Four Painters To Be Featured At Berman

Information courtesy of Wendy Greenburg, Director of Communications at Ursinus College, Collegeville

Four Visions/Four Painters: Murray Dessner, Bruce Samuelson, Elizabeth Osborne and Vincent Desiderio opens Oct. 6 and runs through Jan. 13, in the Main Gallery of the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art on the . An opening reception is scheduled Sunday, Oct. 7 from 2 to 4 p.m.

These four artists, all associated with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as student, teachers and mentors, have an affinity with each other in the scale of their work, their approach to content and their use of medium. Their work touches the viewer in dramatic ways through rich, saturated color, meticulous line and brushwork, and the nature and confident approach each takes to articulating his or her message.

Murrary Dessner creates landscapes of color whose layers both recede and explode. Elizabeth Osbrone’s highly saturated compositions make use of vivid color combinations and rhythmic brush strokes. Bruce Samuelson’s work, while more intimate in scale than that of his colleagues, conveys a similar sense of grandeur, using the structure of the human torso as his leitmotif.  Vincent Desiderio creates narrative works that incorporate life lessons and events.

The exhibition is curated by Lisa Tremper Hanover, director and CEO of the James Michener Art Museum and past director of the Berman Museum of Art.

Interstitial Spaces: Void and Object, Recent Works by Roger Chavez, also opens Oct. 6 and runs through Jan. 13, in the H.F. and Marguerite Lenfest Gallery in the Henry W. and June Pfeiffer Wing at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art on the Ursinus College campus. An opening reception is planned for Sunday, Oct. 7 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Roger Chavez is a Philadelphia-based artist whose paintings push the boundaries between genres such as portraiture and still life, still life and landscape, and assert the permeability of such boundaries. According to Chavez, “For me, the subject matter serves as a point of departure, allowing me to find my own forms through exploring the subject. The immediate accessibility of the still life facilitates my focus on the objects themselves, their shadows, shapes and the space they occupy.”

Chavez’ painterly brushstrokes, indeed, delineate subtle shadings and spaces. His canvases range from the very intimate to more expansive essays in the layering of color and the adding, subtracting and merging of forms.

Chavez received his MFA from American University and his Certificate in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He has taught in the studio art program at Ursinus College since 2004. He is a 2012-2013 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellow.

The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, known for its diverse collection and innovative educational programming, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and noon to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Museum is closed Mondays and college holidays. The Museum is accessible to the physically disabled, and admission is free. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and support from Epps Advertising.