Pursuing Unforeseen Encounters

September 17, 2010 through October 22, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, September 17, 2010 from 5 - 8 pm

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve is pleased to present this dual art exhibition featuring works by Douglas Max Utter and Roger Welchans. The two artists present a thought-provoking presentation showing how the creation of contemporary art can lead to unexpected results.

Douglas Max Utter was born December 8, 1950 and raised in Cleveland Heights. He attended Case Western Reserve University and has been a self-employed writer and exhibiting artist since 1986. He has on various occasions taught painting and drawing courses at several leading area educational institutions. Since 2002 he has poured paint onto canvas in an attempt to push the painted surface toward the eye, thus re-measuring the distances between the illusions created by drawing and the more three dimensional, bumpy features of other surfaces he used. His new work contains landscapes with clouds and storms, as well as many heads in an attempt to push across real space toward the eye. His painting is about presence and urgent encounters, as well as their loss, absence and memory.

Roger Welchans earned his PhD from Case Western Reserve University. For 30 years (1965-1995) he was a faculty member at Cleveland's John Carroll University where he served as chairperson of the art history department. He retired in 1995 as Professor Emeritus of Art History. He has edited and published a number of art-related publications, including "Edris Eckhardt, Cleveland Sculptor" and a catalog essay for the exhibit, David E. Davis: Transformations, held at The Butler Institute of Art in Youngstown, Ohio in 2000. A well known and highly regarded artist, Mr. Welchans is an Archived Artist with the AAWR.