Channing Lefebvre to Exhibit Work from January - April
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| “Sunrise, Lake Champlain”, 14” x 18”, oil on canvas, 2007 |
In addition to paintings by Jonathan Bradley Morse and Walter Launt Palmer and sculpture by Terri Boor, the Living Room, Lobby and Dining Room of the University Club of Albany have long featured works from a variety of renowned artists.
From January through April, the University Club will present a solo exhibition of the works of Channing Lefebvre, who will serve as the Club’s second Artist in Residence.
The exhibition will open with a Meet the Artist Reception on Friday, January 2, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the National Register-listed University Club at 141 Washington Avenue at Dove Street. The reception is free and open to the public as part of the University Club’s participation in 1st Friday, the arts walk that showcases the lively art scene in downtown Albany. Guests are invited to stay on after the reception for live music in the Grille Room with singer/songwriter
Russ Kennedy from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.
RSVP HERE - IT'S FREE
Scheduled to run through Monday, April 27, the exhibition will be on view during public and special events at the Club, and by appointment with the artist, who will receive an honorary membership in the University Club for the duration of the show.
Lefebvre follows Ken Ragsdale as Artist in Residence. Ragsdale’s work spanned many artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, sculpture, paper-craft, theatre lighting, and photographs.
The Artist in Residence program furthers the University Club and Foundation’s commitment to promote the use of the historic Clubhouse as a venue for performing and visual arts as well as cultural events. It builds on the success of the October, 2011 Athletic Annex Exhibition curated by local artist Chip Fasciana. For 9 days, the University Club’s former fitness annex was transformed into a “pop up art gallery” with an exhibition featuring some 20 local and regional artists. The Athletic Annex Exhibition was part of MoHu – the Mohawk Hudson Art Festival featuring theatre, dance, music, visual and random acts of art throughout the region.
Channing Lefebvre’s paintings are about color and the evocative nature of light. The paintings incline toward an Eastern sensibility, balancing color, form, and line.
“The process of painting to me is like meditation in which I convey a sense of time and place with nuances of light and atmosphere,” said Lefebvre. “Nature is the vehicle I use to explore the character of line and color. My drawings and paintings are subjective, intuitive interpretations of nature. The paintings evolve from the drawings.”
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| “Inner Landscape”, 18” x 19”, pastel, 2005 |
“Pastel has the immediacy of drawing and the lusciousness of color,” he continued. “There is a direct and expressive quality about the medium. In exploring the relationship between abstraction and representation, I try to evoke a mood - a harmony - a balance. I pare down Nature’s compositions, looking for essential form and not analytical detail. I’m attracted to an indistinct space, a dimension without depth. Color is the seducer. Line is the intuitive response.”
Channing Lefebvre, who resides in Latham, holds a BFA with Great Distinction in Painting from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California; and attended the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and the Graduate Program in Printmaking at the State University of New York at Albany.
He has exhibited in many galleries, museums and arts venues, including: Albany Center Gallery; Lauren Clark Fine Art, Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Pendle Print Biennial, Lancashire, United Kingdom; Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, Connecticut; Sanford Gallery at Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, Massachusetts; Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut; Opalka Gallery, Albany; Evergreen Arts Center, Evergreen, Colorado; School of Visual Concepts, Seattle, Washington; Randolph County Community Arts Center, Elkins, West Virginia; Asheville Book Works, Asheville, North Carolina; and Open Book, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This event is presented by the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., and one need not be a member of the University Club to attend. The 501c3 Foundation which was formed in 2009 to recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of the University Club building and property, its neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901. Support for educational programming presented by the University Club Foundation is provided by AT&T. For more information contact the University Club at 518-463-1151 or online at www.universityclubalbany.com.
