Ray Turner: Population
Judith Bear Isroff Gallery
March 3, 2012 - May 27, 2012
"Including the 23 portraits of Akron area residents in this showing, the exhibit comprises 190 paintings from Turner’s Population series along with nine works from the Monroe series (which are images of the artist’s son) and four works from his Good Man/Bad Man series (which are imaginary portraits that capture the essence of individuals abstractly and subjectively while aimed at essential moral qualities)."
Roger Durbin, West Side Leader
Ray Turner: Population is a unique exhibition of nearly 200 portraits of a wide cross- section of people from across the country, including University Park and downtown Akron residents, executed with oil paint on glass. Population is an expanding series of portraits that invites viewers to contemplate identity from an individual and collective standpoint. The portraits of Akronites will be intermixed with Turner’s ongoing series, and as the exhibition evolves with the addition of new portraits from different communities, the body of work will increasingly reflect the nation’s cultural makeup.
Turner’s works search for the inner essence and character of his subjects over physical accuracy. Fluid, much like notions of identity, Turner’s textural paintings vacillate between realism and abstraction. Population entices the viewer to decipher each sitter individually–the facial features, expressions, and emotions as captured in Turner’s sculptural brushwork–as well as search for relationships across the entire group of works.
An updated edition of the print-catalog will be available for purchase at the Akron Art Museum. In addition, an online catalog and DVD will be produced to document the evolution of Population as it travels the country.