McDonough displays YSU print collection, ‘Eternity’ exhibition
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A hidden art gem at Youngstown State University and an exhibition featuring four artists exploring ecological themes are on display at McDonough Museum of Art.
The works featured in the "Kilcawley Print Collection" haven't been seen by anyone for decades unless they were in one of the conference rooms in Kilcawley Center. McDonough Director Claudia Berlinski didn't know they existed.
"I've been in several conference rooms in Kilcawley for meetings and whatnot, and I'd never been in this set of conference rooms," Berlinski said. "They inquired about storage (of the collection) while Kilcawley is being rebuilt, and I said, 'What on earth are you talking about?' Angela (DeLucia, assistant to the director) and I went over to see it, and I was blown away that this existed on campus. We have to show this while Kilcawley is closed."
The collection was assembled over several years in the 1970s when Louis A. Zona, director emeritus of the Butler Institute of American Art, was head of the YSU art department. It includes 23 signed and numbered prints by prominent artists from that era, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Christo."
At the time, according to the news release for the exhibition, Zona described the collection as "an enormous source of pride to Youngstown State University, for it exemplifies artistic excellence. Represented here are exceptionally high-quality, limited edition prints by many of the most influential and historically important artists of our time. Included are principal figures from such major artistic movements as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Post-Painterly Abstraction and the New Realism."
Berlinski said her favorite is a print by Jim Dine called "Blue Haircut."
"I am most familiar with his prints of tools, these black and white, really expressive prints of really masculine tools," she said. "This one is a portrait of a man with a hand reaching out, and it has a blue flower in the lower portion, and it's just stunning. I don't know why I respond to it, but I do. And I love the Warhol, "The Star" print that we've been using in our publicity."
The collection will return to Kilcawley when the building reopens, and the works will be reframed to match the renovated conference rooms.
"Around Here, It's Always Eternity," features the work of Bonny Liebowitz, Alice Pixley Young, Deborah Wasserman and Etty Yaniv and will be on display through Oct. 24.
It was one of two similar proposals Berlinski received from different groups of artists.
"I have been familiar with Alice Pixley Young's work for quite a while," she said. "I had received another proposal that also dealt with environmental concerns, but it was specifically about an area of Western Canada, and I thought his proposal would be more accessible to our viewers because they even looked at what is happening environmentally in Youngstown and how the Mahoning River is being reclaimed. I also thought that this group of artists had a much more interesting approach to media use -- mixed media, using photography in interesting ways and just unexpected uses of media by all the artists."
Young's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she recently created multimedia installations for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Akron Art Museum and the Sarasota Art Museum. Her work has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, Artnet News and Condé Nast Traveler.
Leibowitz uses salvaged, welded metals and plastics as well as tree branches, roots and other natural and human-created goods "to examine renditions of environmental stories and histories -- all of which have been constructed and distorted by humans," according to her artist statement.
Leibowitz was awarded the Nasher Sculpture Center 2024 Artist Grant, and her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationwide.
"Motherhood profoundly influences her artistic vision, inspiring her to emphasize matriarchal themes of nurturing, healing and care," according to Wasserman's artist statement. She was born in Brazil, raised in Israel and now lives in New York City, and work has been shown internationally.
Yaniv, who was born in Israel and now lives in New York City, has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her site-specific installation "Inversion" was included at Palazzo Mora, Art Biennale, Venice, in 2022
According to her artist statement, Yaniv uses "paint, fabric, photography, and found objects to create textured, multi-dimensional environments that appear to be in perpetual flux."
An opening reception for both exhibitions is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.
If you go …
WHAT / WHEN: "Around Here, It's Always Eternity," featuring the work of Bonny Liebowitz, Alice Pixley Young, Deborah Wasserman and Etty Yaniv, through Oct. 24 with reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday; "Kilcawley Print Collection," through Dec. 12.
WHERE: McDonough Museum of Art, 525 Wick Ave., Youngstown
HOW MUCH: Admission is free. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, go to ysu.edu/mcdonough-museum or call 330-941-1371.