Salt Air
Gallery exhibition: March 15 – October 1, 2022
Virtual exhibition launch: June 1, 2022
Visit the beach from the Beach! Organized in conjunction with the American Library Association’s 2022 summer reading theme “Oceans of Possibility,” this exhibition features waves, shorelines, sand dunes and sea creatures pictured in museum artworks.
The sea shore offers artists exciting contrasts. Crashing waves batter smooth sands. Warm-toned beaches meet icy green and blue waters. Winds create foamy white caps that break up glassy seas. The exhibition itself will present intriguing contrasts, such as the pairing of Jerod Morris’ ceramic sculpture Wave with a more traditional seascape by Jeff Aeling. A ceramic cup by Virginia Cartwright mimics wind patterns in sand and complements paintings of dunes by Raymond Eastwood and Roy Langford.
Like the prairie, the sea offers large vistas and dramatic horizon lines, but several of the artists in this exhibition have chosen unique perspectives. More abstract views of the ocean define the work of Scottish artist William (Bill) James John Brown and French and Mexican artist Pedro Pablo Preux. Former Manhattanite Lydia Asenata’s Under the Sea and Diane Balsley’s Tropiquarical take the viewer under the waves.
This exhibition will set the theme for the museum’s weekly summer art programs, tours and gallery activities. It might also provide a spring break getaway in Manhattan, Kansas!
Image: Jeff Aeiling (1958, Iowa City, Iowa), title unknown, 2007, oil on panel, Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase, 2008.15
