Ray Kiihne: A Painter’s Journey 1963-2021

Opening Reception

Sunday | December 5 | 3-5 pm | Gallery Talk 4 pm
Winona Arts Center | 228 E 5th St
winonaarts.org

This retrospective exhibit by RAA member Ray Kiihne runs December 5, 2021 through January 29, 2022. Gallery hours are Wednesdays 4-7pm and Sundays 1-4pm.

Exhibit description from the artist:

‘When invited to put up a retrospective show of my work at Winona Arts Center, I realized I could exhibit some of my rolled up canvases in the attic. If they weren’t shown soon/now, they might never be seen! So this is an opportunity to show my involvement as an artist–sixty years of it! I am often asked, “Where is the subject matter?” It is light and shadow, pigments, captured movement, and rhythm. And you will see them all.

The show includes some 25 works, most of them stretched canvases or strained and painted stitched canvases. Most of my work is on canvas, but I’ve included other media: encaustic, photography, printmaking, and an installation: a 6 x 6 foot canvas square that I placed and photographed in three states, England, and Mexico.

I think a stretched canvas is a beautiful thing, with its thousands of tiny spaces within the fabric surface. Acrylic paints allow me to work directly on that surface with thinned paint and stains, rather than sealing it. I enjoy color and usually avoid, for example, creating yellows that refer to sunlight or blues that refer to sea or sky.

With this show, I invite you: Enjoy color as an entity unto itself. Get lost in a field of blue stain, red paint, sprayed pigment. Explore the shadows of stitched, unframed canvases hung on rods. Take a journey with me.’

Image: Field Patterns by Ray Kiihne.

Ray Kiihne and the Winona Arts Center are members of the River Arts Alliance. To learn more about the benefits of membership, please visit: riverartsalliance.org/JOIN.