Out & About: Southwestern Pennsylvania arts council hosts 27th annual show

For the twenty seventh Annual Regional Juried Exhibition of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, juror Paula Burleigh stated she selected “artworks that requested me to search out sudden delight within the unusual.”

Her selections included works in numerous media by 53 regional artists, revealed throughout a Nov. 12 opening reception on the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Artwork at Ligonier Valley.

Burleigh, an assistant professor of artwork historical past and director of Allegheny Artwork Galleries at Allegheny School in Meadville, additional stated she was impressed by the artists’ visions that ask viewers to “see past the boundaries of our personal expertise.”

This 12 months’s exhibition is devoted to Barbara Jones, who retired in April as chief curator of The Westmoreland Museum of American Artwork in Greensburg, following a 26-year tenure.

Jones’s help of the humanities neighborhood has been invaluable, SPCA President Susan Kiren stated. Jones responded with compliments for the group.

“There’s a lot expertise right here; I want we had extra alternatives to indicate it,” Jones instructed the assemblage, whereas encouraging them to “preserve making artwork — it advantages all of us.”

Additionally receiving recognition have been artists Dai Morgan, first prize for the acrylic portray, “Runaway Pony”; Connie Litter, second prize for the watercolor, “Disparaged”; Stuart Thompson, third prize for the oil, “ART (Albuquerque Fast Transit)”; and Richard McWherter, fourth prize for inkjet on paper, “The Energy of Dreaming.”

Awards of Excellence went to grease painters William Karaffa for “Perfections Chilly Beckon” and Elizabeth Sickles for “Within the Sunroom.”

Awards of Benefit went to Joseph Ryznar for “Overcast,” plastic six-pack rings and twigs; Eileen Stoner for “Goldenrod Gatherer,” graphite on paper; Larry Mallory for “The Lantern,” watercolor; and Adelberto Ortiz for “Pennant,” acrylic.

Vincenzo Spinelli was revealed as winner of the Individuals’s Selection Award from final 12 months’s exhibition for his metallic and glass sculpture, “Weapons and Roses.”

The council represents artists from 19 counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The present exhibition runs by Feb. 5. Info on gallery hours is accessible at sama-arts.org.

Seen on the opening: Susan Pollins, Tom Niggel, Kathy and Jim Longacre, Arlene Kendra, Sally Loughran, Ronald Nigro, Invoice Kiren, Jeff Kiren, Pat and Bob Majcher, Rosemary Sovyak, Linda Blum, Mary Ellen and Phil Raneri, George and Olive Conte, Richard Stoner, Peg and Invoice Panasiti, Alexis Dillon, Jack Mayer, Olga Herbert, Jim Griffith, Debbie and Rob King, Kimberly and Patricia Elliott-Rentler, Clare Kaczmarek, John and Bonnie Hill, Evelyn Lemmon, Nettie Sullenberger and SAMA website coordinator and schooling director Kristin Miller.