Paintings by artist Greg Huebner, a retired professor of art who was teaching at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., have been on display in Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center gallery in an exhibit called “30 Year Retrospective.” The exhibit represents his career of painting and drawing. Huebner has had 28 solo exhibitions, 84 group exhibitions and received numerous awards for his work over the past 35 years. His work is represented in 28 public collections including the Snite Art Museum, Sheldon Swope Art Museum and Table Art Center.
This exhibit has been on display since Jan. 13, and it will run through Feb. 7. It has drawn a great number of visitors, including students such as senior English major Glenn Yang.
“I’ve never ever seen this kind of paintings before,” Yang said. “It looks really fun.”
Huebner has his own opinion of painting, which he describes in his Artist’s Statement.
“It is the unseen that has always been the focus of my work rather than the objective world,” his Artist’s Statement says.“To make visual my response to the unseen I require a non-abstract, abstract visual language.”
Huebner researched Native American art and spirituality, which have been a big influence on his art.
“Most of the traditional native people I have studied display a basic need to harmonize what it is to be human in the natural world,” his Artist’s Statement says. “I adhere to their belief that all revelation comes to us in opposites such as man/woman, good/evil, pain/pleasure, joy/sorrow, light/darkness and life/death. We cannot disregard one extreme or the other… The search for harmony and balance through the act of painting continues in my work to this day and I expect it always will.”
The Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center Gallery Coordinator Mark Ruschman is in charge of selecting and installing the art exhibitions for the gallery. He chooses an artist based on the quality of the person’s work and the relevance of his or her art to the UIndy fine art curriculum.
“Gregory Huebner is a highly respected artist with a national reputation,” Ruschman said.
Ruschman said Huebner’s work is all about being abstract.
“He uses paint and canvas to express his ideas on issues relevant to his personal beliefs and attitudes about life,” Ruschman said. “Using a variety of painting techniques and iconic symbols, his abstract compositions incorporate imagery that is intuitive and spontaneous, rather than representational.”
Ruschman said that Huebner’s voice is what makes him unique as an artist.
“Over his 30 year career, Huebner’s knowledge of art and painting has matured,” Ruschman said. “It has provided him with the ability to grow as an artist and tackle new challenges in his work.”
