Acrylic paint has been in use since the early 1960s, and really took off in the 1970s.
This is a very fast-drying paint, soluble with water and other acrylic gels and mediums. However, once dry, the paint film is very strong and flexible, impervious to almost every solvent.
You can use acrylic on any non-oily surface, with canvas, board and paper being the most commonly used supports. In this arresting painting currently on view at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, by Cincinnati artist Michael Coppage, heavy watercolor paper is the support. Coppage used thin washes and dynamic impasto to produce this moving portrait.
This work (Matriarch of Havana, 2017, acrylic on paper, 60” by 42”) goes far beyond the conventions of portraiture, by its size alone. As the artist says, “This series of portraits is not about beauty. They are not about vanity or nourishing an ego. They are not about an exact likeness or an ‘ode to.’ They are of at-risk, marginalized, creative, thought-provoking, eccentric, challenging and sometimes difficult people who have all impacted me in some significant way.”
The Riffe Gallery’s 2017 Biennial Juried Exhibition is on display through Jan. 6. Selected from more than 300 applications, the exhibition features contemporary works of art including installation, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and video by 58 artists living and working in Ohio.
Works were selected by jurors Larry Collins, artist and associate professor in the Department of Art at Miami University; Janice Driesbach, former chief curator of the Akron Museum of Art; and Daniel Hernandez, artist and assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Art/Foundations at the University of Toledo.
Take some time this season and go see this show.
Michael McEwan teaches oil painting classes in his Summit Street studio. His paintings are available exclusively from Keny Galleries. Learn more at www.michaelmcewan.com.
2017 Biennial Juried Exhibition
Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery
Nov. 2-Jan. 6
