A new exhibit, "Silver Crowns: Portraits of a Generation," by Jessica Wohl has opened in the Campanella Gallery at Park University's Parkville Campus. The work, painted during 2005 and 2006, features oil portraits of residents at Village Shalom, a retirement community in Leawood, Kan. The exhibit runs through July 11. (Please note: due to renovation in the McAfee Memorial Library, the exhibit will now end on June 28.)
"Just as the camera preserves a moment in time, my paintings recount specific moments in my personal history that when linked together provides me with a connection to my past,"Wohl says in her artist' statement. "The figures I paint are Jewish individuals whom I know personally, either elderly friends or my family. These people are physical embodiments of cultural survival and sustenance."
Wohl has a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the Kansas City Art Institute with concentrations in illustration and art history. During her college years, she spent a semester studying painting, printmaking and Renaissance art history in Florence, Italy. In 2001, she interned at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Her work has been shown in national forums, including the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, The Kansas City Jewish Museum, CMYK magazine and The Artist's Magazine, and is also in collections at The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, the Sprint-Nextel Corp. and H&R Block.
Wohl has taught courses at The Kansas City Art Institute, Maple Woods Community College, The University of Georgia, Athens, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She currently is pursuing her master's degree in fine arts at the University of Georgia.
The Campanella Gallery is located in the McAfee Memorial Library in Park's underground Mabee Learning Center, which can be entered through Millsap Foyer. Summer gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
For more information about the exhibit, contact Donna Bachmann, director of the Campanella Gallery, at (816) 584-6457 or donna.bachmann@park.edu.
