"Paradise" is the title of an exhibit of 39 figurative oil paintings by Lancaster artist Kurt Knobelsdorf on public display through March 9 in the Morrison Gallery of Penn State Harrisburg’s library.
The exhibit is free. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5p.m. Friday. Free and open to the public. For information, phone 717-948-6029.
An award-winning graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Knobelsdorf uses video stills as source material in this, the first large-scale showing of his work in Central Pennsylvania. His subjects include people caught family album style in familiar settings. The result is a colorful exhibit of works ranging from small, quirky studies to dramatic, edgy canvases.
Winner of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, the artist has recently moved from landscape to the human figure as his primary subject.
"The real power of the camera is widely ignored," Knobelsdorf says. "In some photos, the real horror of existence is captured, especially as the subject is caught looking into the lens. Since 2004, I have been arrested twice by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for public use of a camera. Prior to this I painted landscapes directly in the field and figures in the presence of a model.
"Now I feel the government would believe that the sole human being observing life in public is a suspicious threat. I now keep myself in the studio surrounded by reproduced images..."
