New art museum exhibition explores abstract works

A new exhibition on abstract painting opens with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14, at the Hunterdon Art Museum at 7 Lower Center St.

Featuring the art of Andrew Baron, Lorraine Glessner and Suzanne Kammin, "Painterly Abstractions" offers viewers a chance to discern the similarities and unique styles of each painter, said Ingrid Renard, curator of the exhibit with Hildreth York. Everyone is welcome to attend; the afternoon features gallery talks and refreshments. The exhibition runs through April 29.

Kammin, an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Art and Design at Caldwell University, said the imagery in her work springs from an explorative process.

“When I start working, I have no idea where a painting is headed, and I go down countless dead ends before I get to something that works for me,” she said. “The images usually present themselves as figures because of my love of figure/ground relationships.”

Baron said that he paints from a position of an abiding skepticism along with a faith in being able to find something from nothing. Baron said he begins painting without knowing what the finished piece will look like.

“The images are created from suggestions of the process itself, and how I relate to the work as I am making it,” he said.

Glessner is an assistant professor at Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Glessner said she works primarily in encaustic, a mixture of beeswax and pigment. Her process is to layer, scrape and excavate layers to replicate nature’s destructive power and, most importantly, its regenerative abilities.

“Currently, my work explores the more mysterious side of both humans and nature by utilizing landscape and earth’s anomalies as metaphor to reflect on human emotion, memory, mortality and spiritual growth through loss.” Glessner said.