The Mythic Figure
William Tucker, Pamela Avril, and Ed Smith

April 4 – May 19, 2013

Opening reception: Thursday, April 4, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Panel talk: The Mythic Figure and the Heroic Artist
Tuesday, April 9, 6 p.m., Davis Auditorium
Avril, Smith, Tucker, and Anne Bertrand-Dewsnap, art historian from Marist College, discuss mythology and art-making.

The Schick Art Gallery presents The Mythic Figure, an exhibition of works by sculptors William Tucker and Ed Smith and painter Pamela Avril, three contemporary artists who take inspiration from classical mythology. Tucker, Smith, and Avril use the human figure as a source and a subject, and each often makes works that are life-sized or larger-than-life. The physicality of the works is immediate and undeniable. They reflect the struggle toward self-knowledge embodied in many archetypal myths, and attest to the relevance of mythology to contemporary culture.

The Mythic Figure is co-curated by John Galt, Skidmore College Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture, and by Schick Gallery Director Paul Sattler.

William Tucker has a long and distinguished career as a sculptor and a scholar, with many published writings on modern art. Of his sculptures, Michael Brenson of the New York Times states, Each is at the same time turned inward and pushing at the space around it. Each shifts between fragment and whole, between the appearance of heroism and the reality of physical limits and struggle.

While Ed Smith’s work is based in mythology and refers to Homer’s Iliad, of his life-sized figures, Smith states: The standing figures need no more explanation than a man/woman heroically standing, fighting and asserting the power of the individual.

The imagery in Pamela Avril’s paintings is influenced by ancient Indian sculpture and relief carvings. She states, I am drawn to the Asian archetypes because they are direct personifications of internal energy and states of mind.