Runte Donates Work by Canadian Artist to Gordon Art Galleries

Old Dominion President Roseann Runte recently donated a cast and carved glass sculpture by Canadian artist Markian Olynyk, which she purchased last August, to the university's Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries.

A self-taught artist who lives in Vancouver, Olynyk employs a wide variety of leading-edge techniques, many of which have been developed in his studio. The piece given by Runte is an untitled work from his Arc Series.

Olynyk focuses on both commissioned site-specific work as well as screens and sculptures for galleries. Exploring the versatile properties of glass, his elaborately worked pieces are a balance between simple geometric structure and the elemental beauties of nature.

"The sculpture is a most generous gift," said Ramona Austin, curator of the Gordon Art Galleries. "Dr. Runte's sensitivity to the architectural statement of the facility is evident in that her gift creates a visual dialogue with the strong linear statement of the undulating glass atrium wall uniting the galleries.

"The work is installed in the director and curator's office against the luminous glass brick. It announces the galleries' concern with the contemporary in its abstractly treated surface but recognizable architectonic form. An added relevancy is that the work is made by an artist who is self-taught, and thereby also relates to the Gordon Gallery of self-taught art on the opposite end of the atrium."