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Reductive Life, an exhibition of art created by Curlee Raven Holton, professor and head of art and director of Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute, will be on view at the Banana Factory’s Binney and Smith Gallery, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, from Feb. 3 through March 26.
Reductive Life is comprised of 60 graphite drawings, acrylic paintings, digital pieces, and other images that span three decades of work addressing self-consciousness, injustice, and redemption.
A reception for Holton will be held 6-9 p.m. Friday, Feb 3, in conjunction with Bethlehem’s First Friday events. The gallery’s hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. daily.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1991, Holton has mounted more than 30 one-person shows and has participated in more than 75 group exhibitions, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Seventh International Biennale in Cairo, Centro de Cultura Casa Lamm Gallery in Mexico City, and most recently in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan. Holton had etchings selected for inclusion in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His works are in the collections of several universities, foundations, and corporations, including Cleveland Museum of Art, West Virginia Governor’s Mansion, Morehouse College, and Fundación Cultural Rodolfo Morales in Oaxaca, Mexico.
He has mentored many Lafayette students in printmaking, bookmaking, drawing, and painting. Since Holton founded Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute in 1996, it has provided an open and creative environment for professional artists and students to create new bodies of work while investigating and experimenting with a wide variety of approaches to the print medium. As part of the Community of Scholars program, he oversaw the completion of a mural that three students created for installation in Farinon College Center. Using photographic images from the past and present, and original works that envision the future, they created a 130-foot montage.
Holton has participated in several residencies and special projects and has served as curator for a dozen exhibitions. He is the author of Faith Ringgold: A View from the Studio, a book published in conjunction with an exhibition of Ringgold’s art at Allentown Art Museum. His The Spirit of the Blues was the official image of Easton Blues Jam 2005, and he created 40 limited-edition prints as a fundraiser for the event.
He holds an M.F.A. from Kent State University and a B.F.A. from Cleveland Institute of Fine Arts. He was the 1999 recipient of Lafayette’s Carl R. and Ingeborg Beidleman Research Award, recognizing excellence in applied research or scholarship.