Owens Welcomes Nationally Acclaimed Artist Amanda Burnham
PERRYSBURG TOWNSHIP, OH – Owens Community College Toledo-area and Findlay-area campuses invite area residents to visit the artistic world of nationally recognized artist Amanda Burnham through her paintings, drawings and wall paintings depicting the evolving urban built landscape as the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery and the Library Gallery present a new exhibit titled “Urban Signs”, Jan. 11 – Feb. 10. The Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery is located in Owens’ Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the Toledo-area Campus in Perrysburg Township, while Owens’ Library Gallery is located on the Findlay-area Campus in Findlay.
In addition, the College’s Findlay-area Campus will host a reception and gallery talk for Burnham at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 19. The reception, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Findlay-area Campus Library. Owens’ Toledo-area Campus will also serve as host to a lecture by guest artist Burnham at 9 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20 in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts Studio Theatre Room 111.
“Owens Community College is truly honored to showcase the artistic talents of Amanda Burnham,” said Wynn Perry, Owens Part-Time Coordinator of the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery. “Burnham seeks to record, from as many vantage points as she can see and imagine, the hysteria, confusion and loneliness arising from the confrontation between individuals and the overwhelming, unknowable structures of cities. The artwork is extremely thought provoking and will certainly provide exhibit attendees with an extraordinary look into the urban landscape of America.”
Gail McCain, Owens Library Manager for the Findlay-area Campus, added, “Owens’ Library Gallery and the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery are excited to offer art enthusiasts the unique opportunity to view the amazing talents of a young artist from Northwest Ohio who is developing a national reputation for her work. I encourage area residents to visit both the Findlay-area and Toledo-area campuses and the ‘Urban Signs’ exhibits.”
Burnham’s drawings and drawing installations are based on her explorations of and encounters within the evolving urban built landscapes. Often working on site, outside or in her car, Burnham reads the landscape for found segments of language and records the poetics of vacant lots, moveable type signs and billboards with ink and other water media on paper. The Toledo native often pieces fragments together in a cumulative manner, not unlike the way the urban landscape is collectively authored over time. Her drawing installations expand upon these explorations, layering and stitching together found visual elements of landscape in conversation with the site against which they have been displaced, using paint, artificial turf, concrete, sand and trash directly on the wall.
Her works have been widely exhibited nationwide to include appearances at the Dorsch Gallery in Miami, the GV/AS Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Harrington Arts in San Francisco, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., and the Toledo Museum of Art. Burnham also has received several accolades throughout her career highlighted by the Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Emerging Educators and Administrators Awards and Fellowship from ThinkTank 4.
Burnham received a bachelor’s degree in visual and environmental studies from Harvard University and a master’s degree in painting and printmaking from Yale University. The Baltimore resident has served as an Assistant Professor and Foundations Coordinator in the Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education at Towson University since 2007.
Admission to the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery on the Toledo-area Campus is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturdays. For additional information about the exhibit, contact the Center for Fine and Performing Arts at 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 2721 or (567) 661-2721.
Admission to the Findlay-area Campus Library Gallery is also free and open to the public. Gallery hours are from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Fridays and from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, contact the Library at (567) 429-3088 or 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 3088.
Press Release Contact Name: Brad Meyer
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Organization Name: Owens Community College