Reception to Open Art Exhibit Showing Glendale CC Instructor's Work
A reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, opens a three-week art exhibition that showcases the talents of a Glendale Community College (GCC) instructor whose work has appeared in more than 100 exhibits in museums, art centers and galleries across the nation.
Gaylen Stewart's "Cross Section: A Retrospective" mixed-media paintings exhibition begins with the reception attended by the artist in Room 104 of the Student Union, located near the center of the GCC main campus at 59th and West Olive avenues. The exhibition, which continues in the Student Union through Wednesday, Oct. 28, is sponsored by GCC Associated Student Government (ASG).
This exhibition includes artwork that spans more than 20 years of Stewart's artistic career. The paintings include styles ranging from expressionistic to more post-modern and conceptual. His work also crosses disciplinary boundaries in a series of artworks produced in collaboration with poet and musician Steve Scott.
Stewart's paintings mix various media including oil, acrylics and found objects such as insects, cast-off items, wasp and bees nests, and other often-overlooked materials. He revitalizes theses objects and gives them new meaning in his art. These materials substantiate an ongoing visual dialogue about personal subject matter including his Christian faith and healing from cancer 20 years ago.
Prior to joining the GCC faculty, Stewart was an associate professor of art at Grand Canyon University. He also instructed at Ohio University and University of Rio Grande, both in Ohio, where he taught courses in painting, drawing, mixed media and two-dimensional design.
Stewart earned his master of fine arts degree in painting from Ohio University. The Ohio Arts Council has awarded him several professional grants and fellowships including two Individual Artist's Fellowships, a Projects Grant and a Professional Development Award.
Among the venues where his art has appeared are The Albuquerque Museum, Arizona Museum for Youth, Herberger Theater Center Gallery, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center and several centers in Ohio including The Butler Institute of American Art, The McDonough Museum of Art, The Southern Ohio Museum, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Esther Allen Greer Museum and Zanesville Art Center.
Exhibitions also have been presented at the Corvallis Arts Center in Oregon; Mariboe Gallery in New Jersey; Bauhaus Gallery in North Carolina; Abney Gallery in New York; Huntington Museum of Art and Parkersburg Arts Center in West Virginia; Alexandria Museum of Art in Louisiana; Western Colorado Center for the Arts; and the Bellevue Art Museum in Washington.
During a European trip to study painting and architecture, Stewart created an expansive mural for a children's center in Cortnari, Romania.
His work has been reviewed, published or reproduced by publications such as New American Paintings; Radix magazine of England; ARTYFACT, the magazine of the Arts Centre Group in London; and Dialogue, Arts in the Midwest.
Stewart's exhibition is the second in a series of three ASG-sponsored fall art shows at GCC. An exhibition of oil and watercolor presentations by Phoenix artist Julie Gilbert Pollard closes Tuesday, Sept. 29. The final exhibit – ceramics by GCC faculty member Dr. Harry Kaino III – will be displayed Nov. 2-Dec. 3. A reception with Dr. Kaino is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on opening night.