SAMFA Features Two New Exhibits

The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibits, Oil and Water: Paintings by Marco Sassone and Jayne Duryea: Glass in the Heart of Texas. The Opening Reception for the exhibits will take place during Art Walk, on Nov. 21 from 5:30 until 9 p.m. There is no charge and the public is invited to attend. Refreshments will be served.

Jayne Duryea: Glass in the Heart of Texas features 17 luminous works of art glass and a small selection of watercolors by Beeville artist Jayne Duryea. Originally from New York, Duryea has been in South Texas for the past 32 years. Receiving her BFA with additional graduate study from East Carolina University, she completed her masters at Texas A&M University at Kingsville in Painting and Drawing in 1988. Since 1989 she has been Division Chair of the Fine Arts and also Director of the Simon Michael Gallery at Coastal Bend College where she has taught since 1981.  

Extensive travel in Europe, particularly a six month sabbatical in France, opened many avenues for her work. Through the tutelage of her friend and mentor Robert Willson, she was afforded the opportunity to blow glass at the A.R.S. Murano glass factories in Venice, Italy, during 1996 and 1997.

Light and color, along with a return to nature, for the expression of her sensibilities, are her major concerns. In her artist’s statement Duryea says, “The deep connection to nature, our greatest teacher of life, constantly surprises and inspires to push the limits of glass beyond the realm of understanding. A meditative dance, it influences me as I influence it, until the collaboration is complete.”

Jayne Duryea’s works can be found in many private and permanent collections throughout the States, Canada, Cayman Islands and France. She is represented by various galleries and is a Charter Member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Duryea was nominated Texas Artist of the Year for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. She will be present at the opening reception.

Oil and Water: Paintings by Marco Sassone, an exhibit organized through Katharine T. Carter and Associates, features a broad and beautiful selection of dramatic oil paintings and watercolors by Italian-born artist Marco Sassone, who currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Having trained in Florence with painter Silvio Loffredo, a professor at the Accademia who studied with Oscar Kokoschka, Sassone reports on the human condition, as well as the landscapes of the California coast and the architecture of Venice. His moving portraits of San Francisco’s homeless have won him critical acclaim, and his views of landscapes and cityscapes are just as powerful.  

Expressionistic and sometimes dark, his paintings draw the viewer in. As Critic David Balzer noted in Toronto Life (April 2008),  “As products of Sassone’s hand, even such unsightly things as expressways and parking lots become magical, not only because they are cast in an ethereal, post-impressionistic glow, but also because the artist sees them as dynamic, muscular roots into the heart of a vibrant city.”

Marco Sassone’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and is included in numerous public and private collections. His awards and honors include official recognition from the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in 1982 he was knighted by the Italian government.

For more information on any of the exhibits please call the museum at 653-3333. The museum’s regular operating hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for senior citizens. Students, SAMFA members, military personnel, and families with children are admitted free.

The museum is supported by generous contributions from both individuals and businesses. This project is partially supported by funds from the San Angelo Cultural Affairs Council, the City of San Angelo, the Texas Commission on the Arts, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.