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An exhibition of works by artist Charles Magistro entitled Paintings and Prints, Marathon Drawing Sessions will be displayed March 12-April 24 at the Grossman Gallery in Lafayette’s Williams Visual Arts Building, 243 N. Third St.
Magistro will direct the public in development of a 55-foot-long by 9-foot-high drawing that will hang in the Williams Visual Arts Building during the exhibition. High school students from Phillipsburg and Easton, middle school students from Palmer Township, and other members of the public will participate. The public is invited to join in the lobby gallery Thursday evenings April 4, 11, and 18 and Friday mornings and afternoons April 5 and 12. The April 11 session will be an all-night event.
For information, call Jim Toia, director of the Grossman Gallery and director of Lafayette’s community arts program, (610) 330-5831.
Other events in conjunction with the exhibition include a brown bag lecture 12:15 p.m. Friday, April 12, and a reception for the artist 5-7 p.m. Friday, April 19. Free and open to the public, both events will be held at the Williams Visual Arts Building.
“Charles is a highly motivated, inspiring artist,” Toia says. “His presence on campus will create a dynamic interplay with Lafayette students and the public at large. We look forward to his time here.”
A prior exhibition of Magistro’s works took place at Lafayette’s Williams Center for the Arts in 1986. He served as artist-in-residence at Lafayette in 1996-97. He served as a juror for the art department’s honors program in 1989, 1990, 1994, and 1995.
Magistro’s unusual and often political graphics place the literal inventions of man’s imagination against their inspiration in nature. They combine to form mystical visions that approach the core of the problem of resolving contradictions.
Magistro has been featured in three one-man exhibitions at the Virginia Museum, Richmond, Va., and two shows at the James Yu Gallery, New York, N.Y. His prints have been displayed in several museum exhibitions, including the Winston-Salem Museum, N.C.; the Mint Museum, N.C.; the Whitney Museum, N.Y.; the Norfolk Museum, Va.; and the Brooklyn Museum, N.Y. In addition to inclusion in group exhibitions, his works have been shown in solo exhibitions at venues such as the Prism Gallery, Port Jefferson, N.Y.; Russell Sage College, Albany, N.Y.; Tibor de Nagy Gallery, N.Y.; John Davis Gallery, Akron, Ohio; and Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, Ill.
Curlee Raven Holton, associate professor of art at Lafayette and director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute, selected Magistro’s work for a traveling international print exhibition last year. Magistro received the Best in Show Award from the Juried Members’ Exhibition, East Hampton, N.Y., and the New York Foundation of the Arts Award for fine arts.
Magistro received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University and his master of fine arts from Ohio State University. He has been teaching on a university level for the past 30 years, including his current position as professor of art at William Paterson University.