The Bronx Celebrates: Whitfield Lovell

Lehman College Art Gallery will present the exhibition, THE BRONX CELEBRATES: WHITFIELD LOVELL from Tuesday, February 2 – Tuesday, March 23. A reception for the artist will be held on Thursday, February 18, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

The large scale drawings of Whitfield Lovell speak allegorically through visual symbols, and explore issues of identity, gender, love, death, and loss. Following the death of a close family member, Lovell began to work autobiographically. Lovell tells stories based on the familiar, and explores the past for a better sense of the present and the future. using found images from newspapers and old family photos, Lovell began to construct works which were literally grounded in his family’s past. To these images he added the poetic allusion of visual symbols, and the intuited content of dream imagery. Memory plays a significant role. The work is about relationships, primarily — and a childhood in the Bronx.

The Bronx Celebrates is an on-going series which acknowledges the work of artists who were raised or are now working in the Bronx. the exhibition was organized by Susan hoeltzel, Acting Director of the Lehman College Art Gallery. A catalogue will be produced with essays by John yau and Susan Hoeltzel.