Story and photos by Karisah Cozart
The Scene staff
As you walk into the gallery, the first thing you see is Josh Rowen’s artwork on the far back wall.
His five photographs of a dying glacier in Alaska are meant to call attention to a world suffering from climate change.
“I encountered many glaciers,” he said, ”and unfortunately they are receding at a fast pace.”
Rowen photographed Salmon Glacier in British Columbia. Even though it’s melting, he found it to be beautiful.
Rowen, 44, is one of four artists displaying their work at the Gallery of Contemporary Art on the Forest Park campus.
The exhibit, called “Artists Who Travel,” was organized by Gallery Director Metra Mitchell, who teaches art at Forest Park. The opening reception was held Jan. 31.
“It’s a group show that brings people together, incorporating different types of mediums and helping to transport students to different exotic locations,” she said.
The other artists include printmaker Nancy Exarhu, watercolor painter Yingxue Zuo and acrylic painter Mark Schatz.
Exarhu, 63, is a student at St. Louis Community College at Meramec who spent time at the Art Print Residence, outside of Barcelona, Spain. She’s displaying 31 prints in the exhibit. Her collection is called “Black on Black.”
Exarhu’s artist statement explains, “Although I was in sunny Spain, working in a great studio surrounded by a garden, a small piece of paradise, instead of using color that reflected the joi de vivre, I was working on compositions using black ink on black paper.”
Zuo, 65, an art professor at Forest Park, is displaying eight watercolors in the exhibit. His collection is called “The Winter of Southern China.”
“I wanted to experience the charm of minority culture, to seek artistic inspiration, and to stimulate artistic creation through nature and human history,” he writes in his artist statement.
Schatz, 67, is an art instructor at Maryville University and St. Charles Community College. His collection, called “Vacation Pictures,” consists of nine acrylic paintings that document his experiences in Florida, Brooklyn, New York, Madrid, Spain, London, England, and Vienna, Austria.
“Rather than featuring iconic monuments, or natural wonders, I focus on some of the more ancillary, yet integral, aspects of travel: Hotel lobbies, airport bars, restaurants and the like,” he writes in his artist statement.
One of the spectators at the opening reception was Mario Carlos, who teaches at Forest Park.
“Glacier Guy Josh Rowen was my favorite artist featured in the exhibit,” he said.
The Gallery of Contemporary Art is on the first floor of the Forest Park library building. “Artists Who Travel” will run through Feb. 27.