NED WERT

small works
at the Lancaster Arts Hotel Gallery
Artist Reception during Spring ArtWalk
Friday, April 18, 2008
Exhibition continues thru January 31

LANCASTER ARTS HOTEL GALLERY is pleased to host NED WERT, in an exhibition of small works - paintings in acrylic on paper. An Artist Reception will be held during the Downtown Lancaster Spring ArtWalk, Friday, April 18, between 5 and 8:00 p.m. Adjacent to John J. Jeffries Restaurant, the Hotel offers a warm, inviting beginning or end to an evening of Gallery events in Downtown Lancaster.  

NED WERT is known for his gestural, abstract renditions of the colorful places he has visited all over the world. Nudging beyond literal representation, Ned manages to elementally capture the form, texture and space of a place or an object. He writes of this particular piece

“I was inspired by my sketches of views on the shore, while crossing Cook’s Strait between the North and South Islands, New Zealand. Leaving Picton, there were entirely different images than what was seen as we approached Wellington.”

Held in corporate and private collections throughout the world, Ned is still painting, having turned seventy in 2006. A work from his 2005 solo exhibition at Lynden Gallery is currently on display with the Art in the Embassies Program at the U.S. ambassadorial residence in Skopje, Macedonia. Lessons for the Soothsayer” will remain on tour for two and a half years at the request of Honorable Gillian A. Milovanovic thru December 2007.

Ned Wert taught in the Elizabethtown Area School District until 1970 after graduating from Indiana University in Indiana, Pennsylvania with a BS in Art Education and a Masters in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA. He returned to Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the early seventies as Assistant Professor of Art, then as Director of the University Museum until his retirement in 1995.

An esteemed leader in the arts community, Wert has served as juror for Long’s Park Art Festival in Lancaster, Central PA Festival of the Arts in State College, Lancaster Community Gallery, Mount Gretna Arts Festival, and the Lancaster and Dauphin County’s Scholastic Arts Awards. For six years he was an Arts Consultant with the PA Department of the Arts Education and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. In the spring of 2004 he taught and exhibited in Stuttgart Germany and in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

Wert’s work is currently featured in the Lancaster Arts Hotel main lobby - a diptych in acrylic on woven canvas, circa 1985. Held in public and private collections around the world including the American International School, Dusseldorf, Germany, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA, United States National Bank, Johnstown, PA, William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, PA, Selen, Inc, Lucca, Italy, ALCOA Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, Lock Haven, PA, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Pittsburgh, PA he continues to paint.

THE LANCASTER ARTS HOTEL is open daily, and is a popular space for Board Meetings and Cocktail Parties. It is suggested you call the Hotel prior to your visit if you are making a special trip to be sure it is not occupied at 717.299.3000. The Arts Hotel Gallery endeavors to expose the work of established Artists to a broader audience and promote the rich fabric of the Arts in Lancaster County. For more information refer to our website, www.artshotelgallery.com