In the Dutchess County Spotlight

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College is presenting the solo exhibition "Excavations: The Prints of Julie Mehretu". Six of Mehretu's drawings and paintings will be presented in an adjacent gallery to the museum. These selected pieces belong to alumna Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, '89 and husband Nicolas Rohatyn's collection.

The exhibit is on view from Friday, April 13 through June 17, 2012. Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn will present a lecture during the exhibition's opening events on Friday, April 13. "Excavations: The Prints of Julie Mehretu exhibition" was organized by Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis (MN), where it originated.

Julie Mehretu is considered one of the more sophisticated artists working in the 21st century. Recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005 and the American Academy in Berlin Fellowship in 2007, so much has changed for Mehretu since studying printmaking and painting at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Mehretu's work has appeared nationally and internationally, represented in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

"The printshop has become a space for examining her body of work and excavating it to create new layers of visual and conceptual meaning," said Siri Engberg, curator at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and guest curator of the exhibition.

Mehretu's experimentation began with etching. Later on, it became aerial space. These approaches became integral aspects of her works. The deliberate effort in etching led to the development of Mehretu's abstract language, often represented in her large-scale paintings. Sweeping lines and the collision of marks contribute to the bird's-eye view of the many situations we face and it may be overwhelming.

Exhibition Events:
Opening Reception: Art Center Atrium
Friday, April 13 at 5:30pm

Opening lecture and reception: Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn '89
Taylor Hall, Room 203 at 6:30pm

Greenberg Rohatyn studied art history at Vassar College and continued graduate studies at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. During the early 1990s, Greenberg Rohatyn became director of Jeffrey Deitch, Inc, while working on many independent projects that would become her trademark. The Peter Halley Drawings 1991-1995, an exhibition she organized, was presented at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Greenberg Rohatyn founded Salon 94 in 2002, a space in New York City for emerging and mid-career contemporary artists such as Marilyn Minter, Lorna Simpson, Betty Woodman, and Takeshi Murata. Since then, two additional locations have opened at the Lower East Side and Bowery.

Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free and it's wheelchair accessible. The Art Center is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, from 10:00am-5:00pm; and stays open for Late Night at the Lehman Loeb on Thursdays, 10:00am-9:00pm; and on Sunday from 1:00-5:00pm.

About the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Founded in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery, the current 36,400-square-foot facility was named in honor of the building's primary donor and opened in 1993. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of Old Master prints, an important group of Hudson River School paintings given by Matthew Vassar at the college's inception, and a range of works by major European and American 20th-century painters. Vassar was the first American college with a permanent art collection and gallery. http://fllac.vassar.edu