March 30, 2004, Philadelphia, PA – From April 22 to May 29, 2004, Locks Gallery will present an exhibition of intimately scaled oil paintings by Warren Rohrer. Comprising nearly two dozen works, most completed during the 1980s, this exhibition highlights a body of work by this acclaimed Pennsylvania artist that has not been widely exhibited. A full-color illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be available.
In the fifteen years between 1975 and 1990, Warren Rohrer developed and perfected in his paintings the layers of illuminated color and precisely articulated surfaces that are the defining characteristics of his mature work. His application of discreet, incremental brushstrokes in orderly rows across the canvas surface creates an illusion of grand scale independent of the actual size of each painted canvas—a single example of the remarkable effects Rohrer achieved through his openness to interpreting and reinventing the landscape imagery that remained a constant source of inspiration for his work.
In paintings completed during the 1980s, Rohrer embraced a more intuitive process in the studio. Experimenting with the physical surfaces of his paintings— Rohrer introducing layered veils of texture and clearly visible linear elements that imply a form of automatic writing or the furrowed landscape of the farmlands surrounding his studio. The small scale of these canvases creates a physical immediacy that unmistakably highlights these developing nuances of texture and imagery.
Warren Rohrer was born into the Mennonite community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite College in 1950 and studied art during summers at Penn State University. From 1967 to 1992 the artist taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts).
Rohrer first exhibited with Locks Gallery in 1974 and continually over the next two decades. In 2003, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a retrospective of his mature paintings. Rohrer’s work is in the collections of the Delaware Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Locks Gallery is located at 600 Washington Square South in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm. For more information, please contact Jeremiah Misfeldt at 215.629.1000 voice, 215.629.3868 fax, or jmisfeldt@locksgallery.com.
