‘Heroines’ Exhibition by Audrey Flack Debuts at Lafayette

Heroines: Audrey Flack’s Transcendent Drawings and Prints, the first exhibition of a remarkable suite of drawings and mixed media prints by Audrey Flack, one of the pre-eminent artists of our age, opens April 13 and runs through May 22 in the Williams Center Gallery at Lafayette College.

The exhibition is free and open to the public and features works of Flack, a pioneer of photorealism and nationally recognized painter, printmaker, and public sculptor.

Audrey Flack is the 2015 Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Visiting Artist at Lafayette. She will be on campus April 15-17, during which she will meet with students and give a public lecture followed by a reception.

• Audrey Flack, Grossman Visiting Artist at Lafayette, will give an artist talk about her work and career Thursday, April 16, 4 p.m., Williams Center for the Arts, room 108. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception for the artist. Over the past four years, Audrey Flack has been deeply engaged in a suite of powerful drawings and prints, many highlighting women either neglected or demonized by history.

Flack created a group of charcoal and pastel portraits in 2011 that combines her ability to draw in the style of an Old Master (Mistress) with references to modern culture. Most of these works feature women from history and mythology who have been transformed from victims into modern heroines.

In 2013 the artist began a residency at Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute, EPI, founded by Prof. Curlee Raven Holton. The drawings were scanned by EPI’s Master Printer Jase Clark, who, under the artist’s direction, manipulated the files and output digital pigment prints on rag paper. Flack added multiple layers of serigraph details to St. Teresa and Cupcake Angel resulting in two limited print editions, Ecstasy of St. Teresa and Une Bouchee d’Amour.

Flack then reworked by hand digital pigment prints of seven drawings, adding layers of dynamic gestural drawing, vibrant colors, and sometimes glitter and collage elements to create powerful, one-of-a-kind works she calls “Transcendent Drawings.” Her images become female icons for the modern age and explore emotions that define us as human beings.

An illustrated catalogue with foreword by director of The Hyde Collection Art Museum Charles A. Guerin and essay by Lafayette art historian Robert S. Mattison, Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art, will be available. Exhibition curators are Mattison and Director of Lafayette Art Galleries Michiko Okaya.

A selection of the works from the Lafayette exhibition will be shown at The Hyde Collection Art Museum & Historic House, Glens Falls, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2015, to Jan. 3, 2016.

The gallery in the Williams Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, 317 Hamilton Street (no. 58 on map). Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with limited hours from May 27 to June 6.

For additional information: (610) 330-5361, artgallery@lafayette.edu, visit Lafayette’s galleries, Find Lafayette College Art Galleries on Facebook and Twitter.

The Grossman Artist-in-Residence and Exhibition Series was established by Richard A. Grossman, a 1964 graduate of Lafayette College, and his wife, Rissa W., to provide opportunities for intensive interaction between students and major 20th and 21st century artists. The series also supports the presentation of significant exhibitions.

The Lafayette College Art Galleries and EPI receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Photo: “Ecstasy of St. Theresa” by Audrey Flack. Higher resolution available online, https://flic.kr/p/rPEyQ1.

Kristine Y. Todaro
Director of Special Projects/Media Relations
Communications Div.
Lafayette College
Easton, Pa. 18042
610-330-5119
LafColnews@lafayette.edu
todarok@lafayette.edu
www.lafayette.edu

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