Exhibits are engaging viewers

     (PNAN-ID) – On view at the Boise Art Museum through Sunday, December 5, the “Idaho Triennial” juried show highlights the works by wide group of Idaho artists. The theme, “sustain + expand,” considers the various meanings of literal, figurative or conceptual, and the ways in which their works bring a geographical understanding to global issues, artistic philosophies and creative techniques.

     The chosen artists from Boise are: Jack Bangerter, Matt Bodett, John Burch, William Campton, Michael Cordell, Allison Corona, Dennis DeFoggi, Maria Essig, Jill Fitterer, Charles Gill, Jaki Katz Ashford, Leonard Klikunas, Geoffrey Krueger, Sue Latta, Carol Leonard, William Lewis, Judy Lombardi, Andrea Merrell, Surel Mitchell, Janet Norstrand, Kelly Packer, Nancy Quinn, Christine Raymond, Carl Rowe, Cheryl Shurtleff, Kevan Smith, Leslie Brooke-Harlow Spencer, Patrick Stoll, James Talbot, Anna Webb, and Karen Woods. Caldwell: Garth Claassen; Coeur d’Alene: Rimas Simaitis; Hailey: Pamela DeTuncq; Middleton: John Killmaster; Moscow: Peter Vincent and George Wray; Nampa: Tamara Coatsworth and Chris Wethered; Pocatello: Rudy Kovacs, Raymond Obermayr, Amy Jo Popa, and Dennis Proksa; Rupert: Gordon Hardcastle; and from Twin Falls, Milica Popovic.

About – As the only accredited art museum in the State of Idaho, the now Boise Art Museum (BAM) developed as the Boise Art Association when a group of thirty people interested in promoting art in the city of Boise and throughout the state met in the Crystal Lounge of the Hotel Boise in 1931. Their purpose was to organize an association whose duties were to acquire and maintain a suitable gallery, hosting traveling exhibitions and promoting fine art in Boise. Their mission: “to create visual arts experiences, engage people, and inspire learning through exhibitions, collections, and educational opportunities,” holds steadfast and has kept aligned with their first official exhibition when it was held at the Hotel Boise nearly 80 years ago.

 Sculpture Garden glows with colors of light

     Called the first new art medium of the 21st century and also currently on view, “Stephen Knapp: Lightpaintings” is the third featured exhibition in BAM’s “Threads of Perception Series.” The show runs through April 17, 2011, embodies the artist’s studies of light, space, perception, dimension and color. Knapp’s eighty-foot multi-dimensional composition of light in the museum’s Sculpture Court, is a unique and original form of art that integrates sculptural, architectural and visual elements to transform the environment.

“Solstice Begat” Stephen Knapp, light, glass, stainless steel, 13' x 16' x 10"

    Artist Knapp, who began his career as a fine art photographer, took his fascination with reflective and refractive qualities of light, and began a merge of them with ceramic glazes and mosaic tiles, which led to works created of kiln-formed glass. That curiosity, which began many years ago, is an extension and fulfillment; and he succeeds by depicting the principle look with his “Lightpaintings,” that are highly comparable to other acclaim likes as Robert Irwin and James Turrell.

     The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia have been recent show venues for Knapp, including at the Naples Museum of Art in Florida through December 26, where his works is transforming the galleries in glowing colors.