Where there’s smoke, there’s art: Solo exhibit by Dale Emmart coming to University

Oct 11, 2016
“Tower,” a painting by Dale Emmart, is among the works to be shown in the exhibit “Tower: Paintings by Dale Emmart” on display from Oct. 21 through Nov. 18 in The University of Scranton’s Hope Horn Gallery, Hyland Hall.
“Tower,” a painting by Dale Emmart, is among the works to be shown in the exhibit “Tower: Paintings by Dale Emmart” on display from Oct. 21 through Nov. 18 in The University of Scranton’s Hope Horn Gallery, Hyland Hall.

Seen through the eyes of New York City and Honesdale artist Dale Emmart, industrial smoke, plumes and exhaust become art. “Tower: Paintings by Dale Emmart,” a collection of her en-plein-air interpretations will run from Friday, Oct. 21, through Friday, Nov. 18, at The University of Scranton’s Hope Horn Gallery.

Hope Horn Gallery Director Darlene Miller-Lanning, Ph.D., said the one-person award exhibition came out of last year’s Northeast Biennial Regional Show, in which four solo shows were awarded to participants as prizes.

“The main themes in Emmart’s work are landscape, atmosphere and industrialization, which can relate to themes of sustainability,” Dr. Miller-Lanning said. “At first glance, the images are traditional, and you can read them that way, but then you realize a lot of them are industrial subjects, which is a bit of a twist.”

The artist will present a gallery lecture titled “Smoke And Air,” from 5 until 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall at the University. A public reception will take place from 6 until 8 p.m. after the lecture in the Hope Horn Gallery, on the fourth floor of the University’s Hyland Hall. Both the lecture and reception are open to the public free of charge as is the exhibit, which can be seen during the following gallery hours: noon until 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 6 until 8 p.m. Wednesdays. I

Emmart’s images “might not be pristine, but they are not heavy-handed,” Dr. Miller-Lanning said. “They very subtly make you reflect.”

Painters have long sought the challenge of representing atmospheric effects related to light, weather and distance, and Emmart, who holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and has taught extensively at the college level, expands this range to include the industrial imagery.

“Narrow columns of smoke rising from rural burn barrels are a common event and one I pay close attention to,” Emmart said. “Spindles of vapor point to a burning waste, cleansing fields for new growth, or hinting at things of greater consequence – factual and metaphoric. I pay similar attention to other, more muscular, versions of smoke and exhaust from industrial and nuclear plant emissions. I use the insubstantial, shifting and momentary cloud masses as subjects for my paintings and drawings.”

Emmart said rising smoke is a natural part of her ‘plein air’ work.

“The man-made emission giants or naturally occurring plumes contain a broad vocabulary of painterly choices that rely on informed notational ‘plein air’ skills,” she explained. “I frequently paint outdoors for direct observation to support studio-based work. The paintings on exhibit at the Hope Horn Gallery at the University of Scranton primarily depict transition but also brood about environments at risk.”

Emmart’s public collections can be viewed in several East Coast and central states as well as in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

The Hope Horn Gallery offers exhibitions and programming designed to complement the University’s curricula, encourage campus and community collaborations, support regional artists, provide arts-in-education opportunities and showcase student work.

For more information, contact Dr. Miller-Lanning at 570-941-4214 or darlene.miller-lanning@scranton.edu. Or visit the Hope Horn Gallery website at www.scranton.edu/gallery.

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