June 14, 2019 - September 14, 2019
Before artists employed oil as a medium for binding pigment to create luminous paintings on canvas (and even prior to the use of egg-based tempera), ancient Romans developed the traditions of encaustic painting and what is now known as Venetian Plaster. Applied over wooden panels or used to cover walls, these paintings were deeply saturated, vividly colorful, and seductively pictorial, and exhibited hardened, illusionistic surfaces. Seldom-used and labor-intensive, both encaustic painting and Venetian Plaster were revived throughout the subsequent centuries when the influence of the ancient Mediterranean world became fashionable.
Today, these artistic mediums are espoused by the Michigan artists showcased in this exhibition: Mike McMath, Mike Crane, Chris McCauley, Graceann Warn, and Valerie Allen. Their work functions as a collective composition reflective of the American classical period of the early 19th century, as well as the height of the later American Renaissance with which the construction of the Saginaw Art Museum’s Ring Mansion coincided.
Exhibition Opening June 14, 2019 6-8 p.m. All are welcome to attend this event.
