Erma Wheeler
Parallels
May 5, 2018 – June 3, 2018
- This event has passed.
Trident Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of sumptuous, sophisticated watercolor paintings by Erma Wheeler. Made in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, these paintings are saturated with color, intense, and beautiful.
Cross-country car trips during the Depression inspired Wheeler’s enduring dedication to landscape, unspoiled and magnificent amidst the devastation of poverty. And she was inspired by the landscapes of Cape Ann. At Lighthouse Beach at dawn, the wet black rocks appeared to her like jewels.
She was interested in abstraction and in the materiality of paintings, and curator Susan Erony recognized in her “a masterful ability to stretch watercolor to the limits of its translucence” and in her work a thrilling tension between “the fragility of watercolor and the courage with which she pushes it.”
She was inspired by science and engineering, and she designed costumes and sets for Ina Hahn’s modern dance company.
Erma Wheeler (1915–2005) was a whole artist, in sensitive touch with her world, her era, her peers, and her craft. She discovered and revealed, as genuine artists do, extraordinary and illuminating parallels between her lived experiences, perceptions, feelings, and the material expressions of her art.
Parallels is the first exhibition of Wheeler’s paintings at Trident Gallery and will be on view May 5 – June 3, 2018. Gallery hours during this exhibition are Thursday and Friday 12–5, Saturday 10–7; Sunday and Monday 10–5; and by appointment.
The gallery will host a public reception in celebration of the exhibition on Saturday, May 5, 5–7pm. Friends and family of Erma Wheeler will be present, and the guest of honor will be Mike Wheeler, the artist’s son.