October 5, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, please contact:

Noel Feeley, Interim Director

(814) 472-3920

Travis Mearns, Public Relations Coordinator

(724) 238-6015

LORETTO MUSEUM TO HOST RETROSPECTIVE OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA NATIVE SON

            Loretto – The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Loretto is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibition, Chuck Olson: Visual Histories. Featured are more than 100 paintings by Olson, an Indiana County native and Fine Arts Department Chairman and Associate Professor of Art at Saint Francis University for more than 30 years. The exhibition will be on view October 12 through February 10.

            Visual Histories serves as a retrospective of the artist’s career, with some works dating back more than 15 years. A significant portion of the exhibition, however, chronicles a new direction in Olson’s repertoire. Fascinated with history, Olson has long-explored the use of both artifacts and landscapes to provide the subjects for his work. But he began a new direction in June of 2006 when he spent the summer in Parma, Italy, to direct a summer arts program.

            While there, he visited monastic libraries that contained large 16^th and 17^th century map frescos of the Italian peninsula, the Holy Land, Asia Minor and Europe. “I was immediately struck by how these ‘maps’ addressed the curiosity, ambition, and identity of the Renaissance/Baroque mind,” said Olson. “Arguably abstract, they held a sense of realism upon which countless dreams and perceptions were based. The idea of developing a visual exchange between non-objective painting and the presumed realism inherent in any map fueled my thinking for a new, related series of work.”

            The project began as Olson would cut apart French road maps and, through the use of collage techniques, reorganize them into small, fictive maps as a surface on which to paint. Soon, Olson was branching out and using maps from various periods in history, such as the Middle Ages, the French and Indian War, the American Civil War, 19^th century European cities, and non-Western (Aztec, Japanese, Chinese and Indian), among others. This new direction was fueled by Olson’s philosophy that every individual carries within themselves a unique map, one tailored by their own personal experiences.

            Olson, who was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, credits the region for, in part, inspiring his artistic endeavors and direction, although his influences certainly extend beyond. The American Abstract Expressionist movement and a keen interest in history also have propelled his career. “My painting has long been a response to my fascination with history as it is wedded to its artifacts and to the landscape upon which events have played themselves out,” he said. “Both the object/artifact and landscape have been explored over the last 20 years as subjects for my work.”

            Olson has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He received a B.A. in art education and an M.A. in painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and later furthered his studies at the Tyler School of Arts at Temple University. He is represented by galleries in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, France and Italy, and was listed in the Who’s Who in American Art for 1999-2000 and 2004-05. He also was the recipient of Pittsburgh Magazine and WQED-TV’s Harry Schwalb Award of Excellence in Visual Arts for 2001-02. His works are included in private, corporate, museum and university collections across the world, including SAMA, the Carnegie Institute and Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Osaka Museum of Modern Art in Japan, and Galerie Lillebonne in Nancy, France.

            SAMA and Saint Francis University are hosting an opening reception on Friday, October 19 to celebrate the opening of Chuck Olson: Visual Histories. Cost for the reception, which begins at 6:30 p.m., is $25 or $20 for SAMA members. For reservations or more information, please call the Museum at (814) 472-3920.

            The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Loretto is located on the campus of Saint Francis University. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. weekends. The Museum is open to the public free of charge. For more information, call the Museum or visit www.sama-art.org.