the exhibit is curated by Sandy DeSando. On view in the South Gallery is “Luminous Depths,” an exploration of the ancient art of encaustic painting featuring works by six women artists.
The exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Ben Shahn Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print handouts are available. For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University at 973-720-2654.
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www.wpunj.edu
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