Jeffrey Elgin: Thus Passed Some Days -
Twenty Years upon an Overgrown Path
March 26 – April 26, 2015
Opening reception: Thursday, March 26, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
PANEL TALK: Friday, March 27, 11:30 a.m. titled 'The Will to Work – How to Keep Making
Art After College.' Featuring three working artists / former students
of Elgin: Josh Dorman, Honour Mack, and Barbara Neulinger
ALUMNI LUNCHEON: Friday, March 27 at 1 p.m.
(Please scroll down for more information)
ARTIST'S TALK: Thursday April 9, 4 p.m.
View the second half of Jeffrey Elgin's artist talk, starting with his comments about needing to have something to react against, as a student.
The Schick Art Gallery presents a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Studio Art Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Elgin. An accomplished artist who has exhibited his work extensively and maintains a fifty-year practice of daily drawing, Elgin taught at Skidmore College from 1968 – 1998. He was a beloved professor known for his combination of rigorous work ethic with a calm and supportive manner, and for fostering a passion for drawing among his students. Ever humble, Elgin continues to subject himself to the same high standards as his students, writing, ‘I am a student of painting and drawing. To be a student is a privilege. To be a student means remaining open, continually seeking, always questioning, embracing risk, and forever entering the unknown….In other words, your reach should exceed your grasp.’
Elgin’s abstract paintings and drawings involve a deep and sustained engagement with
the working process itself, and are informed by a range of issues and experiences.
One frequent source of inspiration is nature. ‘Nature is the touchstone for my imagination.
…My studio is filled with small natural objects; these often serve as instigators
for my work. It is not the things themselves that interest me, but the sensations
and transformations they excite.’ Elgin has devoted his full energy to drawing and
painting since his retirement; many works in the exhibition are current, and all were
completed within the past twenty years.
Elgin received his Bachelor of Science and his Master of Fine Arts degrees from the
University of Cincinnati in Ohio. His works are held in numerous public collections,
including the Dayton Museum of Art and the Albany Institute of History and Art. He
has participated in twenty-nine one-person exhibitions and over a hundred group exhibitions,
including The Abstract Tradition, an invitational exhibit of eight painters at the
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; and American Drawings II, a Smithsonian Museum
traveling exhibition. Over the years he has been awarded two New York Foundation for
the Arts Fellowship Grants, and 25 awards in various juried exhibitions.
The gallery is hosting a luncheon for Jeff Elgin and his former students in the art building on Friday, March 27th at 1 p.m.
If you studied with Jeff and would like to attend the luncheon, but have not already been in touch with the gallery, please e-mail Rebecca Shepard at rshepard@skidmore.edu.
If you cannot attend the opening on Thursday or the alumni lunch on Friday, but would like to send a message to Jeff, please click here.