Artist Thomas Swopes will exhibit his paintings, drawings and sculptures at the Bicentennial Art Center in Paris, Ill., through Dec. 31.
The opening reception is 5 to 6:30 p.m. (CST) today.
Swopes, from Dennison, Ill., has been creating art for more than four decades, and has taught drawing, painting and sculpture at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College for 20 years. Swopes is a storyteller and at its core, his work is expressionist in nature.
While his work is a personal narrative, his themes are universal and depict the basic experiences we all share.
Jungian in his perspective, his work reflects themes of balance by addressing the polarities necessary to any self-regulating system: Life and death, joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, hope and despair, light and dark, gain and loss, creation and destruction.
Much of his work is dreamlike and appears to be a reflection on the journey of life and the passage from this life to the next.
Stylistically, Swopes’ artwork is a mixed bag from the abstract to the realistic.
His paintings exhibit the controlled energy of Pollack, the whimsy and childlike nature of Miro’ and Klee, and the bold color of Gauguin. Similar to Escher, he uses figure/ground reversals, with color juxtapositions derivative of op art, to engage the viewer psychologically as he or she tries to make sense of what they are seeing.
He also uses the figure, whether human or animal, to connect with the viewer psyche, but places those figures in a dreamlike setting.
He often juxtaposes Christian symbols with Native American ones, as well as images from popular culture with images from cultures in the past.
As a result, Swopes’ images create a whole other world, a world with its own set of myths and its own story to tell.
The Art Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday or by appointment.
Call (217) 466-8130 for more information. Admission is free.
Arts
Artist to exhibit work at Bicentennial Art Center
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