News Release
Capitol Abstract Art Exhibit Offers Creative Journey
June 14, 2007
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov
Oklahoma City, OK – Skiatook Artist Byron Shen examines places that are to be traveled internally and considers his paintings as abstract emotional and spiritual landscapes.
His exhibit of abstract art entitled "Passages" will be on display in the East Gallery of the Oklahoma State Capitol from June 11 through August 12, 2007. Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the East Gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Capitol and is open every day from 8:30-5:00.
Born in Hong Kong in 1963, Shen came to the United States at the age of four. His mother is a commercial artist and he was involved with the arts at an early age.
“While I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing, I find abstract art to be a function of visual thinking for which I employ a different vocabulary,” said Shen. “I feel that abstract art could be considered an extension of creative writing.”
He earned his MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It was there Shen developed his style of painting and installation work. He resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he is Head of the Visual Arts Department and Holliman Gallery Coordinator for Holland Hall School. His teaching experience includes several years with Tulsa Summer Arts at the Harwelden Institute, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa,, Rochester Commission for the Arts, Auburn Hills, Michigan and Pontiac Creative Art Center, Pontiac, Michigan.
Shen has been the recipient of several grants and awards including the prestigious New Forms Initiative Grant awarded by the National Endowment to the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. Shen’s works of art have been exhibited in galleries across Oklahoma and the United States. He is represented by M. A. Doran Tulsa, and Wilson Adams Gallery, Denver, Colorado.
For more information, contact Ann Dee Lee, Public Relations Director, Oklahoma Arts Council, (405) 521-2931 or anndee@arts.ok.gov.
ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL
The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.
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