HOW TO GO
What: 47th Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition
When: Exhibition runs Saturday, March 28 to Friday, May 15. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. It includes an hors d’oeuvres buffet, with wine and beer.
Where: Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton
Hours: Open regular gallery hours. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. – noon. Closed Sunday, except for special events.
Admission: Free and open to the public. Donations accepted.
More info: www.fittoncenter.org or call (513) 863-8873
HAMILTON — Local artists will have an opportunity to highlight some of their best and most creative work during the Fitton Center’s “47th Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition.” The event will showcase a display of 77 multi-media artworks by 58 artists living within 50 miles of Hamilton. The exhibition will open on Saturday, March 28 and run through Friday, May 15.
Cathy Mayhugh, director of exhibitions at the Fitton Center, said the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition gets a number of people involved in an area-wide creative effort with the hope of inspiring more art-making.
“What excites me is the diversity,” Mayhugh said. “The number of artists represented in the show and the way that they bring all of those different perspectives together really makes it an exciting exhibition. I also appreciate seeing and hearing everyone’s reaction to the show.”
The opening reception will kick off the start of the exhibit Saturday, March 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. The reception will also celebrate the opening of an exhibition of artworks by Miami University Hamilton students.
In addition to sharing their work as part of the exhibit, artists had an opportunity to compete for prizes, including a $350 “Best of Show,” among several other honors. There will be an award ceremony at 6:30 p.m. in the Fitton Family Theater to recognize the award-winning artists. Paul Loehle and Patrick Mauk served as the jurors, who selected the winning artwork.
“We have two-dimensional and three-dimensional art in the show, so it is wide open in that regard,” Mayhugh said. “There are no limits as far as the medium is concerned, so artists had an opportunity to enter whatever they wanted. We received all kinds of art from sculpture and photography to printmaking and painting.”
Liberty Twp.-based Artist, Don Schuster has two paintings in the exhibition. He said the pieces he entered are representative of the Butler County area.
“I’m taking part in it, because it is one of our regional, competitive art exhibits, and I feel like I need to have my work represented there,” Schuster said.
One of Schuster’s pieces, “Fence Row 4,” is from his Trumpet Flower Series, which was previously named as a finalist in the Landscape category of The Artist’s Magazine 2014 Annual Art Competition. The 48-inch-by-72-inch painting is an oil on canvas. He also has a second painting titled “Reserves Park – Lotus 9” on display. It is the second time he has participated in the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition.
“With the ‘Fence Row’ series, those paintings are all based upon images from different fence rows that I’ve seen in and around the Liberty Township area,” Schuster said. “It is always good for people to come out and see what kind of work the artists in the region are working on. It should be of interest to viewers that my work is actually taken from the locale. Both paintings are of things here in Butler County.”
Nancy Gamon of Cincinnati is an experimental, mixed-media artist, whose textured works often portray scenes from stories, inviting viewers to imagine their own narratives. She began her creative endeavors exploring apparel construction and accessory design. She has a work in the show called “Prospecting 1977-1993.”
“This is an autobiographical piece. It is the story of looking for love, and as a young woman, realizing I was going to grow up, get married and be a mom,” Gamon said. “It’s about the process of finding a husband, so the piece starts with the first playground boyfriend in fourth grade.”
The piece is constructed of 50 or so little portraits made of fabric that are free-motion stitched on the sewing machine. Each portrait is stitched on a used make-up removal towelette, and it has their name and a typed-written caption of a line or two that summarizes that particular relationship, she said.
“These are not necessarily all boyfriends, but they relationships with men in my life, growing up that were influential in some way, and how I thought of myself in those relationships,” Gamon said.
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