Aerial Roots
The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries and 糖心原创 are excited to present 鈥淎erial Roots鈥濃�攁n exhibition of paintings and drawings by Marius Lehene.聽
The exhibition is open from August 23rd to September 30th 2021. A closing reception and artist talk are scheduled for Wednesday, September 29th, at 6:00pm at the galleries.
Marius聽Lehene聽is a Romanian-born visual artist聽living聽in the United States. His recent聽exhibitions include聽shows at聽the National Museum of Art 鈥撀燴alau, Romania, CICA Museum, Korea, Gallery MC, New York,聽Boulder Museum of Contemporary聽Art in Boulder, Colorado, Casa聽Matei Gallery in Cluj-Napoca, Romania,聽Chapman Gallery at聽Kansas State University,聽Whitney Center for the Arts in Wyoming, Manifest聽鈥� Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Pollock Gallery in Dallas, Texas,聽and the Ice Cube Gallery in Denver, Colorado.聽Lehene聽is the winner of the 2010 McNeese National聽Works on Paper Exhibition,聽of the 2007 edition of Positive/Negative National Juried聽Exhibition, and聽he聽received an award from the 7th Dave Bown Projects Competition. His collaborative book聽with poet Matthew Cooperman,聽Imago for the Fallen World, was published by Jaded Ibis Press, Seattle,聽in 2013.聽Lehene聽holds an MFA degree in Painting and Drawing from Southern Methodist University, Texas, and a BA in聽Economics from聽Babe艧-Bolyai University, Romania. He also聽studied art at the聽University of Art and Design - Cluj, Romania. Currently,聽Lehene聽teaches in the Department of Art聽and Art History at Colorado State University.
The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries are free and open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm, and on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Visitor parking areas on campus are free, and parking at the Creative Arts Center is unrestricted on weekends. A dedicated parking space for galleries patrons is available in Lot 13. For more information, please visit聽www.wright.edu/artgalleries.
Artist Statement
I build my recent works as multiple images woven together layer upon layer to open up interfering visual worlds. These works reflect an interest in describing simultaneous locations/positionings and in multiplying the point of view to make relative its importance, possibly to disintegrate it entirely. The physical process of making,聽in which an homage to Jack Whitten is implicit, yields an ambiguity that I consider the proper medium of my work. Source-images come from the three cultural environments that contribute to my flaky sense of identity (Romanian, North American, and Indian); issues of memory, history, identity, absence, transience, and discontinuity appear in and motivate the work. I am interested in layering because it encapsulates time and is ambiguous in its oscillation between revealing and obscuring. The visual accumulation comes from and addresses an awareness of the perpetual re-orientation, re-interpretation (including self re-interpretation) that is typical of the immigrant experience I belong to. The canvas, as well as what happens on it, becomes a space without place that reveals meaning only when set in motion, shifting from one thing to another.
