'A Rhetoric of Forms: The Paintings of Dana Saulnier' at Peeler Art Center March 19- April 20

March 10, 2003

March 10, 2003, Greencastle, Ind. - "A Rhetoric of Forms: The Paintings of Dana Saulnier," an exhibition featuring ten large-scale oil paintings by artist Dana Saulnier, will be on view at the Richard E. Peeler Art Center at DePauw University from March 19 through April 20, 2003. The exhibit is free and open to the public. (at top: A Surround of Living Air, 2001; oil on canvas, 64 x 80 inches)

Saulnier's large-scale paintings convey his connection to the natural landscape, as well as the feeling of being situated within these sites in an acute state of participation. Lush, atmospheric and populated with ambiguously rendered figural forms, his work questions issues of representation applied to the tradition of landscape painting and themes of the figure in landscape. 

In this group of works, the painting exists not as a statement of ordered fact but as a conversation with flux. Figural masses emerge and merge in dialogue with each other within the encompassing space of a "nature" that is metaphorically imagined. Here, the sensuality of painting and the directness of drawing are used to convey the bodily experience of being within space -- one where figure and ground exist in a reciprocal liquid tension of changing identity. (at right: Dumb Lament, 2002; oil on canvas, 78 x 98 inches)

Saulnier rebels against what he defines as "ideological hierarchies" in the history of Western painting. As he states: "There is a great tension present in my involvement with painting. For I am both deeply engaged with the history of Western painting, particularly the figure in the landscape, and I am deeply mistrustful of the ideological hierarchies imbedded therein. I enter into this dialogue with the history of painting both as a devotee and as an iconoclast."

Dana Saulnier earned his master of fine arts degree in painting from Cornell University in 1991. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1988, where he earned his bachelor of fine arts in painting. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Branigan Cultural Center, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, Calif.; the Alice F. Harris K. Weston Art Gallery, Aronoff Center, Cincinnati; as well as numerous galleries, museums and art institutions throughout the United States. Saulnier is an associate professor of painting, drawing and foundations at Miami University of Ohio and resides in Bath, Indiana. (at left: (Facing) One More Lost Icon, 2002; oil on canvas. 78 x 91 inches)

The galleries at the Richard E. Peeler Art Center are open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., and Sunday 1 - 5 p.m.

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