BUTLER institute OF AMERICAN ART Exhibition by Cleveland artist includes massive abstract work

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

An exhibition of paintings by Cleveland artist Dana Oldfather will open Sunday at the Butler Institute of American Art and run through May 26.

Titled “Tap, Crack, Bellow,” the exhibition will feature a monumental painting of the same title that was recently created by the artist. The work measures 5 feet 4 inches by 31 feet 8 inches, and will be seen for the first time.

The exhibition will be displayed in the Butler’s skylit Davis Gallery, where an opening reception will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. A full- color catalog, designed by the artist, accompanies the exhibition.

“The paintings of Dana Oldfather represent for me an affirmation that painting in America is not only alive, but is flourishing,” said Louis Zona, director of the Butler. “She has taken abstraction to a level of accomplishment deserving of recognition and high praise. Her imagery is exciting and innovative, and her level of skill and execution of concepts masterful.”

The works in the exhibition convey a quality of landscape in composition. Oldfather ºs earlier works, photo-realistic oil studies of urban life created on relatively small canvases, have given way to this new exploration of size, color and vast space.

The exhibition was organized by the Butler in conjunction with the Bonfoey Gallery, Cleveland.

Dana Oldfather was born in 1978 in Berea. She is a self-taught painter whose work has been seen throughout Ohio, and in New York, Los Angeles and Florida. Her paintings are included in corporate and private collections including the Bellagio and Vedara hotel-casinos in Las Vegas; American Eaton World Headquarters in Beachwood; Progressive Insurance, American Greetings and the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland; and at Wendy’s Corp., Dayton.