Interview with Curator Phaedra Siebert
Ben Whitehouse talks about his painting and
the evolution of The Revolution Series
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio
March 15 - April 25
Revolution Still Lifes
ArtChicago
April 30 - May 3
Perimeter Gallery, Booth TBA
Grand Rapids Art Museum
June 4 - August 22
GRAM and Ox-Bow
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago September 10 - October 9
| For immediate release | July 7 2003 |
(GRAND RAPIDS, MI)—An exhibition of paintings by noted contemporary landscape artist Ben Whitehouse will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum October 18, 2003-January 4, 2004. Whitehouse explores Michigan's Leelanau peninsula in a series of paintings that explore both the natural beauty of the area and the shared experience of time and place.
"If you see a painting of mine of the Narrows, for example, and feel drawn to the experience, as if you remember being there yourself although you possibly have not, I will feel the painting has done its job," Whitehouse stated.
Ben Whitehouse received his MFA from the University of Chicago in 1991. He was artist-in-residence in 1993 and 1994 at Oxbow, the West Michigan Summer School of the Art Institute of Chicago located in Saugatack, MI. In 1998, he was visiting artist at Cawdor Estate in Scotland and in 1999 at Northwestern University. A solo exhibition of his work was presented at the Cultural Center of Chicago in 1998.
In his series Leelanau: Michigan's Eden, Whitehouse uses water as the medium through which he navigated his way around the Leelanau experience. He focused on finding the subtler, more intimate moments of the area as opposed to the grand scenes that are more commonly seen and captured.
"I am interested in making paintings that deal in some way with the monumental." Whitehouse stated, "The landscape obviously is immense and if painting is to mirror natural phenomena, as mine aspires to do, scale cannot be ignored. But the monumental is more than a question of size—it is a quality of experience that ironically has something to so with intimacy. I have found over the years that it is in the seemingly smaller subject that the more interesting monumental possibility resides."
Whitehouse has received international critical acclaim with his works being featured in American Art Quarterly, New Art Examiner, ArtForum and the Chicago Sun-Times. He is noted for his plein-air style of painting that echoes the British landscape tradition, but with a modern twist.
Admission to the Grand Rapids Art Museum is $10.00 for adults, $7.00 for seniors and college students and $5.00 for children. Tickets are available online at www.gramonline.org. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is open daily from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, Fridays until 9:00 pm, closed Mondays.
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