Owens Gallery Welcomes Artist Arturo Rodriguez

Daily Dose  |  09/21/2010 10:00 am

Owens Community College invites area residents to visit the brilliantly artistic world of nationally acclaimed artist Arturo Rodriguez through his emotionally vivid paintings, prints and mixed media works as the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery presents a new exhibit titled “Marielito”, Sept. 28 ? Oct. 23. The Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery is located in Owens’ Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the Toledo-area Campus in Perrysburg Township.
 
Additionally, Owens will serve as host to a lecture by guest artist Arturo Rodriguez on Friday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts Studio Theatre Room 111. A free exhibit reception will immediately follow the lecture in the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery.
 
“Owens Community College is excited to showcase the works of such a widely accomplished artist as Arturo Rodriguez in the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery,” said Wynn Perry, Owens Part-Time Coordinator of the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery. “Rodriguez’s paintings, prints and mixed media works combine images from paintings that one might find on the walls of an average American home and images from some of his earliest visual memories as a young Cuban immigrant to the United States in the 1980s ? cartoons. By uniting these seemingly disparate images Rodriguez’s work constitutes an accurate metaphor for Cuban aesthetics and culture, which historically has undergone a process of appropriation. Exhibit attendees will truly enjoy the vivid, colorful artistic expressions, which have captivated audiences nationwide.”
 
Rodriguez was born in Cuba. He left the island at a very young age with his mother during the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Rodriguez has since lived in the United States for over 20 years, however, he has not forgotten about his native country, which is often intertwined within his artistic expressions.
 
His works have been widely exhibited nationwide to include appearances in the University of Missouri-Kansas City National Print Exhibition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition at Bradley University, the Prints U.S.A 2005 National Juried Group Exhibition at the Springfield Art Museum and the Sense of Place National Juried Group Exhibition at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, among others. Rodriguez also has received several accolades throughout his career highlighted by the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Award Grant and the Thomas Hart Benton Merit Scholarship.
 
Rodriguez received a bachelor’s degree in painting/printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute and a master’s degree in printmaking from Indiana University. He has served as an Associate Professor of Art/Printmaking at the University of Toledo for the past nine years. Rodriguez previously was a Professor of Foundations/Printmaking at Savannah College of Art and Design from 1997-2001.
 
In addition to its appearance on the Toledo-area Campus, the “Marielito” exhibit will be showcased in the Library Gallery on the Findlay-area Campus, Oct. 27 ? Nov. 19.
 
Admission to the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery 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.