The Crary Art Gallery's featured show for September is two shows.
Hiromi Katayama and John Lyon Paul will be the featured artists.
The shows run from Sept. 1 to 22, with a public opening reception to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
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‘Beyond Culture’ by Hiromi Katayama
Both feature harmony.
The works in Katayama's 'Embracing Culture' express the merger of nature and culture.
"All of my work is based on my belief that all cultures have their foundation in nature," she said. "We as people are connected to our natural surroundings, just as my art-making materials come from the earth."
She works with traditional Japanese materials: "pigments from minerals and dyed clay which are affixed to the surface materials with animal collagen based glue," she said. "These materials and methods exist as they have for over 400 years."
"Since the recent natural disaster in my home country of Japan, I have begun to yearn for the resiliency so often seen in nature," she said.
Paul's 'Light Fantastic' studies present "multi-textured results" that are "extraordinarily fresh, immediate, and luminous," he said. "All of the paintings share the interplay of energies between the drawn stroke and the brushed area."
"These are painted as active meditations that offer harmony and restore balance," he said.
He cites three particular challenges in 'Studies on Glass and Mylar': "unconventional materials, unusual process (painting in reverse), and dangerous form (the square format has long been thought to 'kill' an image."
"The process of 'painting in reverse' engages my visual memory and ignites my creativity," he said.
The non-absorbent 'canvasses' of clear mylar and glass give the works "unusual fluidity, but also retains an extraordinary intimacy and subtlety of brushwork," he said.
Katayama will give those who attend the show a glimpse of her native culture. "It has always been my dream to travel abroad and share my Japanese culture through my art work," she said.
"I met my fiance, a native of Warren County, while studying for my Masters of Fine Arts (at Edinboro University)," Katayama said. "I fell in love with the natural setting northwestern Pennsylvania offers, and found the Crary Gallery to be an ideal setting to share my work."
"Tom Paquette, Brad Conquer, Ines Nelson, and the board of the Crary Art Gallery are extremely good at what they do," Paul said. "They are both warm and professional and have done everything to make showing at the Crary a great pleasure."
"The show brings me to Warren for the first time and I'm looking forward to exploring the area," he said. "I come from the Finger Lakes area of New York which has lots of waterfalls. Friends of mine who grew up in Warren have told me about the beautiful reservoir and the wonderful hiking."
Crary hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday and evening hours until 8 p.m. Friday. Admission to the gallery free.