“Making a Clear Mark: 1997 to 2025” opens Aug. 29 in the Wasmer Gallery in the Arts Complex at Florida Gulf Coast University. The exhibition is a retrospective of work by FGCU Associate Professor of Art and Program Leader Morgan T. Paine, who retires this month. It features work from Paine’s “Life Painting with Drawing” series along with examples of his acrylic gel medium work on a variety of supports, both found and constructed.
Paine will give an artist talk at the opening reception on Thursday, Aug. 28 that runs from 5 to 7 p.m.
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“Making A Clear Mark: 1997 to 2025” is a selected survey of paintings by Morgan T. Paine.
Paine’s artwork is grounded in the belief that painting is both a physical and conceptual activity.
“My lifelong effort is to get to the essence of painting, getting rid of everything that is not essential,” Paine stated. “I use acrylic gel medium, the foundational component in acrylic paint. It is a clear polymer binder that omits the pigmentation that typically colors paint. The core aspect of my practice is the daily covering and recovering of the surface of each object that I’m working on. In the studio, it’s just me, the medium, a surface, a brush in my hand and my intention. The activity is what makes me a painter.”
The physical objects included in “Making A Clear Mark” are the results of that activity, informed by the traditions of painting and enabled by the products of contemporary material culture.
The exhibition is sponsored by Gene and Lee Seidler, the Wasmer Endowment, WGCU Public Media, and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The exhibition will remain on view through Sept. 25.
View the exhibition brochure here.
Paine was founding art program faculty member and associate professor of art at Florida Gulf Coast University from 1997 to the present.
As program leader for 14 years, Paine has contributed to the growth and success of the FGCU art program through his leadership, teaching and outreach to the region’s cultural community.
He taught a wide range of classes as well as serving in leadership positions with United Faculty of Florida and Faculty Senate.
Paine holds a master of fine arts degree in painting with honors from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
For full disclosure, FGCU holds the broadcast license for WGCU. WGCU is a member-supported service of FGCU.