(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.) The Arts Council of Tuscaloosa will host an exhibit of works by Jason Guynes June 3-July 29, 2022 in The Arts Council Gallery at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. Opening on June 3 during the First Friday Art Walk from 5 p.m.-7 p.m., the exhibit will be titled “Unrealism” and will consist of drawings and works in oil.
Jason Guynes is a professor of art and chairperson of the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. He holds the MFA from Tulane University and the BA in Art from Belhaven College. He has had academic appointments at universities in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alabama and has been working in academia for thirty years, serving as a chairperson for twenty-six years. While at the University of West Alabama he founded and served as director of the UWA Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, an ongoing national exhibition of outdoor sculpture. At the University of South Alabama, he oversaw the design and construction of a state-of-the-art glass blowing facility and program, as well as the creation of an MFA program in Creative Technologies and Practice. He served as President of SECAC, the second largest arts organization of its kind in the US, from 2014 to 2017. Guynes exhibits his work internationally in competitions, galleries, and museums, and his work has been featured in Creative Quarterly’s virtual gallery, Negative Capability Journal, and Manifest Gallery’s International Painting Annual 8. In addition to exhibitions, he has completed numerous private and public mural commissions throughout the United States with major commissions in Mesa, Ariz., Joplin, Missouri, Philadelphia, Penn., and Mobile, Ala.
“Unrealism” is an attempt to depict reality in a contemporary form which inevitably entails an effort to capture that which is not seen and which goes beyond knowing from a purely visual standpoint. The work in this exhibit contains pieces from two bodies of work addressing different themes in similar ways. The oil paintings are from a series exploring the artist’s personal narratives and the drawings deal with experience and memory as it relates to place.
“The paintings relate to my upbringing among people who enjoy a good story. The struggle I engage in is to construct a narrative that has universal appeal, but to do so in a way that displays a uniqueness of personal experience, and that adequately captures those parts of any story that are felt rather than seen,” said the artist.
The University of Alabama Gallery at DWCAC along with the Paul Jones Gallery will feature the opening of the “Flow” exhibit on June 3 during First Friday.
Information about all the downtown galleries and exhibits open during the February First Friday Art Walk is available at www.firstfridaytuscaloosa.com.
The Arts Council Gallery and UA Gallery hours are weekdays 9 a.m.- noon and 1-4 p.m. For more information about The Arts Council gallery visit https://cac.tuscarts.org/cacgallery.php.
The Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center is located at 620 Greensboro Avenue in downtown Tuscaloosa. For more information about The Arts Council or Bama Theatre, patrons should follow and like “The Arts Council – Bama Theatre – Cultural Arts Center” on Facebook and also Instagram @tuscaloosaartscouncil. Call 205-758-5195 or visit tuscarts.org for further information.
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