Exhibition Opening: "Rocks, Paper, Memory: Wendy Artin's Watercolor Paintings of Ancient Sculptures"

An American artist who lives in Rome, Wendy Artin has been working for over a decade on a series of watercolor paintings of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and related subjects. This exhibition features a selection of her paintings, not only images of ancient sculptures and landscapes but also contemporary life studies. Set in dialogue with the paintings will be objects drawn from the Kelsey's collections, including works of Greek art inspired by Egyptian precedents and examples of the same figure types seen in some of Artin's paintings (such as Aphrodite rising from the sea).

Wendy Artin engages with antiquity in a manner that goes back to the Renaissance if not before. Indeed, the way she draws inspiration from the past has very ancient precedents, such as the Roman practice of making marble “copies” of famous Greek bronze statues. Her visually stunning paintings offer fresh and arresting ways of looking at ancient sculptures and buildings.