Frances de La Rosa: Paintings, curated by Courtney S. Mims, GCSU senior Museum Studies art major, showcases the abstract landscape paintings by the artist. This is a collaborative exhibition, showing at two venues—Blackbridge Hall Art Gallery from August 18th to September 12th, 2008 and the GCSU Museum Focus Gallery from August 18th to October 2nd, 2008.

Frances de La Rosa is the Comer Professor of Painting at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA. She holds a B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Alabama and an M.F.A. in Painting from Tulane University. Frances de La Rosa: Paintings features works rendered in her primary media, which is oil on canvas. Her works have been exhibited by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama; Phyllis Weil Gallery, New York, New York; and the Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, to name a few.

Frances de La Rosa’s compositions are rendered with numerous layers of brushstrokes that shift from recognizable scenery to non-representational textures, patterns, shapes and lines that allude to nature. Nature provides the artist with endless themes for artistic expressions; as a result she has selected and simplified these forms, while working with a subject matter full of vast resources. The theme focuses on the creative energy found in the visualization and the power of nature. Displaying diverse patterns, imagery and stories, the subject matter comes from the stimulations of life. De La Rosa visually translates anything that she has seen in the real world or within ‘the inner world’ of her imagination. Frances de La Rosa writes, "Through the years, I have explored the genre of ‘Landscape’ through various visual means. Horizon lines have come and gone, the sky has been at the top of the canvas and then at the bottom, and now little remains that is a recognizable reference. An occasional leaf shape, a blade of grass or a bare branch may float in a sea of short vertical brush strokes, or there may be nothing more than those brush strokes. The paintings are extreme in their simplicity; [they are] references to a sensual memory of place.”

This exhibit is co-sponsored by ARTS UNLIMITED.

Associated Events
Public Program: Artist talk will be held at 6:00 p.m. at Blackbridge Hall

Reception: Thursday August 28, 2008
GCSU Museum 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Blackbridge Hall Art Gallery 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Artist talk will be held at 6:00 p.m. at Blackbridge Hall

Locations: Department of Art – Blackbridge Hall Art Gallery
Located on South Clarke Street in Milledgeville
GCSU Museum
Located on the corner of North Clarke Street in Milledgeville
Cost: Free, Open to the Public