On Sunday, January 22nd, the ACOPAL group will
celebrate it's first museum show of American and Chinese realism at the Butler
Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. Many of my favorite artists and fellow oil painters have work in this show: Nelson Shanks, Jacob Collins, Max
Ginsberg, Tony Ryder, and Burt Silverman, to name a few of my heroes. This is the second group ACOPAL
exhibit, following the very successful introduction of ACOPAL at the National
Arts Club in May 2011.
The next ACOPAL venture will be the presentation of American realism at the Beijing World Art Museum, opening toward the end of this year in September 2012. The exhibit will feature over 100
paintings, and be the first survey of contemporary American realism in
China. After the opening in
Beijing, the exhibit—a contemporary oil painting gallery of sorts—will tour five major cities in China, including Shanghai and
Guangzhou. The Chinese audience is
enthusiastic about realism and traditional oil painting, and this exhibit will
reach many thousands, many of whom have not seen contemporary American
paintings in person ever before.
That's thrilling, isn't it? My painting, Venus
Awakes, which I just completed will be included in the Butler exhibit. The
painting is an allegory about the rediscovery of the classical nude. Venus and the apple are meta-symbols representing
the classical western tradition in art. They are surrounded by the broken remnants of technology and culture,
but remain undamaged. The bird wakes Venus from her slumber, and represents my rejection of "trash as conceptual
social commentary as art." Flecks
of gold in the mire indicate that the labor of gleaning value from the wreckage is not in vain.
Contemporary American realism continues to grow, define
itself, and find new audiences all over the world. If you are in the Ohio area, please spread the word about
the wonderful show at the Butler. If you are not, but still want to experience what is sure to be an amazing show, you can purchase a catalog of the show at the ACOPAL website.
--Patricia
For more painting instruction from Patricia, check out her latest DVD, Figure Painting: Realistic Skin Tone.