Published: August 30, 2007 08:59 pm         

Halcyon Contemporary Art to feature Terre Haute artist Mike Neary

TERRE HAUTE — Halcyon Contemporary Art is featuring the work of local artist Mike Neary from Tuesday through Sept. 29. The public is invited to meet the artist during the opening reception from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sept. 7. There also will be a short play presented by Lucinda Anne Berry titled “Commodity Exchange,” starting at 7:30 p.m.

Neary originally moved to the Wabash Valley as a billboard painter, and has lived and worked in Terre Haute since the early ’90s. Neary has participated in numerous group shows with the Midwest Paint Group, local exhibitions and also was included in the 2006 Bowery Gallery Juried Exhibition in New York City.

Recent renovation activity in Terre Haute has rekindled Neary’s interest in “plein air painting” – or painting outdoors. Neary has been painting in various outdoor locations in downtown Terre Haute this summer. Driving down Wabash Avenue you may have noticed Neary working on his paintings, including the piece called, “St. Ben's, Morning.”

Also included in Neary's solo show are his recent enamel paintings.

Neary, commenting on this body of work, stated, “The enamel paintings refer back to my first exposure to ‘modern art’ during the mid-’60s in the art gallery in Woolworth's basement. Jackson Pollock was unknown to me, but those Spanish galleons and urban skylines rendered in fluid skeins of shiny, dripped relief had an effect. The drip intrigues me. Between source and surface, nature convenes a committee. Gravity, velocity and viscosity consult, consider the painter’s intent with condescending amusement, and then decide on an inherently natural form of their own.”

Halcyon Contemporaray Art is located next to the Swope Art Museum at 25 S. Seventh St. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday noon-5 p.m. or by appointment. For more information call (812) 238-1676. Halcyon’s Web site is www.halcyongallery.org.