Story: The Narrative Art of Alan Larkin
June 4 – July 23, 2022
Opening Reception: June 11, 1 – 3PM
Gallery Talk: 1:30PM
RAM is excited to host an exhibit by former IU South Bend Professor, Alan Larkin in June and July of 2022! The exhibit features paintings and etchings, including several brand new canvases prepared specifically for the RAM show. The exhibit will be on display in the Paul and Pat Lingle Gallery and the Patricia Quigg Lakoff Gallery.
Larkin received his BA in art from Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota in 1975 and his MFA in printmaking from the Pennsylvania State University in 1977. Though recently retired, he taught drawing and printmaking for almost forty years at Indiana University South Bend. He has won many prizes in regional, national and international competitions for his artwork, including the prestigious Founder’s Award in the 2016 Pastel 100 Competition sponsored by the Pastel Journal and the Best of Show Award at the 75th and 91st Annual Hoosier Salon Exhibition in Indianapolis. His works are in numerous private collections including the corporate collections of Pillsbury, NIPSCO, and Lincoln Life Insurance Companies.
Artist Statement
Art should engage people’s interest both immediately and over time. When we stand in front of something it is often because it calls to us from across the room, but when we return to it we should discover something new. Objects that can have this power are not accidents. They are made by thinking people who learn how to connect their intellect with their emotions. While it is not really a science, it’s not a turn-off-the-brain-and-let’s-go type of activity either. It can be discussed and understood in a number of different ways: as a design in terms of its color, balance and movement, as a craft, in terms of its mastery, or even as a story, in terms of its emotional impact or its capacity to give us insight. Though future generations will undoubtedly find our contemporary parlance quaint, it is neither wholly “right-brained” nor “left-brained”. It is, rather, whole-brained, made by complete people for complete people.