MACON – Mercer University’s McEachern Art Center (the MAC) will open “Storm Songs,” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Alexa Kleinbard, during September’s First Friday celebration in downtown Macon.
“We’re excited to present this beautiful collection of paintings and drawings in two galleries here at the MAC by Tallahassee-based Alexa Kleinbard,” said Ben Dunn, director of the MAC and lecturer of art at Mercer. “Alexa has worked around issues of ecological degradation in the Southeast dating back to the 1980s and continues to produce works aimed to increase consciousness of environmental disaster in our region. Those familiar with North Floridian flora and fauna will immediately recognize the scenery.”
Kleinbard will offer an artist’s talk and presentation during the opening reception Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. at the MAC, located at 332 Second St. in Macon.
“During the past 40 years, I have focused my work on what human beings must protect in nature’s remarkable garden of biodiversity,” Kleinbard said. “The catalyst for these drawings and paintings is my lifelong interest in the natural world and humans’ impact on it. The stories of plants, how they heal us, feed us, clothe us and give us oxygen to breathe is a major inspiration for several of my bodies of work. The songs, migrations, mating and nesting habitats of pollinators, birds and all other wildlife are also primary sources of inspiration.”
The exhibition will remain on display through Nov. 5. Admission is free and open to the public during gallery hours, 4-8 p.m., Thursdays-Saturdays.
“These works are dark, mysterious images of the collapsing natural environment in our immediate area. Best seen in person, the work contains a mysterious, ominous light throughout which dimly reveals magical places in peril,” said Dunn. “Anyone interested in painting and/or ecology will enjoy this excellent environmental-activist exhibit.”
