Spring at the Museum

vBma’s sPring exhiBiTs CeleBraTe lighT and naTUre

Railroad Nostalgia, 2012, Artist Proof #2, plywood, LED lights, railroad tracks & ties, hardware, mirrors, 100 x 144 x 41.5 inches, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of C. Grimaldis Gallery

VBMA - The Vero Beach Museum of Art has two intriguing new exhibits this spring. Through April 25, 2021 in the Stark Gallery and Rotunda, the fascinating exhibition New Light by Korean-born Baltimore artist Chul Hyun Ahn features a dozen sculptural works and is an investigation of infinite space. Ahn uses light, color, and illusion to immerse his viewers in deep landscapes that bridge the gap between the conscious and subconscious.

Chul Hyun Ahn constructs illusionistic environments, providing a space for contemplation. His sculptures urge the viewer to consider man’s boundless ability for physical and spiritual travel while exploiting notions of infinity and the poetics of emptiness. Ahn has translated geometric painting and the Zen practice of meditation into an art of light, space, and technology, enticing the viewer to look deeply into his frame of environments. His works create an optical and bodily illusion of infinity through apparent limitless space. The notion of the void distinguishes his work amid the vast panoply of ways that artists have used light as a medium since the experiments of the 1920s, and particularly since the 1960s.

Chul Hyun Ahn is an artist of international acclaim, with works in numerous public and private collections including the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, the Hearst Foundation, Movado Group, the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation, Delaware Art Museum, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the Palm Springs Art Museum. Ahn participated in Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 in collaboration with La Prairie, Switzerland. He lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland and has been represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery since 2002.

Through May 2, 2021 visitors will also be awed by Poetry of Nature, Hudson River School Landscapes. This stunning array of over 40 paintings from the New-York Historical Society's collection by renowned Hudson River School artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Albert

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), Autumn Woods, Oneida County, State of New York (detail), ca. 1886, Oil on linen. New-York Historical Society, Gift of Mrs. Albert Bierstadt, 1910.11

Bierstadt, Jasper Cropsey, John F. Kensett, and William T. Richards, will be on view for the first time at Vero Beach Museum of Art. Painted between 1818 and 1886, the works illustrate America's scenic splendor, as seen through the eyes of some of the country's most important painters.

In the first decade of the 19th century, the Hudson River Valley's expansive landscapes and adjacent areas, such as the Catskills and the Adirondack Mountains, inspired an elite group of American artists known as the Hudson River School. Coming together under the influence of British émigré painter Thomas Cole (1801–1848), they shared a philosophy and appreciation for the natural landscape. Today their collective works are considered the first uniquely American art movement. In their idyllic depictions of the landscape, these artists conveyed not only America's majesty but an image of man living in harmonious balance with nature.

The exhibition has been organized by the New-York Historical Society, which features one of the most renowned collections of Hudson River School paintings. Dr. Linda S. Ferber, the senior art historian & museum director emerita at New-York Historical and a leading authority on Hudson River School artists, is the curator for this extraordinary exhibition. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Vero Beach Museum of Art is organizing a wide array of public programs that will examine numerous aspects of this influential American art movement with noted speakers drawn from across the country.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4:30 pm and Sunday 10 am to 4 pm.

The Museum requires all visitors to adhere to social distancing guidelines that include all visitors aged 2+ to wear a face mask, and temperatures to be taken of all people entering the building.

For further information, call (772) 231-0707 or visit the Museum's website www.vbmuseum.org