PEACH WEEKENDER | ARTS
Pickens’ ‘Toy Tableaux’ on display in B.G.
3/16/2017
Aaron Pickens’ latest exhibit includes works, such as ‘Old Yella,’ that use children’s toys and paint in a diorama setting.
Visitors on Saturday can meet the artist behind whimsical oil paintings that incorporate child’s play on exhibition through April at the Art Supply Depo in Bowling Green.
Aaron Pickens will meet guests and talk about his work at an artist reception from 1 to 5 p.m. at the East Wooster Street art shop gallery, where his show, Toy Tableaux, will be on display through April 30.
Toledo native Pickens is an adjunct professor in the art and design department at Adrian College, where he has taught drawing from life and digital foundation courses. He also works for digital installation artist Erwin Redl at Paramedia LLC, Bowling Green. Pickens paints a variety of subjects, including landscapes and figurative portraits. This show, however, focuses on the act of child’s play using toys and paint in a diorama setting.
“These scenarios are assembled in a manner that a child could have presumably erected from objects associated with playtime. Each arrangement is primarily governed by a simple interest in color and form, all the while implying an absurd narrative,” Pickens writes on his webpage.
The Art Supply Depo is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Pickens will lead an oil painting workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. April 22, and his show will be part of the Bowling Green Art Walk on April 29.
For more information about the show or the workshop, go to artsupplydepobg.com, or call 419-352-9501. For more on Pickens, check out aaronpickens.com.
■ An open house will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. today, at the University of Toledo’s Center for Visual Arts gallery, to celebrate the work of students from the university’s Visual and Performing Arts department.
The Juried Student Exhibition 2017 runs through March 24. It features more than 30 pieces from students, whose work will be juried by Clara DeGalan, a drawing and painting professor at Wayne State University and Madonna University, and an art critic for Detroit Art Review and InfiniteMile Detroit.
The CVA is attached to the Toledo Museum of Art, 620 Art Museum Drive. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.
For more information, go to utoledo.edu/al/svpa/art/galleries.
■ A local artist will give a demonstration of her work at the next gathering of the Bedford Art Club.
Dani Herrera, who creates her pieces from book pages, dryer lint and other used, everyday materials, will do the demo at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, at the Bedford Library, 8575 Jackman Rd.
For more information, call 734-693-0696.
■ The Anthony Wayne Area Arts Commission is hosting a number of spring art classes, including rug weaving, acrylic painting, and needle felting.
The series kicks off with an April 1 class on making glass mosaics with artist Gail Christofferson of Animal House Glass, and wraps up with a May 23 class on aluminum etching and jewelry making with Tana Johnoff of Alley Cat Arts.
All of the classes will be at the Waterville Library, 800 Michigan Ave.
The AWAAC is also selling prints of historic locations in Waterville, including the old Waterville School that is being demolished to make way for a new bridge over the Maumee River. The original drawings, created by former Waterville resident and artist George Wagner in 1989, also include drawings of the Columbian House, the old town hall, and the Waterville train depot.
Proceeds benefit the AWAAC. For more information on the fund-raising project, go to awaac.org. To sign up for a class, go to bit.ly/2mkoggo or call Lisa at 567-686-6921.
Send news of art items at least two weeks in advance to rgedert@theblade.com or call 419-724-6075.