LINDSBORG — Three new exhibitions open at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery on Sunday, May 7, with a reception that day from 2-4 p.m. and artist talks beginning at 2:30 p.m. Featured shows include sculpture by Glenn Zweygardt of Alfred Station, New York; prints by Nicholas Hill of Granville, Ohio; and paintings by DeAnn Melton of Tucson, Ariz.
Sculptor Glenn Zweygardt is a native of St. Francis, whose work has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and Europe. Now an emeritus professor of sculpture at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, he makes pieces in steel, ductile iron, stainless steel, cast glass, cast bronze, and aluminum that are often combined with stone from around the world. His sculptures range from monumental outdoor works to small, intimate pieces.
Zweygart’s exhibition at the Sandzen Gallery is titled Kansas Revisited and has been underwritten by Emprise Bank.
Former Bethany College art professor Nicholas Hill will be showing two bodies of work inspired by diverse cultural settings — one from time spent in New Delhi, India, and the other from travels to Kyoto, Japan. Recently named a Guggenheim Fellow, Hill currently serves as professor of art at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, teaching printmaking and drawing. He taught at Bethany College from 1979 to 1987.
Hill has exhibited work in over 200 juried and invitational exhibitions in the United States and abroad.
In the series New Delhi Contrasts Hill incorporates photographic sources and sketches with hand-printed, vintage Indian woodblocks and pieces of ephemera that he gathered during travels in India. The tactile nature of Indian culture pervades much of the work. He writes “My images are reinterpretations of place and time. I intentionally contrast an architectural element with a detail from a tapestry or a folk drawing to speak about the cultural complexity of place.” His Kyoto Calligraphy Lessons series “began with an exploration of mark-making using the photographic medium of cyanotype. The work is inspired by images from a calligraphy lesson book that I found in a used bookstore in Kyoto, Japan.”
The third guest artist is DeAnn Melton from Tucson, Ariz. Her exhibition, Rhythm of Light: Figures and Still Life will feature large scale oil paintings. She is a native of Lubbock, Texas, and studied at Texas Tech University. In 1977 she earned an MFA from the University of Tucson and remained in the city with her husband James Pringle Cook, an Eskridge native. Melton has a great affection for painting and writes, “After years of gliding the brush over the surface of a canvas my objective is to bring the ‘spirit’ of the place or subject to the finished art work. I love to paint a portrait, a still life, or figures in combination with a landscape and a still life. Each painting creates another world for the viewer to reflect upon. Composition, concept, and the character of the brush stroke identify all these images to be the work of one hand.”
The Sandzén Gallery is located at 401 North First Street in Lindsborg. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. The Gallery is closed on Mondays. Admission is free, with donations welcome. Docent tours for groups are available by two-week advance appointment with the Gallery. For more information visit www.sandzen.org or telephone 785-227-2220.