Gordon Art Galleries Featuring Jules Olitski Project
March 02, 2018
"Flight Scriber," by Jules Olitski. Photo credit: Dave Chance Photography
By Ramona Austin
"The Jules Olitski Project" is a group exhibition that places a single painting by Jules Olitski (1922-2007), collected by Barry Art Museum benefactors Richard and Carolyn Barry, alongside paintings and sculpture created by artists from New York, Richmond and Norfolk, including Inna Babaeva, Suzanna Fields, Matthew F Fisher, Jeff Kessel, Benjamin La Rocco, Moira Dryer, Edward Avedisian, and Fay Zetlin.
Olitski was identified with the Color Field movement of the 1960s, which stressed painting as a purified, non-referential exploration of its own properties. His later work, as well as certain artists' re-evaluation of Color Field, show that this art was not as pure as it seemed; its spiritual glow could also be the allure of the commodity, said Ramona Austin, senior curator of Old Dominion University's Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries.
"The Jules Olitski Project" will be on view at the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries from March 13 to April 15, 2018. A free public reception with refreshments and a cash bar will be held on March 16, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Preceding the reception, a panel discussion will take place from 5:30- 6:30 p.m. Panel participants will include Vittorio Colaizzi, the exhibition's organizer and assistant professor of art history at Old Dominion University; Lily Siegel, executive director and curator of the Greater Reston Arts Center and curator of the upcoming Moira Dryer exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; as well as two of the exhibition's featured artists: Inna Babaeva, of New York City; and Suzanna Fields, of Richmond.
Colaizzi contends that rather than arguing for Olitski's "influence," the exhibition resonates between generations in terms of process, materiality and reference. By exploring these factors, each in their own way, these artists express the anxiety and yearning of living and making art in the modern world.
The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries exhibits works by nationally and internationally-recognized self-taught and contemporary artists working in all media, as well as local and regional artists connected with Old Dominion University. It is free and open to the public, with parking in the 45th Street garage. Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
For more information, contact Senior Curator Ramona Austin at (757) 683-6272 or raustin@odu.edu.