An opening reception for the group show, “Sister Wendy Beckett: Envisioning Art,” is planned for 4-6 p.m. March 21 in the Harlan Gallery, located in the Seton Hill University Arts Center, 205 W. Otterman St., Greensburg.
Running through April 16, the exhibition features works by Norwood Hodge MacGilvary, Frank Trapp, George Grosz, Sue Abramson, Zachary Brown, Christopher Ruane, Seth Le Donne, Paul Peng and other artists.
The show was inspired by the late Sister Wendy Beckett, a British religious sister and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s through her series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art.
“How did a nun capture the imagination of the public simply through an enthusiastic contemplation of art? And through the unlikely medium of television? This exhibition suggests that she found the spiritual not only in religious art, but in other, unlikely sources,” says exhibition curator Graham Shearing, a noted Pittsburgh art dealer and art critic.
“Here, a collection of art from public and private collections, and the work of living artists, reveals diverse visions of the spiritual,” Shearing says. “This may require hard looking, which was the practice of this nun, following the precept of the Victorian critic, John Ruskin: ‘To see clearly,’ he observed, ‘is poetry, prophecy, and religion, – all in one.’”
Harlan Gallery hours are 1-8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 1-3 p.m. Fridays, 1-4 p.m. Sundays and by appointment.
Details: 724-552-2900 or email art program director Pati Beachley at beachley@setonhill.edu
