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PRINTS AND PAINTINGS BY NEW JERSEY ARTIST BILL LEECH ON VIEW AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
Landscapes and abstractions are among the works on view in a one-person exhibit by New Jersey artist Bill Leech of Roosevelt at the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne from October 27 through November 28, 2008. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
The exhibit is titled “Bill Leech: Landscapes, Abstractions and Faces from the Police Files.” Leech collects images from newspapers, magazines and books, which he scans into a computer to alter and/or distort them. He then places the images in a newly invented context, often a surreal landscape.
“I extract these images from their sources and then move them around and combine them in various contexts,” Leech explains. “Eventually these images take the form of landscapes, where they function like actors on a stage.”
The works are printed on mylar. “Ink on mylar dries on the surface very slowly; sometimes it takes months. Sometimes the print would remain close to what I had intended, but sometimes the ink would run too much, making the images unrecognizable. I have little control over what prints succeed and what prints don't. Sometimes it takes double printing of selected layers to make a print work. My mylar prints are definitely mono-prints. No two are alike.”
The recipient of numerous awards including fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Leech earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from The Kansas City Art Institute and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His work has been presented in more than 40 one-person and group exhibits around the nation, including shows at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, The Montclair Art Museum, the Jersey City Museum, and the Hunterdon Museum of Art.
The exhibit is one of three shows on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. “Ben Wilson: The Margin as Center,” on view in the South Gallery, provides an overview of the artist’s career beginning in 1930, with special focus on large abstractions created from the 1970s through the 1990s. On view in the Court Gallery is “Frolic: Humor and Mischeif in New Taiwanese Art,” which features works by 27 Taiwanese artists.
This 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, 973-720-2654.
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October 15, 2008
www.wpunj.edu
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