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Easton sculptor Karl Stirner and Curlee Raven Holton, associate professor of art, will be guests of honor at a reception for their exhibition, “African Antiquities,” 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday in the David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center, 101 McCartney Street.
The event is free and open to the public. Curated by Debroah Rabinsky, the exhibition is available for viewing 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays at the BCC through Friday, Aug. 29.
A leading figure in the development of the arts in Easton, Stirner has collected objects of African antiquity for more than three decades. The exhibit features pieces from his collection, which once were displayed at a Madison Avenue gallery in Manhattan and are available for purchase. “All works are African artifacts as well as antiques made and used by African peoples,” he notes. Many of the pieces hail from the Ivory Coast.
Stirner’s large African art collection is housed, along with his giant metal sculptures, in a 38,000-square-foot warehouse in Easton. His sculpture has been displayed in major museums throughout the country and internationally. Easton honored him in September 2000 by declaring “Karl Stirner Month.”
The exhibit includes three mixed media pieces by Holton, director of Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute, that he created in 1993 following a trip to West Africa the prior year as part of a Fulbright-funded study of traditional cultural and spiritual practices of the people of Ghana.
The latest of Holton’s many collaborations with Lafayette students through EPI is the Master Artist/Master Printmaker program, in which three senior art majors worked with renowned artists to create limited-edition prints that have been shown this summer in Tokyo and New York. Designed to promote graphic and fine arts, Master Artist/Master Printmaker links artists with printmakers who are creating a limited edition of prints using traditional and digital media. It also fosters special mentoring opportunities, encourages creative experimentation, and enables artists and students to work side-by-side.
Holton’s prints were part of a group exhibition this spring at the Williams Center for the Arts gallery.
Last semester, he guided Giselle Edwards ’03 (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Sarah Deitsch ’03 (Norwood, N.J.) in an intensive research project involving creation of a retrospective on the work and career of noted African American artist Paul Keene, which will be exhibited at James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa. Holton helped Edwards and Deitsch complete interviews with the artist and a major collector; prepare an exhibit proposal, budget, and schedule; create a promotional packet; and compile a catalog for the exhibition.
He served as mentor to senior art major Krista Catalano (Greenwich, Conn.) during a recent independent study that introduced her to art management. As part of her work, Catalano helped mount one of Holton’s exhibits at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J, and assisted with an exhibit at Dizyners Gallery in Philadelphia. She also had an opportunity to develop her portfolio and work closely with visiting artists, as well as curate a major exhibition of student art work on display at Lafayette’s David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center.
Holton has mounted more than 30 one-person shows and participated in more than 75 group exhibitions, including the Seventh International Biennale at the National Center of Fine Arts, Cairo, and shows at Centro de Cultura Casa Lamm Gallery, Mexico City. In 2001, he received a commission to create the awards for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Awards for the Arts. His works are in the collections of universities, foundations, and corporations, including Cleveland Museum of Art, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Villanova University, and Morehouse College. He was the 1999 recipient of Lafayette’s Carl R. and Ingeborg Beidleman Research Award, recognizing excellence in applied research or scholarship.
Allentown Art Museum recently acquired “Dream of the Slave,” a large-scale mixed media work created by Holton. It was inspired by Holton’s trip to West Africa.