Al Gury exhibit
MONMOUTH, Ill. – The paintings of Philadelphia artist Al Gury are currently on display in the Len G. Everett Gallery of Hewes Library.
Titled “Painting, the Poetry of Observation,” the exhibit will be on display through Nov. 4. A reception for the artist will be held from 2-4 p.m. Oct. 28, with a gallery talk at 3 p.m. The exhibit, reception and talk are all free and open to the public.
Gury is chairman of the painting department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A painter of the figure, landscapes, still lifes and portraits, his work is regularly shown by F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia. His paintings have also been exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Capitol in Washington D.C., Washington and Lee University, the University of Pennsylvania, and galleries across the country.
“A great pleasure for me is the simple description in oil and drawing media of my own ‘daily ordinary,’” said Gury of his exhibit. “The friends, students, views and rooms that I see every day have become my favorite form of poetry in painting. I have done many large and more complex works, filled with symbolism and literary references, but it is the simple paintings of the people and places that I care about that give me the most pleasure.”
He is a recipient of the Cresson Traveling Fellowship and numerous grants and awards for painting and arts education, and was designated a master teacher by both The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and American Artist Magazine.
A contributing editor for Per Contra – an international journal of arts, literature and ideas – and a contributor to a variety of publications internationally, he is the author of three books on painting and drawing.
He first visited Monmouth in 2010 when he juried the Art 64 National Juried Art Show at the Buchanan Center for the Arts. During that visit, he conducted a week-long painting workshop at the College.
Gury received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts and humanities from Saint Louis University, a four-year certificate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from the University of Delaware.
Since 1972, Gury has resided in Philadelphia, where he works to promote the arts and is a long-time volunteer and contributor to PAWS, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society.