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Lycoming College invites the Williamsport and surrounding communities to the latest exhibition in its downtown art gallery, “Spirit of Place,” featuring works by Amer Kobaslija. The exhibition opens on Sept. 14, with an artist reception from 5 – 7:30 p.m.and a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m. The Gallery is open Sept. 14 from 4-9 p.m.
“Spirit of Place” features small-scale oil paintings of interiors and exteriors, depicting his cluttered art studio from a bird’s eye view, along with more recent landscapes inspired from his travels to Florida, Japan, and Switzerland. Kobaslija’s paintings of the Florida flatlands and the vistas of the Swiss Alps portray the turbulent histories of the two regions, while his Japan paintings convey the devastation caused by the massive tsunami that struck in 2011.
Kobaslija notes that as an artist, he is often driven to respond visually to what he is experiencing. “A sense of wonder about the mysteries and complexity of the world in which we live fuels my art,” he explained. “I seek to recognize how extraordinary everything is.”
Originally from Banjaluka in Bosnia, Kobaslija fled his war-ravaged homeland in 1993 to a refugee camp in Nuremburg, Germany. He later traveled to Dusseldorf, and was offered asylum in the United States. He immigrated to Florida and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sarasota, at the Ringling College of Art and Design. In 2003, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from Montclair College of the Arts in New Jersey.
Kobaslija is a recipient of the Joan Mitchel Foundation Grant and the Pollack-Krasner award. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow for painting, he has had numerous solo exhibitions in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans. His work has been featured in more than twenty solo exhibitions and more than thirty group shows in the United States and Europe.
Kobaslija’s paintings have been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, ARTNews, Art & Antiques, New York Magazine, New York Time Out, The Village Voice, The Florida Times Union, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Japan Times.
The Lycoming College Art Gallery, located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St., contributes to the city’s arts culture and provides a way for the College to become more involved with the community surrounding it. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists, as well as learn first-hand the inner workings of a gallery.
The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 4 – 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5 – 9 p.m.; and on First Fridays and exhibition opening nights, 4 – 9 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at https://www.lycoming.edu/art/gallery.html or send an email to dirocco@lycoming.edu.